The above message was posted by one of my pregnant friends. As a woman who has had two children, I couldn't agree more. Given I had to endure the pain of childbirth, I believed I was entitled to the joy of personally sharing my news with my family and close friends. With the growth of social media, birth announcements are now generally posted, shared or tweeted by a third parties before the parents even leave the delivery room.
If people in their personal lives could see the sense in setting guidelines as to what information they want people to share about their lives, then why shouldn't a company or business do the same? For any business, your brand is your baby. As a business owner, do you really want your employees to post about your new product or developments before you do? As a franchisor, do you really want your franchisees to share your promotion before the official launch?
The best way to regain control and minimise the risk of unauthorised disclosures by your employees, franchisees, distributors etc is to have a social medial policy. This policy needs to set out clear guidelines about what a person could post, share or tweet about your business and brands. However, it is not enough to have a social media policy that sits in the bottom draw and no one knows about it. Your social media policy needs to be current and needs to be regularly circulated to the relevant people. It should address all known channels of social media and should identify the steps the Company will take for non-compliance.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.