11.26.2024 Donna Spencer
Encouraging employees to be active and professional on social media can enhance your brand’s reputation. But how do you ensure they post responsibly while protecting your brand?
Employee advocacy, where employee voices amplify the brand, is more crucial than ever. With the rise of AI, organisations can also use this technology to support and monitor social media. In fact, 61% of organisations use AI for social media to reduce staff workload (Hootsuite).
The first step is to provide clear guidelines rather than strict rules. These protect both the organisation and its employees by outlining appropriate online behaviour.
Additionally, offering training and support for employees, especially those new to social media, is essential. Emphasising the positive impact social media can have for both employees and the organisation fosters a culture of authentic communication.
1. Seek Permission
Ensure employees understand image usage rights, copyright, and other legal constraints. When using images of people, always ask for their permission before posting. While AI tools can assist in speeding processes up, it’s crucial to verify permissions manually to avoid any potential legal complications.
2. Be Open About AI Use
Ensure employees are aware that the organisation may use AI tools to monitor social media activity. These tools help analyse engagement, but transparency about this monitoring will help build trust and encourage responsible posting.
3. Remain Confidential
Make sure employees are aware of confidentiality when it comes to company and customer-related information. Sharing your company or client’s confidential financial data or revealing new product updates before the official launch should be avoided.
4. The No-Go Areas
Ensure employees understand the importance of respecting their audiences and avoiding any content that could be deemed racially, ethically, or sexually abusive. When using AI tools for content creation or moderation, remember that these tools may not always accurately assess the sensitivity of content.
Encourage employees to use their judgement and be extra cautious, as AI might not catch all nuances and can be prone to bias.
5. Follow Your Company Brand Guidelines
This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to forget you are representing not only yourself but also the company you work for. This is also worth remembering when using AI, it needs to be taught the brand style and tone.
6. Focus On Facts
Don’t get pulled into negative discussions, or worse, arguments. Sticking to facts puts you in a neutral position and helps to build trust. It’s also a good idea to research posts to ensure accuracy.
7. Be Yourself!
Encourage employees to talk in the first person on social media. Social networking is about authentic connections.
Adding your own voice increases trust and demonstrates that you are a real person with genuine interests and ideas. If using AI for generating ideas or content, ensure that the final posts retain a personal, human touch. AI can assist, but authenticity and personal engagement should always come through in your communications.
8. Follow Us
Encourage your employees to follow your branded social channels. It is a great place for the less confident employees to start engaging in content that is ‘safe’.
9. Be Helpful
Ensure your content is relevant and adds value by educating your audience on topics of interest. Share a mix of branded and third-party articles, tips, guides, and reports.
For example, HCLTech’s Supercharged Ambassador program exemplifies this approach. Instead of simply echoing corporate messages, employees share their authentic experiences, enhancing the content’s credibility and engagement.
10. Oops...Now What?
Tell employees to be the first person to respond to mistakes. Don't leave it and wait. Tell them that if they've made a mistake on social media make some headway towards fixing it and setting the record straight.
Still not happy? Contact the social media team.
11. Use Common Sense
Remind employees to use their best judgement and common sense when engaging on social media. While AI tools can offer insights and suggestions, they are not foolproof and may not always understand the full context.
12. Respect The Offline Rule
Not everyone wants to have their photo shared all over social media. You should advise your employees to give some thought to the conversations that they have offline with colleagues or customers, giving them guidance around maintaining the privacy of those conversations.
13. Customer Protocols
Encourage employees to handle customer queries with care by taking conversations offline for resolution. While it’s important to address concerns, committing to specific resolutions without proper investigation can be challenging. Remind employees to follow established customer service protocols, ensuring that any commitments are made with due diligence and support from the appropriate teams.
14. Remember The Day Job
It's easy to get swallowed up in social networking so just remind folks that it's there to assist their role, so you expect responsible social media usage during working hours. This is where AI can shine as it can help improve efficiency.
15. Signpost To Training
Let your employees know where they can find further training and guidance on social media best practices and remind them again of how the training may help their careers and professional brand.
16. Know Your Skills
If you get approached by the press, refer them to the Communications team. Engaging may mean you disclose something you shouldn’t, however good your intentions are. Be polite and point them in the right direction.
17. Your Own Views
By stating on your profile your views are your own, you help to protect the reputation of your company in any circumstances where you do express an opinion. Remember this when using AI too, make sure any content reflects your genuine thoughts.
18. Competitor Awareness
Employees should avoid sharing competitors’ content as this can undermine the business's brand reputation. Keep competitor insights internal. This sounds relatively obvious but with so much content out there, it's worth checking the source before posting.
19. Share The Knowledge
If employees are unsure how to answer a question, use this as an opportunity to tag a colleague or peer who you know can answer the question, therefore adding value to the enquirer. If they are using AI to gather form answers, ensure they check its accuracy.
20. Enjoy It
Employees that activate their professional brand online will open up new opportunities e.g. speaking opportunities, new customers, and learning from others. It's a great way to connect and build their own network...for them. Remind them to enjoy the process!
All that said, the proof is in the execution.
Don't write the document, host it on the intranet and hope folks find it. Encourage employees to collaborate in building the guidelines. Have a launch party. Do a desk drop.
Use the re-launch as an excuse to find your social superstars and potentially your best advocates. Combine guideline training with personal brand training to engage the audience in something that helps them develop.
For more inspiration, check out these:
- Intel: Simple and clear guidelines with clear rules of engagement.
- NYTimes: More conservative and cautious, a great example for those in regulated industries.
If you need any assistance in creating a set of guidelines for employee social media or indeed launching an employee advocacy program within your organisation, please do not hesitate to reach out.
We help people and organisations achieve social business success. Contact us to find out more.
Editor's Note: This post was originally published in 2021 and has recently been revamped.
