Why Social Media Policies Alone Aren't Enough (And What Our eLearning Involves)

‘What should I do if someone leaves a negative comment underneath my post?’  
‘Can I comment on someone’s post that is sharing untrue information about my employer?’ 
‘Am I ok to create a post about my employer’s latest financial statement?’ 
 
These are just some of the questions your employees may be asking themselves when using social media. More so than before, now our online conversations have increased since the pandemic. Despite the rise in social activity, our recent social media policy survey findings show that not all employees could answer what they should or shouldn’t say online: 

• Of those active on social media, 36% of them are sharing and engaging but not fully understanding their company's social media policy. 
• In certain age groups, nearly 40-50% have either read and not understood, never read or aren't aware of the company's social media policy. (48% of those in the 55+ age bracket, 43% of those in the 18-24 and 42% of those in the 25-34 age bracket.) 

 
(Register here to download a copy of the new report.) 

We’re also now seeing the rise of the employee activist: Nearly four in 10 employees (38 percent) report that they have spoken up to support or criticize their employers’ actions over a controversial issue that affects society.  

Employers no longer want to restrict their employees, however. Employee advocacy programs are rising and many are reaping the benefits of increased reach and reputation, just take a look at how this law firm has reaped those benefits. Employers want to update their guidance to reflect their current needs - empowering instead of restricting employees.  

All of which may explain why we’ve seen the interest in our social media policy content and eLearning skyrocket.  

So we thought we’d share the common FAQs to our social media policy course – our Social Practitioner Course. That way you can decide whether the small licence cost fee makes it a worthwhile investment for you. 

Why Do You Need Training? Isn’t A Social Media Policy Enough? 

In short, not really!  

If you find yourself in legal bother, you should be able to demonstrate that your employees understood your social media policy. There’s a world of difference between remembering a list of Dos and Don’ts and understanding how those principles work in practice.  

Legal issues aside, you stand a much better chance of your employees acting in a way that enhances their brand and yours if they’ve had training on not just social media risks but etiquette too. 

eLearning is the best way to help you scale that knowledge to the masses. Many of our clients then use this as a foundational stepping stone to our Social Media eLearning course, which enables them to match training needs to their employees‘ social media maturity levels and goals with modules such as thought leadership and social selling.  

At-A-Glance: What Is Our Social Practitioner Course? 

Our Social Practitioner course brings your social media policy to life with interactive, multilingual eLearning. . It covers everything you need to help your employees be aware of the potential consequences and risks on social media and protect their professional and employer brands. Just as importantly, it covers the Dos and Don’ts of best practice etiquette to empower and encourage employees to build effective relationships online, instead of simply avoiding risks.

What Does Our Social Media eLearning Course Cover? 

Our social media policy course consists of five easily digestible modules:  

Module 1: Introduction  

This module introduces your employees to social media risks, along with an overview of the most popular platforms.  

Module 2: The Risks Associated with Using Social Media 

We introduce your employees to four social media risks areas using scenario-based learning activities and tests. These cover security issues, legal and regulatory and brand and reputation.  

Module 3: Tips For Managing Risk 

Employees will learn how to protect themselves from the most common data and security risks.   

Module 4: Etiquette Tips For Social Media 

The final section covers everything needed to enable your employees to use social media with confidence so that they enhance - rather than risk harm to - their professional brand and yours.  

Module 5: Social Practitioner Quiz 

Our 10 question assessment tests your employees’ understanding of everything included in the course so far. 

Do You Offer “White Label” Course Branding? 

Many of our clients want their own-branded “white labelled” social media policy course. We can do so for a small additional fee. The fee depends on the changes you want, so it would the cost would depend on that. 

Can We Customise The Course Content? 

We've designed our social media policy course to be an out-of-the-box course you can rely on to protect against risks and empower your employees to network effectively online. Still, we can customise the course content further for an additional cost. 

Here are a few examples of previous customisation requests: 

• Signposting employees to who to contact in the event of a social media crisis/journo request, etc. 
• A reminder of the company’s Code of Conduct. 
• Links to additional internal social media training resources,
• Etiquette tips specific to the company's own values.  
  

What Are The Benefits Of Our Social Media Policy eLearning Course? 

So is it worth the investment? Here’s a list of the benefits of our course so you can see for yourself! 

Protect Against Legal Fallouts 

Your legal position is generally stronger if you can prove that your employees really understand your social media policy. Our trackable course data provides an audit trail showing who understands how to use your policy in practice (and who needs more training).  

It’s Budget-Friendly 

Our eLearning can be rolled out at scale across your organisation, making it one of the most budget-friendly options. As you can see in the pricing Q&A above, it starts from just £8.45pp.  

It's Delivered In Bitesize Chunks To Aid Understanding And Retention 

Psychological studies show that our brains can only stay focused for short periods and that short bursts of learning split into small sections best aid learning and retention. 

Our whole course only takes around 15-20 minutes to complete, split into five-minute chunks for each section. 

No “Going Through The Motions”: From Remembering To Understanding And Applying 

Real-life scenario activities improve how people learn. It takes them from simply being able to recall facts and basic concepts to understand and even apply them. 

We use scenario-based learning that employees need to pass to test their understanding of how social media policy risks apply to the real world. In short, we stop our employees simply “going through the motions” of another dry test! 

It’s Multilingual 

Our social media policy course has been translated into six different languages to make learning accessible for more employees.  

It’s Easily Scalable  

At Tribal, we offer a range of different training and coaching methods and our mantra is “Train the Many, Train the Masses, Train the Few”. Social media policy training needs to be delivered to “the masses” with a consistent message for optimum risk protection and affordable eLearning is the best way to provide standardised training at scale. 

It’s Self-Paced And Accessible On The Go 

Your employees aren’t restricted to a potentially inconvenient course date. Instead, they can choose to complete the course at a time and pace that suits their schedule via their desktop or mobile.  

Our Modules Become Resources In Their Time Of Need, Not Courses 

As our eLearning platform is split into bite-sized modules, it’s easy for employees to access the information when they need to use them – something leading learning and development professionals believe is much more effective.  

How Much Does It Cost? (Less Than A Udemy Course!)  

Our eLearning course is extremely budget-friendly - even for smaller companies that may need just a few employees to take the course.  

For 1-99 learners, the cost is only £13.50pp and accessible for 90 days.  

For 100+ users, the cost is just £10.50pp - reducing to £8.45pp when you choose to host it on your own LMS. (It’s also available for a year when you host it on your own LMS.) 

Further discounts are available, too, for large volumes.  

I hope this blog has helped answer some of the questions you may have about our social media eLearning course. You can find out more about our Social Practitioner course here but we understand that nothing beats trying out a product first-hand to see if it’s suitable. If you want a free trial before you decide to roll out our training to your teams, click here. 

Or, if you’d prefer to have a chat about your specific needs, you can always email me on  estefano@tribalimpact.com