Corporate Social Media Responsibility

Made Essential Reading on 25 February 2010 Felix Hemsley

Have you considered the importance of those within your company creating User Generated Content (UGC) either on your behalf, simply in reference to your organisation via their personal Social Media presences, or through managing official company social presences. We are increasingly seeing episodes online where individuals have acted unprofessionally or without regard for their company resulting in a need for damage limitation by the company and spurring many to create and define their Social Media Guidelines.

So what are they? Well, in essence, Social Media Guidelines layout what employees can and cannot do in reference to their organisation either through their own personal accounts or through official corporate accounts. On first glance, this may appear to defeat the open nature of Social Media, however, the objective is not to silence the opinions of people, but to ensure that what they are doing is ethical and not damaging to corporate image! It is best to detail these at the earliest possible opportunity, ensuring that everyone is clear and understands the potential implications should they not be adhered to. This should hopefully reduce the risk of any incidents occurring.

Usually, guidelines cover 3 main topics:

• Confidentiality – Non disclosure of internal information, often covered by NDA
• Privacy – Respect for others lives and opinions. Do not reference nor cite individuals without their express permission
• Disclaimers – Show that opinions or thoughts are those solely of the author and that they are not shared nor representative of the organisation itself. This applies to private blogs and other Social Media accounts.

The guidelines apply across the business to all employees, from top to bottom and left to right. It is best to compile these regulations in conjunction with other business members, ensuring that views can be shared and included, and also to ensure that people have their say, which at the very core, is what social media is all about!

Some great examples of guidelines can be seen from IBM and Coca-Cola.

Social Media vulnerability is increasingly becoming a hot topic, its candid, instantaneous nature is a powerful tool, but must be treated with care as bad news often travels faster than good news! Over the past 3 months, Vodafone has seen just how it can go awry if left in the wrong hands.

The first incident was caused by what at first glance appears to be a sensible approach to harnessing an opportunity, but in reality was an attack at competitor, T-Mobile. The conversation on Twitter was as follows:

The first tweet from T-Mobile said:

“Hungary´s T-Mobile network partly down, software to blame”

Then another, to calm some presumably furious customers saying:

“There will be an official statement (released) about the network problem. Please be patient!”

Tamas, a member of Vodafone’s marketing staff, decided it would be funny to Re-Tweet T-Mobiles tweet with a dash of humour to send it on its way.

The original tweet is in Hungarian, but its translation is below:
“OK, give us a ring! RT @tmobilehungary There will be an official statement (released) about the network problem. Please be patient!”

The result of this, was an apology from Vodafone, and 1 fired employee…which you’d have thought would be enough of a lesson for those in the company…but no! Just last week, another episode occurred where a member of the Vodafone UK team posted:

“Is fed up of dirty homo’s and is going after beaver”

Initially thought to be a hack on the account, the tweet was removed, but it had already been spotted and Re-Tweeted within 60 seconds and the damage was done, as the content spread like wildfire across the social web! We assume that this was the offenders last day at Vodafone, or at least once he’s identified, it will be.

What I admire about both of these incidents, is that Vodafone were open and honest on both occasions, admitting that it was a member of their staff, rather than simply going along with the belief that it was an account hack. We never know what truths may come out of the woodwork in the future, and social media will hold the evidence for an eternity, so openness isn’t an option, it’s the only option!