Whether you’ve already taken the social media plunge for your company or chomping at the bit to start a program off, it’s extremely important to have a published set of guidelines in-place for employees, consultants, as well as external agencies to follow to keep everyone on the same page. These guides can range from a few sentences to full-blown handbooks. It’s up to you and your executive team to agree on the degree of parameters you want overlay on to your program.
So where do you start? To get you going, I’ve listed below a group of policies from (mostly) brand-name companies. As you’ll soon see, even some of the largest global companies have kept their policies very simple. Even if you already have a set of guidelines in-place, spend a few minutes reviewing some of these polcies; you might have missed something.
Whose policy do I like the best? Each one has its merits…there’s no right or wrong answer when putting together this type of manual. They’re also living, breathing documents, meant to be edited as needed. But two that really cover most of the bases of social media are Australia’s telecom giant Telstra - for their very interactive comic book style guide (and not just because one of their characters is named Serge…but that didn’t hurt) - and Kodak, who gives some good insight into the how’s and why’s of their social media marketing program.
Finally, if by chance, you’ve run into some roadblocks at the executive level in your company, take a look at Olivier Blanchard’s PowerPoint presentation on Social Media ROI. It’s powerful stuff, as well as good ammo to help tip the conversation in your favor.
Here’s the list:
