Social networking platforms have become integral facets of individuals’ lives, encompassing both personal and professional domains. This rise of social networking platforms brings to light several issues that must be acknowledged and examined in order to ensure the safety and best interest of organisations and individuals. There are 5 main points I would advise a Social Media Policy Working Group regarding the development of a policy when employees use Web 2.0 tools and spaces for work and personal use while using organisations’ computers/network and time. These include:

• Ensuring clear objectives for social media use are communicated and understood by all employees. This will ensure the organisations objectives for the page are the focus at all times and avoid issues including level of productivity. As social media is used for both personal and professional purposes, guidelines to maintain balance and avoid personal use during working hours will avoid impacting productivity in the workplace (Demeka et al., 2018). This can be achieved through ongoing training of all employees ensuring they are up to date with any changes to policy (Junestrom, 2019).

• Take a proactive approach by following policy guidelines and risk management protocols (Demeka et al., 2018) including acceptable behaviour including lawful and non-disruptive conduct and meet the organisation’s expectations in regard to appropriate communication, content, language and engagement.

• Employees must be aware of platform specific protocols and ensure customers are aware of these protocols. For example, employees ensure customers are aware of appropriate interactions, content and tone. Out lining these protocols is important to assist in the maintenance of the
  organisations reputation (Soens & Claeys, 2021).

• Be aware and address any privacy or security concerns including sensitive information. All employees cannot share any personal or confidential information on any public forums as this will protect the organisation and individuals involved. Strict security guidelines must be followed in regard to logging in, including changing passwords regularly, especially when someone has left the organisation (Corsillo, 2019).

• Ensure employees understand their responsibility to moderate any content to make sure all information and correspondence on the platform is aligned with the organisations values and code of conduct. Employees must understand the different level of breaches and the appropriate action to be taken if a breach occurs (Australian Maritime Safety Authority, 2017).

References

Australian Maritime Safety Authority. (2017, November 21). Social media terms of use. https://www.amsa.gov.au/news-community/social-media/social-media-terms-use

Corsillo, G. K. (28 June, 2019). Staying social:Why your library needs social media policies. http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2019/06/staying-social-why-your-library-needs-social-media-policies/

Demek, K. C., Raschke, R. L., Janvrin, D. J., & Dilla, W. N. (2018). Do organizations use a formalized risk management process to address social media risk? International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 28, 31-44. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accinf.2017.12.004

Juneström, A. (2019). Emerging practices for managing user misconduct in online news media comments sections. Journal of Documentation, 75(4), 694-708. doi:10.1108/JD-09-2018-0143

Soens, E., & Claeys, A.-S. (2021). Can organizations guide employees’ social media behavior? The benefits of incentive rather than restrictive social media guidelines. Journal of Communication Management, 25(4). https://doi.org/10.1108/JCOM-02-2021-0017