Compliance &Ethics - Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics

Featureby Steve CarrMind the gap!Where corporate policyand social media meet»»Social media offers opportunities for broader, timely communication in a fashion people appreciate more than staticPDF or email formats.»»The gap between liability concerns and potential benefits of adopting social media can often be bridged with policy andcompany-wide planning.»»New online tools to manage and archive social media, emails, and other electronic communications are widely availableand inexpensive.»»Each organization should view social media in its regulatory context, including Reg FD for publicly held US companies,the Dodd-Frank Act, Sarbanes Oxley, Solvency II, and Basel III.»»Properly adopted, social media offers the opportunity to improve compliance and corporate governance practices and evenmaintain or reduce costs.CarrPerched on the kitchen shelf where wekeep our coffee cups is a treasuredmemento from a family trip to London,a glass mug bearing the circular red and bluelogo of the London Underground and themotto “Mind the Gap!” It reminds us of theanonymous female voice that echoesthroughout the Tube and urges travelersto be aware of the treacherousspace between the station floor andthe train car. The gap presents us withdanger, but crossing it safely opens upnew opportunities for a savvy traveler.So it is with social media. Thetwo-way nature of interactive dataand communications is the most attractivefeature to users and the most vexing fromthe compliance and corporate governancestandpoint. For example, many publicly heldcompanies might be surprised to learn theyare already participating in social media,whether they know it or not, or want to ornot. A landmark date in the history of socialmedia was December 17, 2008, the day theSecurities & Exchange Commission made theuse of interactive data, the eXtensible BusinessReporting Language (XBRL), mandatory forUS public companies over a phase-in period.From a regulatory standpoint, the use ofsocial media in the form of interactive dataand information—financial material that canbe tagged, modeled, and managed by thirdparties—has been already mandated for UScompanies.One way to define the term “social media”is that it encompasses new ways in whichnew media technologies can help people communicatebetter and engage in dialogue. Newdigital technologies are constantly enhancingthe social and shared aspect of the Internet,so that it continues to become more of atwo-way system. Many organizations wantto take advantage of this in reaching theirstakeholders, who may be investors, donors,Compliance & Ethics Professional May/June 2013+1 952 933 4977 or 888 277 4977 www.corporatecompliance.org 41