Best Practices in Social Media Governance

Best Practices in
Social Media Governance
DION LINDSAY
PUBLISHED BY

Best Practices in Social Media Governance
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ARK2053

Best Practices in
Social Media Governance
DION LINDSAY
PUBLISHED BY

Contents
Executive summary ............................................................................................................. V
About the author and contributors .....................................................................................VII
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................IX
Part One: A primer in social media governance
Chapter 1: What is social media? ....................................................................................... 3
Just how big is social media in the UK? .................................................................................. 3
Chapter 2: Why govern social media? ................................................................................ 7
What is governance? ............................................................................................................ 7
The benefits of social media .................................................................................................. 7
The risks of social media ....................................................................................................... 8
What does governance entail? ............................................................................................... 9
Chapter 3: The legal context – Protecting your IP on the internet ...................................... 11
The UK perspective ............................................................................................................. 11
The US perspective ............................................................................................................. 12
Law and governance ........................................................................................................... 13
Data protection .................................................................................................................. 14
Chapter 4: Governance structures and documentation ..................................................... 15
Creating the structure .......................................................................................................... 15
Achieving the right balance ................................................................................................. 16
Governance documents ...................................................................................................... 17
Risk versus reward – Setting examples .................................................................................. 20
Communicating the policy ................................................................................................... 20
Resources ........................................................................................................................... 21
Chapter 5: Creating a social media policy ........................................................................ 23
By Lee Hopkins
Do we really need a social media policy? ............................................................................. 23
Employees – The case for a social media policy .................................................................... 26
Writing your own social media policy ................................................................................... 27
III

Contents
Who should create our social media policy? ......................................................................... 28
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 29
Chapter 6: Managing social media participation .............................................................. 31
‘Herding cats’ – How to encourage without strangling creativity ............................................. 31
Training users and managing expectations ............................................................................ 32
Skills and training for new and existing staff .......................................................................... 33
Instilling values ................................................................................................................... 36
Dos and don’ts ................................................................................................................... 36
Chapter 7: Managing social media impact ....................................................................... 39
Supportive, disruptive and transformative trends .................................................................... 39
Monitoring ......................................................................................................................... 39
Defining success: Return on investment (ROI) and impact analysis .......................................... 40
Part Two: Social media governance in practice – Case studies and example policies
Case study 1: Domino’s Pizza ........................................................................................... 45
Case study 2: The Johnson & Johnson Motrin advertisement ............................................ 47
Case study 3: Dell ........................................................................................................... 49
Case study 4: ChapStick ................................................................................................... 51
Example policy 1: BBC...................................................................................................... 53
Example policy 2: The American Institute of Architects ...................................................... 61
Example policy 3: IBM ...................................................................................................... 65
Index ...............................................................................................................................71
IV

Executive summary
THE USE of social media by enterprises is
now an established fact: few organisations
with marketing ambitions will ignore the
potential benefits of having a presence on
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and the
conclusions that their customer base will
draw if they are absent from these arenas.
Nevertheless social media presents
an unfamiliar environment for external
communication departments, one where
traditional models of controlling the content
and distribution of messages to the outside
world no longer hold sway. Participation in
the social media world is an instantaneous
activity, not one underpinned by thorough
research into cause and effect, return on
investment or risk management.
Highly publicised adverse incidents
chart the dangers of misreading the social
media environment: over-reactions to
angry postings and failure to respond to
criticism have both had harsh effects on
the commercial reputation of companies,
and the strategies they have formed in the
wake of such incidents have been costly to
maintain with little assurance of success.
At the same time, enterprises see
the results of positive stories or images
going viral on social media and lust
after the benefits these can bring. In this
‘Wild West’ environment, something akin
to a gold rush has been forming as
companies create advertising campaigns
specifically for YouTube and Facebook,
and try to create and protect a positive
presence on Wikipedia.
Best Practices in Social Media
Governance maps this environment,
documenting the nature of social media, its
uptake, and the benefits and risks involved in
participation for your organisation. These are
illustrated with case studies and examples
of social media policies and guidelines.
Above all, the report addresses the need
for governance within organisations, and
what it might take to maintain control of
participation at the same time as allowing
freedom for benefits to accrue in intrinsically
unpredictable and uncontrollable ways.
Following an introduction to the basic
principles and current scope of social media
in the work environment in Chapter 1,
Chapter 2 demonstrates the need for
governance in this context, including a
summary of the standards and resources
that should be in place in order to establish
a successful strategy. Chapter 3 covers the
legal considerations relevant to social media
governance, including perspectives from
both the UK and the US.
Effective governance requires the
establishment of an internal structure
for the promotion, management and
monitoring of your social media activities.
Your organisation may also wish to create
governance documents that clearly state
your strategies and policies. Chapter 4
covers these topics in detail, demonstrating
how to integrate your policies with existing
organisational strategies, encourage
top level buy-in and ensure that your
documentation is fit for purpose. This
V

Executive summary
section includes practical examples that will
help you to make the best decisions to suit
your organisation’s specific requirements.
In Chapter 5, guest contributor Lee
Hopkins discusses the case for and against
a social media policy for your organisation,
and goes on to outline a strategy for
creating an effective policy that staff will
actually use and abide by.
Managing participation in social media
activity means balancing your strategic
objectives with the practical aspects of online
communication – including the potential
risks facing social media users. Chapter
6 details practical examples to help you
train your employees, manage expectations
and instil organisational values into their
activities. This section also includes helpful
‘dos and don’ts’ which will aid the successful
creation of your social media policies.
Chapter 7 discusses measuring and
managing the impact of your social media
activity, particularly where additional
expenditure must be justified with a costbenefit
analysis.
Part Two focuses on social media
governance in practice, with case studies
and example policies. Four case studies
illustrate the social media problems – and
their solutions – faced by Domino’s Pizza,
Johnson & Johnson, Dell and ChapStick.
These cautionary tales exemplify the best
and worst approaches to take when faced
with an online backlash, and will help you to
put in place effective policies for your own
social media activity. They illustrate too how
difficult is to be sure of the ‘right’ approach
to such incidents. Three example social
media policies are included, from the BBC,
The American Institute of Architects and IBM,
the latter considered to be a ‘gold standard’
in social media governance.
VI

About the author and contributors
Dion Lindsay – Author
Dion Lindsay is an experienced knowledge manager, consultant and trainer. His UK based
consultancy, Dion Lindsay Consulting, works with large charities, membership organisations and the
public and private sectors on knowledge sharing and management strategies. He is also partner in a
world wide consultancy for remote collaboration techniques, CyberWorkplace.com.
He writes the well-known intranets column in eLucidate, the e-journal for emerging topics in
electronic information management (see http://www.ukeig.org.uk/elucidate), and is a committee
member of its publishing body. He is an experienced workshop facilitator on topics including social
media in the workplace, for the Ark Group, and intranets, presented with Martin White of Intranet Focus.
Dion can be contacted at dion@dionlindsayconsulting.com.
Lee Hopkins – Contributor
Lee Hopkins is a management psychologist and business communicator with nearly 30 years’
experience in helping businesses communicate better, for better business results.
At the leading edge of business communicators in Australia, Lee understands the transformative
nature of social media. He spends a considerable amount of his time advising businesses,
business communities and individual business communicators on the tectonic cultural shifts that
new communications technology is facilitating and how they can best position themselves to take
advantage of them.
He is also currently undertaking doctoral research at the University of South Australia’s School of
Communication, looking at how the new social communication landscape has impacted on senior
communicators’ roles and responsibilities.
An internationally sought-after speaker, Lee combines his passion for employee and online business
communication with his dynamic presentation skills to create ‘once seen, never forgotten’ live experiences.
He has over 200 articles on business communication available for reading at LeeHopkins.com
and blogs, podcasts and vidcasts at LeeHopkins.net. Lee can be contacted at Lee@LeeHopkins.com.
Alex Marks – Contributor
Alex formed Fresh & Frank Consulting in 2010, after many years’ experience working for some of the
world’s largest companies. He recognised that business success is driven from the blend of offline
and digital, not one over the other; and that clients were looking for grown-up support that had
‘been there and done it’ and had the confidence to tell them what they didn’t want to hear.
He has over 16 years’ agency and client side experience across a broad range of clients and
sectors, including retail, telecommunications, broadcast and tourism. He has worked internationally for
eBay, helping to set up its advertising business. At Microsoft he was responsible for the UK marketing
of its advertising division, which included the successful launch of Microsoft Adcenter in 2006.
VII

About the author and contributors
Prior to this Alex worked at digital media agency i-level, where he was marketing and new
business director. He has also worked in traditional media for companies such as Capital Radio,
Classic FM, and Zenith Media.
He is a published author, a regular commentator, writer and conference speaker on digital
marketing issues and a key blogger for The Marketing Society. His interests include music, running
and boxing, all of which he regularly still indulges despite his recent realisation that he might be
getting a bit old for all this.
Alex can be contacted at alex@freshandfrank.co.uk.
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