In my previous post, I shined a little light on the repercussions Facebook platform apps can have on the productivity and performance on an individual. But, how does Facebook apps create sluggish, under-performing companies?
Again noted, Facebook can be an incredible contributor to a company’s bottom line. It’s a fantastic resource for generating leads and promoting brands, goods and services. Companies need to define acceptable usage policies for social media so that the incorporation of social media is effective within the overarching marketing strategy.
A Few Factors to Consider When Writing a Company’s Facebook Acceptable Usage Policy
- Separate Accounts
Creating a business-only account is becoming increasingly common among today’s corporate leaders. You should consider requiring your employee to create a separate account for business use and build relationships on that account. While you cannot monitor what your employees are doing after hours, you can regulate their 8-5 activities. If your employee should post something (status update, photo, video, etc) that infringes upon corporate policy, it could undermine the integrity and image of your business. While you may fire that employee, or, even, negotiate the removal of the inappropriate item for their continuation of employment, the damage may have already been done – and, very quickly to say the least.
If at any point and for whatever reason your employee should cease working for the company, then the account becomes property of the company. After all, you did pay them to cultivate relationships and you wouldn’t want the ex-employee taking those relationships with them to a competitor would you?
- Personal Chat
I must say that I love Facebook’s chat feature. Let’s be honest, though. You’re not paying your employees to talk to their friends. If part of your company’s marketing strategy includes building relationships, Facebook chat is a great tool, but your employee should separate personal space from business space. Would you pay them to talk on the phone with their friends all day? However, any company would benefit if a sales team is on the phone and cultivating relationships with clients. The same is true with Facebook chat (or any other instant messaging platform).
- Facebook Platform Apps
Web 3.0 and virtual space is one thing, Farmville and Mafia are another. Web 3.0 encourages channel development through virtual space. Finding an ugly duckling on the farm doesn’t encourage anything. Worse yet, should one distracted employee “share” an app with another, your entire sales and/or service team may be virally affected, thus, inhibiting overall development.
- Facebook Inbox
So your company has e-mail policies? Does it have Facebook e-mail policies? You should be aware of and monitor the employee’s Facebook Inbox for their corporate Facebook account. This will assist you in alleviating some of your office fantasy relationships and virtual water cooler discussions.
- Photo and Video Sharing
Do your employees know anything about bandwidth and network load? Perhaps they should. Photo and video sharing should be kept to a minimum. Some great photos and videos may include a corporate event that your company hosted or was involved with. Some not so great photos can include drunk (or high) employees, risqué dancing and locations. You also don’t want some of your “less presentable” employees being photographed. There’s sometimes more than one reason they work in a cubicle with little public interaction.
Posting photos and videos can help enhance the company culture, should your policies allow it. But, needless to say, not all of your employees should be posting photos and videos. Besides the fact of being distracted from their official responsibilities, sending and receiving larges amounts of data can make decrease network performance.
- Status Updates
While you may or may not have public viewing rights to your employees’ personal profiles, you should require “friend” access to their corporate accounts. This allows you to monitor any comments that they (or any of their contacts make). If you should find something inappropriate, then you can have your employee quickly remove the update from their feed along with taking any other appropriate action.
- Mobile Access
Remember, Facebook, like many other web applications, is not restricted to the desktop. Facebook accounts can be monitored and altered through mobile devices. Be aware of the “under-the-table” employees who may be constantly texting from their phone while their corporate account may still be visible on the computer screen.
There’s nothing wrong with exercising the “protective parent” approach when it comes to your company, its reputation and its employees. Take any action that you feel is necessary in order to ensure your company’s continued quality presentation. You may find that as your company grows and the use of social media grows, your company may need to consider hiring someone to direct and oversee all corporate social media activity.
