With easy access to social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, employees have more opportunities than ever to share comments and opinions about their workplaces or your company’s products or services. This can be a blessing or a curse. The informal nature of these Websites encourages a free-flow of comments, many of which may come during a particular moment of frustration, anger, or just carelessness by an employee. Many companies have learned the hard way that one slip-up by an employee can lead to the disclosure of the employer’s confidential information or can put the company in an extremely bad light. In addition, recent guides issued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) set forth instances in which misstatements by employees on social media Websites could lead to legal liability for the employer, even if the employer was unaware of the statements at the time they were made.
Should you take steps to restrict what your employees share on social networking sites, even if they do so on their personal time? Depending upon your industry, you may want to encourage your employees to share information about your business to reinforce your other marketing efforts. However, guidelines on how and what should be shared can almost always be helpful. Your social media policy may be as simple as a statement that all company policies regarding appropriate behavior also apply to online activities, regardless of whether those activities occur during work hours. Most employers who chose to address social networking sites want a more extensive policy, making it clear that the company may monitor sites such as Facebook and that employees should not have an expectation of privacy when they make comments relevant to their work or the company’s business. These policies should remind employees that they are bound to protect the company’s confidential information during online exchanges and that anything they say reflects on the company, either positively or negatively. A policy that informs employees up front of your company views on social media can prevent any misunderstandings and may encourage employees to reconsider their posts before hitting “send.”
