Staff Use of Social Media Policy

White Paper
Staff Use of Social Media Policy –
Legal Dimension

Published by
DMA Social Media Council

First Edition

WHITE PAPER STAFF USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY - LEGAL DIMENSION

2 COPYRIGHT: THE DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION (UK) LTD 2011


CONTENTS

Acknowledgements 4

1. Introduction 5

2. A brief background to social media 6

3. Common problems with staff use of Social Media 7

4. But, before you act, review the situation 10

5. What should my organisation do if it doesn’t have a Social Media policy 11

6. Developing a Social Media Policy 12

COPYRIGHT: THE DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION (UK) LTD 2011 3


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The DMA would like to thank Adam Paulisick and the Social Media Council for their
contribution to this document.

All rights reserved
© The Direct Marketing Association (UK) Limited

No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of The Direct
Marketing Association (UK) Limited



1. INTRODUCTION

I am a member of your staff. But…

I probably have a Facebook account, or an account on some other social network. I might also
be a blogger; perhaps even someone who uses Twitter or one of many online products, apps
or services that help me publish my opinions, organise my life, and store memories, review
products, or network. I probably have a company phone or laptop that I use regularly to do so,
even if only in off-hours.

“I wonder: can I be fired for promoting the company? Surely not. You would want me to share
my expertise with everyone, wouldn’t you? You can’t tell me what to say in my own time, can
you?”

These questions are just a starting point with today’s 21st century workforce. Now, the better
question: Is your organisation prepared to handle cases where your staff do abuse social
media? Does it have a policy? What are the legal implications, and how can your organisation
avoid having to think reactively about damaging situations?

Your organisation can no longer avoid the conversation with staff about how their online activity
reflects on the brand. This paper will outline issues that you may need to address at the
organisational level within your policies, and provides enough background to start or evolve the
conversation with staff if it’s not already underway.

An interesting starting point is to understand, and clearly state to your staff that what is
illegal offline is, in almost all cases, also illegal online. While we won’t be able to cover all
of these topics in a single paper, your social media policy should consider defamation, libel,
discrimination, obscenity, harassment, data protection, trade descriptions, IP rights, brand
reputation and confidentiality of sensitive business information, as related to today’s social
media behaviour.

Note: The DMA Social Media Council strongly encourages organisations to build guidance
policies that focus on what content is being created, rather than the tools used to create it, as
these tools are constantly evolving and may quickly make any guidelines obsolete.



2. A BRIEF BACKGROUND TO SOCIAL MEDIA

The term ‘social media’ covers a vast range of software applications, including social
networking sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace and Bebo), blogging applications (e.g. Blogger and
WordPress), micro-blogging (e.g. Twitter), multimedia sharing and networking applications
(e.g. YouTube, Flickr and Skype), information sharing sites (e.g. Wikipedia), review and opinion
sites (e.g. Google Answers, Yahoo! Answers), forums (e.g. Mumsnet, Digital Spy, iVillage)
and even dating sites. This list does not even begin to cover the whole range of ways in which
people share and interact online, but it is important that we start by establishing how broad a
staff member’s use of such applications may be.



3. COMMON PROBLEMS WITH STAFF USE OF
SOCIAL MEDIA

Perhaps the best place to start, independent of an individual’s specific use of social media, is to
identify common actions that might lead an organisation to take notice. Although not an all-
inclusive list, the following should be noted:

• Staff member does not make it clear that this is a personal opinion as opposed to a
company policy
• Staff member shares private information in the public domain
• Staff member publishes messages that are discriminatory
• Staff member insults or speaks poorly of a competitor
• Staff member presents him- or herself in an embarrassing way, or in a manner that would
be considered offensive
• Staff member posts personal details (text, image or video) of a fellow worker or
organisation’s facility without permission
• Staff member promotes, shares or discusses a product, or content related to their
responsibilities or the function of the business, without sign-off.

Please find below (thanks to CareerBuilder) a short history of notable firings for or related to
Facebook:

October 31, 2008: A group of thirteen cabin crew staff have been sacked by Virgin Atlantic
after criticising the airline’s safety standards and calling passengers “chavs” on Facebook.
According to BBC News, a spokesman for the airline said that “there was no justification
for Facebook to be used as a sounding board for staff of any company to criticise the very
passengers who ultimately pay their salaries.”

February 26, 2009: A teenage office worker from Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, was fired for calling
her job “boring”. According to The Daily Mail, Kimberley Swann posted comments like “First
day at work. Omg (oh my god)!! So dull!!” and “All I do is shred holepunch and scan paper!!!”
[sic]. Swann was canned after her boss discovered the comments.

March 29, 2009: A 27-year-old prison warden, who worked at HMP Leicester, was fired for
making friends with 13 criminals on Facebook. There were photos on his profile showing him
with a criminal Facebook-friend, and investigations also proved that he had phoned some of his
criminal Facebook-friends.

April 27, 2009: A Swiss insurance worker was let go after calling in sick, and then logging into
Facebook on her “sick day”. Reuters reported that the women said she had a migraine and
called out of work because the light from a computer would bother her and she needed to lie in
a dark room. When her employer caught her surfing Facebook, it was presumed that she was
indeed well enough to sit in front of a computer, and she was let go.



August 14, 2009: A woman, known only as “Lindsay”, was fired for insulting her boss on
Facebook. She called him a “total pervy w****r”, but forgot that she had added him as a friend
and he could read her status update. As a consequence, he responded: “Firstly, don’t flatter
yourself. Secondly, you’ve worked here 5 months and didn’t work out that I’m gay? Thirdly,
that ‘s**t stuff’ is called your ‘job’[...]”. He then told her right there on Facebook not to bother
coming back to work.

March 19, 2010: A TUI Travel call centre agent was sacked after calling a colleague a “brown-
nosing cow” on Facebook. According to The Mirror, TUI said: “Our policy states staff should
not post comments that could be regarded as bullying, harassment or discrimination against
employees.” 26-year-old Emma Short was then fired for breaching company internet policy.

April 19, 2010: Adam Webb, the web campaign organiser for Liberal Democrats candidate
Colin Eldridge, was sacked for leaving obscene comments about religion on Facebook. He
responded to an article about the rise of creationist theory in education by posting a request for
“all religious people to just f**k off”. He also attached a link to an article saying certain people
should be “banned from breeding”, including “vile women with too many kids”.

May 17, 2010: Ashley Johnson, a waitress from North Carolina, was fired from her job at a
Brixx pizzeria after posting a negative comment about two of her customers. Johnson called
the customers – who left her a $5 tip after sitting at their table for three hours – “cheap”.
Though she did not mention the names of the customers, Johnson did include the name of
the pizzeria in her post. A few days later, management called her to tell her she was fired for
violating the restaurant’s social media policy.

June 10, 2010: Five California nurses were terminated after it was discovered that they were
discussing patient cases on the site. The situation was investigated for weeks, by both the
nurses’ employer (Tri City Medical Center in San Diego) and the California Department of
Health, before the nurses were fired for allegedly violating privacy laws.

August 19, 2010: Simone Cox, a care assistant from Bentley, Doncaster, was fired for posting
insults about the elderly residents she was supposed to be caring for. The owner of the care
home said the firm was “shocked and appalled” by the comments about residents, many of
whom suffer dementia1.

1
10 ways to get fired for Facebook : CareerBuilder.co.uk
http://www.careerbuilder.co.uk/Article/CB-311-Workplace-Issues-10-ways-to-get-fired-for-
Facebook/



Courtesy of FastCompany2 , a few visual examples of how micro-blogging (e.g. Twitter) can lead
to legal issues:

2
http://twitter.com/fastcompany



4. BUT, BEFORE YOU ACT, REVIEW THE
SITUATION

So where might a line manager or HR department start if they believe that a staff member
made an inappropriate posting or potentially caused some form of damage to the business
through use of social media ? They should consider taking the following key steps:

• Document the incident through a screen capture, in which the URL should be visible and the
quality should make the message, image or other example of misconduct easy to review
• Evaluate the evidence that the staff member was in fact the person who posted or published
the content, or potentially had ownership/control of the domain on which the content was
published
• Evaluate whether the content is protected by law: examples might include unsafe working
conditions, human rights violations or other relevant topics
• Review your organisation’s social media policies and, if none exists, consider speaking with
your usual HR legal advisers to see whether other policies that are already in place cover
the medium or manner in which the staff member conducted him- or herself.



5. WHAT SHOULD MY ORGANISATION DO IF IT
DOESN’T HAVE A SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

Even if your organisation does not have a social media policy today, here are a few common
guidelines to distribute to your staff members while you formulate a stance.

• Treat social media messages in the same way as you would treat a message sent from a
organisation’s email address
• Do not try to mask your social media activity from the organisation you are working for
differently compared with its visibility to the average public viewer
• Avoid references to the organisation you are working for, colleagues or other sensitive
information at all times without express written permission
• Never assume it is OK to use social media while on contracted hours unless specifically
discussed
• Never assume it is OK to be active on social media from a organisation’s device without
specific permission
• Do not use the organisation’s resources to blog, write or otherwise engage in activities you
would consider personal. Equally do not use personal social media sites to blog, write or
otherwise engage in activities you would consider connected with your employment



6. DEVELOPING A SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

Does every organisation already have a social media policy? An employee services firm,
Manpower, conducted a study in early 2010 whose results showed that only 11% of companies
in EMEA had a policy, compared with 29% in the US3. Although not surprising, the DMA (UK)
would like to encourage all of its members to consider the risk of not having such a policy.

So, what are the key elements of a social media policy? Here are a few important aspects and
tips:

1. Define social media. Again, there is no reason to name more than a few example sites
for each category (e.g. video, pictures, written text, ratings, etc.), but it is only fair to try
to explain to your employees what the focus of your policy is about. Consider a definition
that also specifically references the creation, distribution or amplification of content. As
a starting point for ideas, you might review http://traffikd.com/social-media-websites/ or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites to familiarise yourself
with all of the different varieties of content.
2. Be specific in terms of who owns and is responsible for social media content relating to
the organisation. Also, be specific about who owns the content created in the case of a
departure or change in structure or ownership of the organisation. For example, provide
that any contacts or opportunities gained through social media marketing during the course
of working belong to the company.
3. Be specific about whose responsibility it is to handle customer complaints or service,
present information to a public audience, conduct research and a variety of other ways in
which social media may be leveraged within the organisation. Establishing such direction
will limit the assumption that there is no corporate responsibility. If you are willing to
expand this list to the broader staff members, then you may consider looking at a policy
such as Wells Fargo: http://blog.wellsfargo.com/community-guidelines.html
4. Make it clear that the sharing of organisational information without the express permission
of the business is not welcome. It is important to reinforce the notion that it is unacceptable
to share, transmit or otherwise make external any content relating to the business, even
within a password-protected or otherwise “secure” site. Although a site may clearly appear
secure, the informal nature of the administration of external sites may present unnecessary
risk to the organisation.
5. Present an option within the policy for staff members to be trained and certified in the
appropriate use of social media. Use may include, but is not limited to, customer service,
marketing, PR or other core functions of the business.

3
Employer Perspectives On Social Networking: Global Key Findings: A Manpower Survey
January 2010
http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/MAN/1159415271x0x350040/4e59cf4b-1d29-470d-
922f-062e815c629e/Employer_Perspectives_on_Social_Networking_Survey.pdf



6. Include a section on employee engagement in addition to outlining who is responsible. The
following policies have examples worth looking at when developing your own policy
Intel – http://www.intel.com/sites/sitewide/en_us/social-media.htm
“When You Engage
Emerging platforms for online collaboration are fundamentally changing the way
we work, offering new ways to engage with customers, colleagues and the world at
large. It’s a new model for interaction, and we believe social computing can help you to
build stronger, more successful business relationships. And it’s a way for
you to take part in global conversations related to the work we are doing at Intel and the
things we care about.
If you participate in social media, please follow these guiding principles:
• Stick to your area of expertise and provide unique, individual perspectives on what’s
going on at Intel and in the world.
• Post meaningful, respectful comments—in other words, no spam and no remarks
that are off-topic or offensive.
• Always pause and think before posting. That said, reply to comments in a timely
manner, when a response is appropriate.
• Respect proprietary information and content, and confidentiality.
• When disagreeing with others’ opinions, keep it appropriate and polite.
• Know and follow the Intel Code of Conduct and the Intel Privacy Policy.”
7. Define common sense. While most people will respect normal boundaries of acceptable
behaviour, it is important to clearly identify certain issues that will be considered
inappropriate. A staff member should stay clear of current or rumoured legal involvement
of the business, libellous or offensive content, confidential information, adult content,
mention of any illegal substance use, or anything else of relevance to the business in their
social media activity.
8. Make sure that you clarify that professional and personal social media pages should be
kept separate. However, any policy applies to both professional and personal use of social
media used during your work.
9. Staff members should clearly identify when the opinion is of a personal nature; i.e. although
I work for the DMA (UK), these views are my own.
10. Staff members must get express permission to use any trademarks or logos belonging to
the organisation prior to posting.
11. Staff members agree to follow all copyright, privacy and other applicable laws.

A lengthy list of social media policy examples may be found here:
http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php



Openforum has presented a great case for policies from which you may want to take ideas4
You must not copy directly from the above examples, but rather use them as a source of ideas
for developing your organisation’s own policy.

While each organisation will clearly require a unique set of guidelines based on their industry,
culture and risk, we hope that the above tips provide a helpful starting point.

You should consult with your organisation’s usual HR legal advisers when developing a social
media policy as you will need to ensure that it links in with your existing HR policies and
procedures and staff training. The DMA (UK)’s Legal Department is happy to provide general
advice and guidance.

4
Article “3 Great Social Media Policies to Steal From”
http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/3-great-social-media-policies-
to-steal-from-jennifer-van-grove-1


Staff Use of Social Media Policy

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (20)

Ähnlich wie Staff Use of Social Media Policy

Ähnlich wie Staff Use of Social Media Policy (20)

Mehr von Rachel Aldighieri

Mehr von Rachel Aldighieri (20)

Staff Use of Social Media Policy