This document provides guidance and best practices for social media engagement. It begins by listing ways accounts can get disabled on Facebook, such as using fake names, promoting business, or posting copyrighted material. It then discusses the need for social media policies to protect companies and employees. Various corporate social media policy examples are listed, as well as dos and don'ts for platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more. The document concludes with case studies and guidelines for social media engagement.

1. massimo burgio
global search interactive
www.globalsearchinteractive.net
SEMPO board of directors
www.sempo.org
ethics + codes of conduct
social media don’ts
london, 28 october 2010
social media policies

2. facebook account disabled anybody?

3. facebook disabled: you’re not alone

4. understanding
risksthe

5. how to get your account disabled on facebook
• Not being human / using a fake name

6. how to get your account disabled on facebook
• Using a personal profile to promote a business or organization

7. how to get your account disabled on facebook
• Posting copyrighted material
• Importing too many RSS feeds to Facebook notes

8. how to get your account disabled on facebook
• Promoting business on walls / pages / groups

9. how to get your account disabled on facebook
• Scraping information off Facebook

10. how to get your account disabled on facebook
• Getting reported as
abusive by other users

11. how to get your account disabled on facebook
• Starting hate or
obscene groups

12. how to get your account disabled on facebook
• Adding too many
friends at once
• Joining too many
groups

13. how to get your account disabled on facebook
• Post the same message
on too many walls
• Sending out identical
personal messages to
several friends
• Placing too many links
(promotional or not)
on posts or messages
• Sending too many
pokes at once

14. how to be a spammer on facebook ads
• Keep placing Facebook ads that
have been refused
• Promoting spammy apps
• Adult content, profanity, vulgarity,
obscenity
• Promoting illegal activities
• Promoting liquor, beer, wine,
tobacco, firearms, gambling
• Defamatory or hate content / pages
/ groups
• Religious fundamentalist content
• political content for commercial use
• Use of webcams/surveillance
equipment for non legitimate use
• Online non accredited educational
institutions that offer degrees
• Promoting content that requires
credit card application

15. what if your company social media accounts gets disabled and
investment?
you lose all your

16. it’s time to start thinking about getting a
policy
social media

17. • New collaborative scenario changes the way you connect and work
• Emerging technologies change quality of work / type of feedback
• Users look for a frank conversation, not a commercial push
• Opportunity to learn from your customers
why you need a social media policy
• Your employees face this landscape as brand
representatives and online customer care team,
but cannot offer a prompt pre-set feedback to
each request/approach.
Communication must be fluid, but your
employees need guidelines.

18. • To protect your
company and brand
• To protect your
employees
• To protect your
audience
why you need a social media policy

19. • Social networks,
blogs, forums, wikis
• Privacy, data
protection, copyright
• At work / at home
• Your web team /
all your employees
• Your business partners
and ecosystem
your social media policy should apply to

20. classic corporate social media policy

21. top corporate social media policies
• IBM Social Computing Guidelines
• Intel Social Media Guidelines
• Kodak Social Media Guidelines
• New York City Social and Public Media Policy
• RightNow Social Media Rules of Engagement
• Coca-Cola Social Media Principles
• Oracle Social Media Participation Policy
• Sun Guidelines on Public Discourse
• Massachussets Government Web Communication Policies
• UK Cabinet Office Digital Engagement Guidelines
• BBC Staff Editorial Guidelines Personal use of Social Networking and other 3° party sites
• Electronic Frontier Foundation How to Blog Safely about Work
• Dell’s Online Communication Policy
• IOC Olympic Athletes Blogging Policy
• Yahoo’s Personal Blog Guidelines for staff
• ...

22. Be nice,
Be honest,
Don't release proprietary info.
Be real and use your best judgement.
Comply to all security policies.
Don’t be stupid.
inspiration: one-liner corporate policies

23. • Responsibility for our own words
• Nothing we wouldn't say in person
• Connect privately first
• Take action against attacks
• No anonymous or pseudonymous
comments
• Ignore the trolls
• Encourage enforcement of terms
of service
• Keep our sources private
• Discretion to delete comments
• Think twice - post once
inspiration: bloggers’ code of conduct

24. •Don’t comment on blogs using
pseudonyms or as anonymous user,
try to give an identity to your online
contributions.
•Don’t use blog comments for link
building It’s useless, as most blog
comments are nofollow, and it’s still
perceived as spam.
•Don’t use content from other blogs or
site without giving source attribution. It
could be a copyright violation and, even
in case of Creative Commons, it’s still a
good practice to attribute and link to the
source.
inspiration: blog user etiquette (dont’s)

25. •Don’t ask bloggers for link exchange,
there are more natural ways to build
link popularity in the blogosphere.
•Don’t use a blog to crusade against
somebody. Even if this is your goal, it’s
always better to have a blog in favor of
the opposite you want to fight, rather
than having a blog with a negative
approach on a topic or person.
•Don’t forget the ethical code of
bloggers (bloggers’ code of conduct).
inspiration: blog user etiquette (dont’s)

26. inspiration: social networks’ etiquette
• Online conversations replicate
real life conversations, and must
be considered real.
• There is no conversation without
listening. Conversation is a
two way process.
• Online conversations are not “all
about me”, and must focus on
community values.

27. inspiration: social networks’ etiquette
• In real life, would you follow somebody and claim to be his/her
friend without a proper introduction?
• Would you constantly talk about yourself and your business?
• Would you repeatedly ask favors to somebody you barely know?
• Would you introduce yourself as “john75” or “quality events”?

28. • Don’t ask for friendship if you represent
a business. It sounds weird.
• Don’t add friends without a proper
introduction or a welcome message.
Always say who you are and why /
which topics you would like to discuss
woth new friends.
• Don’t abuse apps invitations – both
for business apps and even worst with
zombies/farms. This is spam.
• Don’t abuse group invitations.
if your friends think your event is worth,
they’ll come. If they don’t answer, don’t
bomb them with reminders.
inspiration: facebook etiquette (dont’s)

29. • Don’t use a user profile picture with
brands or commercial info.
FB is a network for real people, not
a catalogue of classified ads.
• Don’t be a virtual user. Besides of
being against FB TOS and ground to
lose the account, users are always
diffident when interacting with
avatars with fake / business names.
• Don’t publish private conversations
on users’ wall making them public.
This is against the privacy.
Use direct messages instead.
inspiration: facebook etiquette (dont’s)

30. • Don’t tag friends in embarrassing
photos or videos. This is against their
privacy.
• Don’t post unnecessary comments on
personal pictures that users upload,
such as family pictures.
• Don’t make it a drama if an user
removes a comment or tag you posted.
• Don’t use Facebook to create a
professional network, Facebook is for
personal connections. For business
networking try other sites like LinkedIn
or Xing instead.
inspiration: facebook etiquette (dont’s)

31. • Don’t unfollow somebody without having
had an exchange of tweets. Don’t unfollow
users because they unfollwed you.
• Don’t do “mass-following” just to make
your profile numbers bigger.
• Don’t use the Twitter stream for self-
promotion. Twitter is a conversational
channel, not a ads broadcasting one.
• Don’t use Twitter just to stream your RSS
feeds. Tweeps don’t like to follow
automated profiles.
• Don’t use your Twitter friend list for
commercial spam via direct messages.
inspiration: twitter etiquette (dont’s)

32. •Don’t use Twitter to communicate directly
with other users. Use direct messages or
email instead.
•Don’t abuse @references just to be
visible on somebody else’s feed.
•Don’t use Twitter for personal rants and
revenge. not well accepted by the
community, you’ll lose reputation.
•Don’t leave your Twitter profile
anonymous. Twitter is a relational channel,
users want to know who you are. Picture
and profile info are a must.
•Don’t abuse #hashtags and trending
topics to start off-topic conversations.
inspiration: twitter etiquette (dont’s)

33. •Don’t use Yahoo! Answers for commercial
communication. You could be reported for
abuse by users, or get banned by the Y!A
Editorial team.
•Don’t use answers to provide commercial
information. The risks of getting reported
by users are higher.
•Don’t criticize other users for their
answers, neither on your questions nor on
other users’. Even if
other users’ answers are not correct, go
your expert way and offer a detailed
problem solving answer, complete with
reference links.
inspiration: yahoo!answers etiquette
(dont’s)

34. • Don’t fight with other users and do not
accept provocations. If in your answer you
want to include a feedback to another user
who is attacking you, think before posting,
and express your disagreement in a kind
and professional way.
• Don’t send personal messages with
commercial communications. You will be
immediately reported as spam.
• Don’t forget that Yahoo! Answers is a
community of experts and e-fluencers.
Your only goal here should be being the
top expert of your field/business/brand
always offering knowledge and concrete
support in terms of problem solution.
inspiration: yahoo!answers etiquette
(dont’s)

35. •Don’t repeatedly ask other users to
watch your videos. YouTube users love to
discover their own video, or to search for
their favorite topics.
•Don’t customize your YouTube channel
with interactive elements. YouTube is not
MySpace, and it’s interactive enough.
•Don’t post off-topics video in response to
successful ones.
• Don’t abuse of comments, don’t post
polemic comments, and avoid commercial
off-topic links.
inspiration: youtube etiquette (dont’s)

36. Digg, StumbleUpon, Sphinn, Mixx...
• Don’t ask to vote always only your
news. Social News communities support
knowledge sharing, not commercial
broadcasting.
• Don’t ask other users to Digg your
articles with direct messages. Start a
public conversation about the topic instead,
and get some relevant content ready
that users will love to share.
• Don’t post always the same article.
This is spam.
inspiration: social news etiquette (dont’s)

37. • Don’t post articles that are off-topic to
the news portal. If a moderator says that
you are off-topic, apologize and don’t
insist on publishing the same content, or
you will be banned.
• Don’t use comments for link building.
• Don’t attack other users if they bury
your news. This is generally not against
you, but to point out the fact that the
content is commercial, spam or off-topic.
Sometimes bury is used as a sign of
disagreement on your content. Take it for
what it is and don’t start a drama about
it. Try to avoid it anyway by submitting
good content.
inspiration: social news etiquette (dont’s)

38. •Don’t integrate all your feeds on
FriendFeed, each conversation belongs to
its original network.
•Don’t automate your FriendFeed profile.
FF is an online service but also a
professional community. Direct inputs on
FF have more value than those imported
via RSS.
•Don’t use FriendFeed if you are already
using other feeds aggregators such as
Ping.fm or Hellotxt, or you will ping-pong
spamming all networks with duplicate
content.
inspiration: friendfeed etiquette (dont’s)

39. •Don’t invite all your friends every
time you discover a new social
network, and most definitely not by
submitting your Gmail address and
inviting everybody you ever
exchanged an email with.
Try to understand how the new site
and its community works first, then
invite just the friends who you
think would fit.
•Don’t start relational and editorial
activities on social networks before
reviewing the site’s terms and
conditions, and its community
guidelines.
etiquette: all social sites (dont’s)

40. •Stop marketing.
•Start engaging.
inspiration: UNmarketing

41. last tips: about tones and consequences
•Everytime you post online you
leave a digital signature.
It won’t always be possible to
cancel, modify or rectify your
posts.
•Bad content will be online forever,
will get indexed by search engines,
and will affect your online brand
reputation.
•Think how you content could be
received before publishing it. Put
logic before emotions when
facing situations you could
repent later.

42. last tips: about tones and consequences
•Being aggressive and arrogant don’t
work in the real life, even less on the
web.
•While in the real life one could
always apologize, online you can
have an account revoked or banned
in a matter of seconds.
•Try to be always kind and
professional in online conversations.
Fun is good too. Be nice and
enjoy what you are doing, the
conversation, the experience and the
business on social networks will be
better.
•Don’t be stupid! =)

43. case history
italyfrom

44. • Transparency, privacy and data confidentiality.
• We are people, not computers.
• Share your knowledge.
• Add value to the conversation.
• In doubt, don’t publish.
• No polemics and fights on the web.
• Destructured coordinated communication.
• The Good, the Bad, but not the Ugly.
• It’s a collaborative web, share your best.
• Have fun, but don’t forget about your day job.
telepass decalogue for employees’ activity
online and within social media networks

45. • We commit to share value through our
online activities.
• Our content is on-topic, non polemic or
offensive, and balanced with the other
conversations (fair use, no spam).
• We commit to respond to all enquires in
a kind and professional way and in a a
tutte le richieste dirette and in a timing
apropriated for the social web.
• We listen also to other conversations,
participating and contributing always
with an open, frank and friendly attitude.
telepass guidelines for employees’
engagement in online conversations

46. • When we don’t agree on other users’
point of view, we express it in an
appropriate and educated way.
• We support anti-spam practices,
and contribute to the social web with
appropriate titles and descriptions for
our web contributions, tagging all
media in a relevant way.
• We respect other users’ intellectual
property, copyright and privacy.
• We comply to all confidentiality, privacy
and employees policies in use at Telepass.
telepass guidelines for employees’
engagement in online conversations

47. conversation
enjoy the

48. massimo burgio
global search interactive / sempo
www.globalsearchinteractive.net
www.sempo.org
massimo@globalsearchinteractive.net
thank you!ready for your questions!