One of the last things I did while working in Television back in 2008 was to get my local Telemundo Bay Area station active in Social Networks. A few issues arose with questions about copyrights, confidentiality, etc. Many companies today are struggling with how to best approach this social phenomenon without jeopardizing their reputation. Do they join the conversation? Do they ignore it and pretend it is not there? The bottom line is that marketing has forever changed and big companies are understanding this more and more. You cannot ignore the evolution of communications and media. According to a report issued by eMarketer, 35% of the Fortune 500 companies are currently tweeting! Yes! They are actively connecting with their customers, improving their services, getting reviews for new products and growing their BRAND equity. Check out Intel Social Media Guidelines or IBM Social Computing Guidelines.
What is required here is a new mindset both for companies and their employees. A mindset that needs to be consistent! Are your employees well aware of how to talk about your company in places like Facebook and Twitter. If your answer is no, then perhaps you should take a look at what other companies are doing in this regard. Take a look at the 152 policies that compliancebuilding.com has published as a reference. Also, take a look at Shift Communications’ Top 10 guidelines for social media participation (Company) template.
Social Media is here to stay! You can either join now and become RELEVANT or join later and play catch-up.
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