Consider creating a survey to gauge how your staff currently uses social media, their understanding of existing guidelines (if any) and any concerns they may have. Hold follow-up meetings to brainstorm, debate and piece together the policy. Remember, this policy affects everyone in the organization, so all voices must be heard. In other words, how employees should conduct themselves on social channels.

It covers both official channels and personal accounts, outlining expectations and rules for posting content about the company. A style guide keeps your team on the same page with distinct guidance and rules for each active platform, saving you from slip-ups and eliminating confusion about your brand’s dos and don’ts. It also acts as a roadmap for brand storytelling on your digital platforms ensuring consistency and resonance when sharing narratives that reflect your essence. For comprehensive tools to help define and maintain your brand’s identity across all touch points, consider exploring different brand management software.

Exceptions to this rule would be information that is shared through the PR or corporate marketing teams. Any external communications related to the company’s finances should be managed through the investor relations department. Internal company information and communications are considered confidential unless explicitly noted and must not be shared, discussed or published in any way outside the company.

The Most Effective Types Of Content On Social Media In 2025 [new Data]

For employees, social media provides a platform to express opinions, build networks, and share personal experiences. However, without clear guidelines, personal posts can inadvertently harm a company’s reputation or lead to legal issues. Social media can become a tool for both positive and negative interaction, which is why it’s important for employees to understand their responsibilities in maintaining a professional online persona. Before creating online content, Diocesan entity personnel and volunteers should consider the risks and rewards that are involved. Start with designating specific individuals or teams responsible for managing the company’s social media accounts and creating content. Identify who has the authority to post on official channels to maintain consistency and control over the brand’s message.

As part of your duties, you will actively engage the public, ensuring that you consider and promote unity of voice, freedom of information, timeliness and accuracy while maintaining security, and privacy. Registered accounts that use federal government resources (including time, manpower and funds) to communicate the work of the Army are considered official. Your social media policy must highlight the aspects that employees must keep confidential.

For instance, a physician’s assistant student was recently called out on X (formerly Twitter). The student was posting patients’ radiographs and other confidential images on social media. For example, Dell’s rules for tasking a specific person with social media responsibilities are mentioned in the image above. You can also go for specific tools such as markup and annotation software  that help you and your team members to manage your content efficiently. Moreover, include the specific words that you find appropriate for calling your customers to take action or make a purchase from your brand.

Whether it’s defending against phishing scams or ransomware attacks, make sure that everyone in your organization is vigilant about online protection. Your social media policy is a critical advocacy tool, giving your employees the guidance they need to represent your brand accurately within social networks. This is a key component of social media governance, ensuring consistent and responsible online behavior across your organization. Training and implementation are vital for ensuring the effectiveness of a social media policy and protecting the company’s online reputation. New employees should review and/or train on the social media policy as part of their onboarding process and be asked to read and sign the policy. Regular training sessions keep employees informed of updates or changes, fostering a culture of compliance.

Social Media Compliance In Regulated Industries: 2025 Guide

This helps protect sensitive information from being inadvertently shared online. This section is crucial for safeguarding the organization’s proprietary data, as well as the privacy of customers and employees, which in turn builds trust with stakeholders. Information posted on social media platforms may be viewed by the public and further used or disclosed.

We like to see policies with a lot of common sense and human-speak, as opposed to full of “legalese.” This policy hits the mark. However, innovative companies increasingly prioritize employee advocacy, seeing both employee retention and bottom-line advantages. A recent case study showed tech leader Salesforce activated about a third of its 73,000-person employee base as brand advocates, resulting in a 2,000% ROI on its social ambassador program. I see that Nordstrom advises employees to consult HR with further questions. But I’d prefer to see them include a little more detail in the policy itself.

ClickUp Brain, ClickUp’s AI assistant, offers a flexible and collaborative workspace for teams like yours to generate, organize, and develop ideas. By addressing these questions, you’ll pinpoint the specific goals your policy needs to tackle. Accordingly, we may remove comments about the use of our products in a manner that is inconsistent with the product’s approved labeling. Journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public’s right to know. Actions that call into question a journalist’s ability to report fairly on an issue harm not only that journalist but his or her news organization and fellow journalists.

But, we expect you to act responsibly and ensure your productivity isn’t affected. Our free social media policy template will help you collect your thoughts into a formal document that can be downloaded as a Word document, Google doc, or PDF. Let’s break down how to create a social media policy that is right for your team and look at some examples done well. Your policy should encourage employees to share on social media in a brand-safe way.

For most companies, it helps keep social media communication consistent and avoids mistakes. But for certain organizations, like government agencies, insurance companies, and medical service providers, these policies are non-negotiable. Because they need to follow strict laws to protect private data, avoid misinformation, and stay compliant with regulations. A social media policy is a set of rules that helps your team know how to post and interact online in a way that protects your brand. Good social media policies set boundaries for how employees behave online and protect both workers and the company’s reputation. Social media guidelines are like training wheels that give employees the basic rules they can follow to learn how to connect on social media.

This blog post will cover everything you need to know about creating your own social media brand guidelines. A social media policy outlines the standards for acceptable social media activity on official channels and employees’ personal accounts. Policies typically advise against using hateful language, disclosing confidential information and speaking for the company without proper authorization. Social media policies typically make it clear that the policy applies to all employees, even when they are posting on their personal social media accounts. A social media policy advises employees on what is appropriate to post on social media, both on the company’s accounts and employees’ personal accounts.