Telstra’s social media engagement policy marked one of the first corporate (public) forays into staff guidelines for the online world. Where are Australian businesses one year on?
At n2n we have been helping to create social media corporate policies for a growing number of clients. This involvement shows that the last 12 months have moved social media policy from a marketing wish to a boardroom issue to a PR action.
A recent Manpower survey states that one third of organisations now have a policy in place in Australia versus only a quarter globally. Good news for communications professionals trying to manage organisations online. Facebook, Twitter and increasingly LinkedIn are being acknowledged as well-utilised communications tools.
The key challenge for most social media policies is a lack of depth.
As long as guidelines remain focused on dos and don’ts, organisations are not equipping their staff with adequate recommendations on how to use social media as a sales and lead generation tool. At the moment, this proactive use of social media seems to be reserved for only a few in the organisation, resulting in a missed opportunity.
Beyond language and tone of voice, organisations must now start to give staff advice on how to join a relevant group discussion and how to create online engagement in a social media environment. Every employee has their own online networks – organisations now need to help their staff maximise the business opportunity of these networks via more sophisticated skill development.
