Social Networking: Balancing Business Need with Risk Mitigation
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Checklist—Internal Social Media Policy Development
Step 1: Figure out your business case
Step 4: Understand your risk profile
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How can social media be used to help your business.
What additional collaborative opportunities does it allow?
Will it help attract and retain employees? Think about
these and other opportunities and write them down here:
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______________________________________________
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______________________________________________
______________________________________________
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Step 2: Form the team
It is important to get the key people from your
organization involved early on in the process. Who are
the stakeholders? Who has the knowledge? Who will
manage the tools and drive implementation? List here
the roles that you think need to be involved (consider HR,
Legal, Communications, Compliance, IT, Business Units
that would most likely adapt these tools):
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Step 3: Conduct Research
The team needs to begin by learning more about this ever
evolving area.
 Use and understand some of the key tools (Blogs,
Wikis, etc.)
 How are your businesses and employees already using
these tools?
 What opportunities can you capitalize on?
 What risks does this expose you to?
 Other____________________________________________
_____
RIM: Record storage, retention and ownership
Privacy: Will personal data be shared?
Intellectual Property: Is there a risk that your IP
or the IP of others could be compromised?
Discovery: How can information on social media
sites be preserved?
Security: Who will be given access to your social
media sites?
Other_______________________________
Step 5: Draft the policy
Based on the learning from the previous steps, it will be
necessary to put together a policy that guides employees
as to how they are expected to behave in social media,
including identification of repercussions for inappropriate
behavior. Which of the following do you want to include?
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Do’s and Don’ts
Reminder of personal responsibility
Requirements to identify oneself
RIM requirements
Respect for other peoples information
Proper handling of confidential information
Careful communications
Use of good judgment
Disclaimers
Enforcement
Consistency with other company policies
 ______________________________________
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Who should review policy drafts? Identify subject matter
experts: (e.g.)
 HR
 Business
 Legal
 RIM
 Others
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Social Networking: Balancing Business Need with Risk Mitigation
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Step 6: Develop training
Step 8: Communication
Training is an important component to implementation of
the social media policy.
Vet with Leadership and Stakeholders:
 Who will develop the training?
__________________________________________
_____
 How will you train?
 Instructor led
 CBT
 Other
 Who will receive the training?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
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Consider who needs what training based on roles and
exposure to social media.
Step 7: Pilot and adjust
The goal of the pilot is to test and validate the policy that
you have developed.
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Who will participate in the pilot?
o A team that is already using social media?
______________________________________
Support from the top of the organization is essential
when developing and launching a social media policy.
These ever-evolving tools can, understandably, cause
worry and skepticism in the organization, especially
when leadership is comprised of seasoned
professionals that don’t understand these tools nor their
benefits as well as the new, next- gen employees.
Consider the following talking points:
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Benefits
Risks/mitigation
Pilot findings
Path forward
User Community
Once the policy has been vetted and the leadership
team is in support of the implementation of the social
media policy, it’s time to get the word out to the
appropriate employees.
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E-mail blast
Town hall meetings
Newsletters, etc.
_________________________________________
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o A team that has interest in using social media?
______________________________________
 How will you evaluate success?
Step 9: Monitoring and Improvement
Social media policy implementation requires constant
evaluation and adjustment.
______________________________________
 Are there any surprises?
______________________________________
 Who will monitor the social media sites for references
to the company?
 How will you keep on top of the constant evolution in
this realm?
 How will you report out your findings?
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