New service - social media policy development

Roger Hislop

We've launched a packaged service called "Social Media Policy Development", as seen on BizCom. This is not something new to a number of Sentient's clients -- we've done a bunch of social media policies, strategies, workshops, call them what you will, over the last two or three years. These range from simple "how to use Twitter" or "why you shouldn't blog if you're had half a bottle of wine" to all-singing, all-dancing strategies + policies + resource allocations + hands on training.

But any number of South African corporates are looking at Social Media, and wondering what they should be doing. Our "policy development" service is designed to give them a roadmap, a plan of action, and some Golden Rules to work within.

This is how we position the service:

"Sentient’s Social Media Policy Development programme is a thought-provoking and thorough examination of a business and how it can navigate the online minefields of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Yammer and others."

Key topics that we examine when developing a policy:

• audiences and channels: who are you talking to, and where are they online
• monitoring and tracking techniques and standards*
• who responds to what, when, and why
• response times and escalation paths
• best practices in the various SM channels
• tone, language and content
• organisational structures and allocation of responsibilities

Sentient has developed online policies and best practices for many clients over the years as part of broader communications strategies. These include digital business-to-business strategies for local enterprises, blogging and social media guidelines for a leading advertising agency, and Sentient led the online communications policy work for the ruling party during the 2009 national elections.

The core social media policy should be simple, outlining a few principles and defining a voice. The Internet changes so quickly that a cook-book approach becomes outdated within weeks or months. A policy should be short and sweet: Coca Cola’s policy is three pages long (see interview with Coke SM head here), as is Sun Microsystems (here). But behind this policy, a great deal of thinking needs to be done, as enormous brand damage can be done with a few clicks by an over-zealous individual (such as a junior at Habitat using Twitter hashtags on political crisis in Iran to build rank). Part of this thinking involves legal or HR implications, training requirements for those who want to be online ambassadors, monitoring and tracking, and more. 

So there you have it. Have policy, will travel the corridors of social media. Bravely. Confidently. Correctly. Entertainingly. 

* Check out Klout for establishing Twitter influence, it's pretty powerful.

• 2010/02/03
• permalink
• comments (0)
• trackbacks (0)