James B. Avey PhD Acknowledgments to Kristine Foreman

 The basics- et al  What is Social Media?  How to protect your image in the social media space  How to use social media as a professional tool  The basics of developing a social media policy

 Electronic Communications Policy Elements  Voice mail, , and computer files are provided by the employer and are for business use only.  Use of these media for personal reasons is restricted and subject to employer review.  All computer passwords and codes must be available to the employer.  The employer reserves the right to monitor or search any of the media, without notice, for business purposes.

 Social Networking  Facebook  Linked-In  My Space  Blog Sites  Word Press  Blogger  “Micro-Blogging”  Twitter

 Instant Messaging/Video Chat  Yahoo/MSN  Google Chat  Skype  Sharing  YouTube  Flikr  Collaboration  Google Documents  Slide Share  Coming Soon: Google Wave

 This is your Social Network  You are connected to every other person in the social media space via your personal connections.  What are they saying about you??

The NBA fined Dallas Mavericks Owner, Mark Cuban, $25,000 for criticizing the referees in a frustrated tweet. Cuban tweeted: “How do they not call a tech on JR Smith for coming off the bench to taunt our player on the ground?” He is believed to be the first person to be fined by a sports league for comments made on Twitter.

A 22-year-old pursuing her master's degree in information management and systems at UC Berkeley, tweeted: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.” A Cisco employee saw the post and responded with his own tweet: “Who is the hiring manager? I'm sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the Web.”

A Philadelphia Eagles employee, was bummed when Eagles player Brian Dawkins signed with a rival team. So he posted his state of mind on Facebook: “Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver … [expletive] Eagles R Retarded!!” Days later, he was canned by the Eagles.

In April 2009, a couple of Domino’s Pizza employees filmed themselves doing disgusting and inappropriate things to food, and posted it to YouTube. Due to sharp reactions and some clever investigative work of appalled viewers, both were promptly fired, and subsequently arrested.

According to a 2009 study by Proofpoint, Inc.:  31% of employers surveyed have fired an employee for violating policies  17% have disciplined an employee for blogging/message board policy violations  5% have fired an employee for such violations  15% have disciplined employees for multi-media sharing/posting policy violations  8% have fired employees for such violations Source:

 8% report firing an employee for social networking activities in violation of company policy  13% of companies have investigated “exposure events” using short-message or mobile based services such as Twitter in the past 12 months Source:

 Make your profile “private”  Be selective about your “friends”  Only invite people you know and trust to connect with you  Don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want your mother (or at the very least, your boss) to see.  Don’t rely on the fact that you’ve made your profile private

 Candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information - 53 %  Candidate posted content about them drinking or using drugs - 44 %  Candidate bad-mouthed their previous employer, co-workers or clients - 35 % Source: CareerBuilder.com

 Candidate showed poor communication skills - 29 %  You’re = “You Are”  Candidate made discriminatory comments - 26 %  Candidate lied about qualifications - 24 %  Candidate shared confidential information from previous employer - 20 % Source: CareerBuilder.com

 DO clean up digital dirt BEFORE you begin your job search.  “Google” yourself  Look at the results through the eyes of an employer  Remove any photos, content and links that can work against you in an employer’s eyes Source: CareerBuilder.com

 DO keep gripes offline.  Keep the content focused on the positive, whether that relates to professional or personal information.  Makes sure to highlight specific accomplishments inside and outside of work.  DON’T forget others can see your friends  Monitor comments made by others.  Be VERY careful about who you connect with from work  DON’T mention your job search if you’re still employed. Source: CareerBuilder.com

 Lessons from SHRM ‘09  Live Tweeting  “Tweet-Ups”  Who are the “HR Bloggers”? ▪ Renegade HR ▪ Rehaul ▪ Punk Rock HR ▪ The Red Recruiter ▪ Startup HR

 HR Niche Sites  SHRM Connect  HR.com  Linked-In

 Fan Pages  Great place to put out your “recruiting message”  “Official” Profiles  Who controls the message?  Is HR the “Gatekeeper” or the “Brand Innovator” (or both??)

1. Decide where you stand  A policy is only as good as the company that implements it. 2. Determine what constitutes social media  What really constitutes social media?  Have your own (preferably) written definition. ▪ e.g. “Social media is any website or medium (including video) which allows for communication in the open.” 3. Clarify who owns what  Make sure you and your employees know what is theirs and what belongs to the company. 4. Keep confidential information private  Best to just never share any confidential or proprietary information using social media – publicly or privately. Source:

5. Decide who is responsible.  All employees should be encouraged to interact and represent the brand, but there should be one or a few who are proactively handling queries. 6. Dictate the rules of engagement – without being a dictator.  You can’t stop employees from communicating using the new mediums but you can set some ground rules that work for everybody’s benefit.  Intel’s social media policy: media.htm. media.htm Source:

7. Address taboo topics.  Raj Malik of Network Solutions offers this partial list: ▪ Topics in which The Company is involved in litigation or could in the future: (i.e. policy, customer disputes, etc.) ▪ Non-public information of any kind about The Company, including, but not limited to, policies and strategy ▪ Illegal or banned substances and narcotics ▪ Pornography or other offensive illegal materials ▪ Defamatory, libelous, offensive or demeaning material ▪ Private/Personal matters of yourself or others ▪ Disparaging/threatening comments about or related to anyone ▪ Personal, sensitive or confidential information of any kind Source:

8. Have a system for monitoring the social sphere.  A social media policy doesn’t do much good if you don’t actually monitor the space where the conversation is happening. 9. Make training easily available. Think “win-win.”  Most people are very open to learning about how to better leverage these sites to further their own careers and brands. 10. Have a Crisis Plan.  What happens if an employee breeches the policy?  What happens if the people you laid off decide to start a Facebook hate group? Or, if a disgruntled customer (or worse...an employee) creates a YouTube video  The worst action is inaction! Source:

James B. Avey PhD Acknowledgements to Kristine Foreman