Write: Reading Response #2
Find a copy of a social media policy for a company or organization (try to find the actual policy, not just a summary or news story about it). In a blog comment of at least 200 words, make an argument about whether the policy is ethical, clear, specific, and comprehensive. Use specific evidence or wording from the policy to support your analysis. Using the evidence from your analysis, make a brief argument about the effectiveness of the policy as it is written/designed.
Include a link to the policy in your blog comment.
Think: After reading Chapter 3, reflect on your own writing processes and how your habits and practices impact the quality of your work in positive, negative, or neutral ways.
Grace McDowell
ReplyDeleteReading Response #2
Ford Social Media Policy
Condensed to only one page, the Ford social media policy is brief, but to the point. There are eleven sections that specifically outline the actions their employees should and should not take regarding the company on social media. One particular ethical guideline in this policy states that employees should not post someone else’s personal information or conversation without their written consent. This could potentially violate laws and agreements. With headings such as “mind your manners” and “use your common sense”, it is written in an informal style that employees should be able to understand easily. One flaw of the policy is that it does not directly state the penalties or implications of failing to adhere to the policy. However, it does provide a link at the bottom of the policy, if one would like to read about these potential implications. The policy does appear to be comprehensive and for most employees, could be summed up in just one of the policy headings, “You speak for yourself, but your actions reflect those of Ford Motor Company.” Within this one statement, it is very clear the purpose of this policy and what harm could be done to the company if it is not followed.
I found Ford’s social media policy to be very effective. The color and design of the policy made each section stand out and easy to read. The headings were casual and straightforward. In the middle of the policy, it gave a summary of the entire policy in just five numbered points. By keeping it simple, employees know exactly what is expected of them and there are no “grey” areas. My only criticism is this, if they wanted to make the document longer, they could list the penalties of not following the policy. This could make it more honest and clear to employees.
I also like how they connected to pre-digital law with the "Same Rules and Laws Apply" section. That helps people understand the current context of this document.
DeleteBest Buy Social Media Policy
ReplyDeleteBest buy’s policy is short and sweet at only one page. The policy starts out with a nice little introduction into the policy about how you're still responsible for best buy after work hours. Throughout the rest of the policy, it talks about what you should do and what you should not do. Then at the end it tells you the consequences of breaking the policy and suggestions of other policies to review. I find the policy clear and comprehensive. Some of the sub sections I thought didn’t specify enough such as Disclose your Affiliation section for example, but I think most of it is easy to follow along to insure that you don’t get in trouble.
Overall, Best Buy’s social media policy is effective. The policy is blunt on what you should do and what you should not do throughout most of it. It also shows concerns for employees with remarks such as “Remember: protect the brand, protect yourself.” They also say, “Get fired (and it’s embarrassing to lose your job for something that’s so easily avoided)” as one of the consequences of failing to follow the policy, which I feel shows concern because it's an encouraging line to follow the policy.
Link to Best Buy’s social media policy: http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/Welcome-News/Best-Buy-Social-Media-Policy/td-p/20492
Yep! This one is pretty clear! That direct language will help its main audience (likely younger salespeople) understand this without a lot of extraneous information. The links to their other policies provide more info, though, which is useful, too.
DeleteThis social media policy was found in the student athlete handbook and is directed toward student athletes specifically. I do believe the authors are not being unethical. The demands are reasonable. McKendree is a learning institution that aims to produce responsible adults. The guidelines in the handbook advise students to represent the university in a positive manner.
ReplyDeleteThe rules are written clearly and formatted well. A brief introduction shows the importance of following these rules. The author also gives protective advice to students regarding personal information. The policy then lists the guidelines student athletes should consider when participating on social networking websites. Each guideline is bullet pointed. Next the author warns students of the consequences with another bullet point list. If students are unclear on anything they are advised to contact the Director of Athletics.
The policy is provides specific guidelines on consequences. The policy mentions dismissal from the team multiple times. The author is also specific in the University’s mission. They do not want students representing the school in a bad light.
Overall the policy was very comprehensive. The statements are short and to the point. Students are often educated on the dangers of social media, so the policy is a way of reiterating the facts. Overall the main message appears to be – You are now a member of this department and your social networking should represent the spirit and values of our university.
http://sidearm.sites.s3.amazonaws.com/mckbearcats.com/documents/2015/5/18/SAHandbook1415.pdf?id=503
Your last line is the key here--representation of the university extends beyond the athlete's team-based responsibilities into their personal lives as well.
DeleteFor my social media policy, I chose to research Coca-Cola’s policy.
ReplyDeleteIt is very clear, specific, and comprehensive. The way the this document is well organized and the most important messages they are trying to get across are bolded. This document could easily be put on a powerpoint or slideshow to present to company workers with how well it is organized with headings and bullet points. A lot of time was put into the document. I feel as if the document is very personable since it has a more relaxed tone to it. Whoever wrote it did not take on an extremely authoritarian tone; this document uses the word “we” frequently.
The policy is ethical. It says right at the top that it was last updated in 2013. Social media is ever changing and policies need updated. Coca-Cola is at least being honest that the policy has not been updated in three years. It is ethical in the sense that It is not asking too much of a company worker. The tips are tips that anybody should follow to create a professional presence for themselves on any social media platform. It talks about safe internet usage and gives tips in order to appear more professional on the internet.
This policy is very effective. The tone of voice used allows workers to connect with the company and feel as if they are valued. It does not talk down to the worker. In their policy they state “There’s a big difference in speaking “on behalf of the Company” and speaking “about” the Company.” I found this to have a lot of truth to it and they make an excellent point. Right away I felt as if the company was very true to itself and was honest.
https://www.coca-colacompany.com/content/dam/journey/us/en/private/fileassets/pdf/2014/01/social-media-principles-english.pdf
This is a good example, partly because they provide enough context (what social media means to us) and focus on what the company will do with its media in addition to what individual employees should keep in mind.
DeleteAbigail Schlueter
ReplyDeletePWR 360
1-26-16
ADIDAS Social Media Policy - http://blog.adidas-group.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/adidas-Group-Social-Media-Guidelines1.pdf
This policy clearly outlines what employees can and not do in a little under two pages. They get to the point and bold anything they believe is important for their employees to understand, such as what they are “personally responsible” and to have “Common sense” about what they should or should not be doing while on social media as an employee of ADIDAS. They talk about watching what you put up on social media sites and to think of the consequences. Also they discuss the importance of copyrighting materials that they use as to ensure their employees are giving credit where it is due. If they did not do this, which would poorly reflect the company and could hurt profits.
The policy is bulleted so employees can easily read through it. However, there are no colors or anything that would make it stand out. Policies are not always supposed to be fun and colorful, but if an employer wants their employees to read through another boring policy they should at least make it fun and something the employee would want to do.
The bolding they use helps design-wise, and the format makes the policy look serious. I also like this example since it's more focused on what you should do (Respect Copyright) than what you shouldn't do. Some policies focus on all negatives. This one has a good balance of what to do and what to avoid. Good find.
DeleteI believe that Nike’s social media policy is not only ethical and clear, but also specific and comprehensive. There are two different sections to the social media policy, “Benefits & Limitations” and “Personal & Professional”. In the “Benefits & Limitations” section of the policy Nike states why exactly they use social media. They state that using social media is a great way to learn about what the customers want, and to gain both negative and positive feedback. They explain that they can use Facebook to narrow down to a specific target audience and see exactly what they would be interested in. At first this sounded like it could be a huge invasion of privacy, but they are only doing so to make their products better for their customers. They go on to explain some of the limitations that come with social media. It states that all Nike employees must be “appropriate, professional, and legally compliant” on social media. They require that all Nike employees must be respectful. I think it is good that they have this section in the policy so that it is clear that the employees cannot be rude and disrespectful to customers. In the “Personal & Professional” section of the policy, they go into more details about ethics. It states that when posting personal statuses, the employees must be responsible and ethical. This makes it specific that all Nike employees must represent themselves in a positive way. There are more rules for when employees are posting statuses for the company. It states that the employees are responsible for the statuses they publish, and the consequences are straight forward and comprehensive. They state, “Nike will have reserves right to access the electronic communication systems and to read, reject or remove any message, including attachments, composed, sent or received, if the post is un-loyal and does not respect the values that Nike incorporates in their business.” Overall I believe that the social media policy is ethical, clear, specific and comprehensive.
ReplyDeletehttp://businessnikeassignment.weebly.com/
Marla, Remember to double check your sources for validity. This isn't an official Nike site. It looks like a student project, actually, created on a free website for a business or communication class... And it's full of errors ("Nike will have reserves right"?), so it's definitely not the company's official policy.
DeleteJosh Donovan
ReplyDeleteAdidas social media policy
1/25/16
http://blog.adidas-group.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/adidas-Group-Social-Media-Guidelines1.pdf
Every company would be smart to create a social media guideline to help manage what their employees will be posting online, especially when it comes to problems in the workspace. Adidas takes a very encouraging yet strict approach as to what can be posted online by their employees. The first social media guideline from the textbook says to keep personal and company social media accounts separate. Adidas is very clear about this as they explain that anyone posting about brand related matters must identify as themselves unless they are an official spokesperson for the company. Second, the Adidas guideline explicitly says that information marked internal use only should not be shared outside of the company and they go on to strictly state not to comment on any work-related legal matters. This matches up perfectly with the textbooks guideline to avoid revealing unauthorized news about your own company. Adidas also mentions to respect copyright in their guidelines. This related to the textbook guideline which says not to include copyright or trademark names and to not quote from a speech or meeting without permission. Overall the Adidas guidelines are relatively all similar as they can be summed up in one easy sentence. Employees are fully welcome to express work matters online as long as they clearly brand their online posts as personal and do not give out sensitive information online that could harm the company.
Someone else used this one, too, and it's a good example of balancing positive and negative advice (what to do and what to avoid) while respecting employees and understanding that social media is an important avenue of communication both for the company and the employees. Good find.
Deleteadidas Group Social Media Guidelines
ReplyDeleteAdidas has a social media policy that is clear, specific, comprehensive, and ethical. The document is well organized by the use of bullet points and the most important part of each bullet it bolded. The document maintains a very personal tone which is respectful to the reader. They use “we” often and makes the reader feel respected. The document also shows that the importance of their employees by urging them to be responsible and to keep in mind what has been “entrusted” to them. They urge people to use common sense and to be responsible for their own comments on social media. “Using your public voice to trash or embarrass your employer, your customers, your co-workers or even yourself is not okay - and not very smart” is one of the points that they make about using common sense. They are thorough in their explanations and direct people to ask their manager if they ever have any doubt. I feel like it could be updated because they fail to mention a number of major social media sites, but their concepts still apply. I think that this social media policy is very effective. It clearly states how their brand should be regarded through social media, but it doesn’t truly restrict what people can say.
You're the third one to submit this document, and one reason it's at or near the top in Google searches is that it's a pretty effective document. If you were to be in charge of updating this, I would recommend that you omit mention of particular sites. Removing particular sites altogether and focusing on principles and concepts means that you wouldn't have to update the policy every time a site went into or out of fashion.
DeleteNVIDIA social media Policy
ReplyDeleteThis company’s policy clearly outlines what is required from every one of their employees pertaining to their engagement in social media discussions. The document is very clear and organized and the authors were ethical. One of the ethical guidelines is in the principles of online engagement and it clearly states that “employees should avoid mudslinging or otherwise disrespecting our competitors.” The guidelines to follow are written clearly and are well formatted. There are ten simply explained rules to keep in mind, and also a handy non-comprehensive do’s and don’ts. The policy clearly explains what each employee should put to consideration when participating in social networking websites. Then the policy ended with a numbered conclusion that the policy does not in any way limit NVIDIA employees and representatives from speaking about working conditions or other work related matters as permitted by law.
I would say that this policy was very detailed and comprehensive leaving no stones unturned on what the company requires from you as an employee. Whoever the author of this policy was made the policy easy and straight to the point reminding employees that the internet is forever and about how you now work in a broad organization and always pause and think before posting and anything to the internet. This company did not seem to include any penalties for dis-obeying the rules, I that is my only criticism of their policy because if there are no clearly stated consequences, we humans tend to find loopholes in the law.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/social-media-guidelines.html
This is a strong example, too, that will serve the company well since it starts from principles and moves toward the list of specific rules. I'm not surprised that the penalties aren't listed in this policy (or in many of the others) since that gives companies freedom to made decisions about penalties on a case-by-case basis or by using policies that aren't available to the public.
DeleteI decided to do my blog on a company’s social media policy on the corporation Walmart. The policy can be found at http://corporate.walmart.com/policies at the very end of the webpage. Walmart starts with where you can find them on all social media such as Facebook, twitter, and foursquare. Walmart then goes on to talk about twitter first and they say that their presence on there is to provide information about healthier foods and charitable giving and then go on to say that their twitter page is not there to answer questions on customer issues. After looking at just the beginning of their social media policy you can easily tell their goal on all of the social media sites. Their goal is to promote and also to be able to give good tips to their potential customers. I believe their policy is very clear and comprehensive because they use bullet points and on each point clearly state out what you can and cannot do and also what they will and will not do on all of their social media. After reading all of their policy I found it very easy that a company even has a policy on social and how in depth they go with it.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading chapter 3, it really made me realize how much of the steps that I do not do. I usually just hop right into an essay without planning and just adapt as I write more and more. I really do not prefer writing multiple drafts but I do know how much it helps in the writing process. I also need to do more organizing when I am beginning to write a paper.
Andy Kurilla
I've seen this one before, and if you look at it again more carefully, you'll see that they seem to be a bit confused about the audience of the policy. Some things are written toward employees, but they also direct their policy toward customers and anyone interacting on their Facebook page. That decreases the effectiveness of the policy overall. Plus, it looks like they have a totally different policy for managers, which we can't see. The organization is clear, as you say, but the content could use some revision for clarity.
DeleteBrianne Hilmes
ReplyDeleteTarget Social Media Policy
http://www.target.com.au/medias/marketing/corporate/aboutus/Careers/Social+Media+Policy.pdf
Target has a social media policy that is clear, ethical, specific, and comprehensive. The document is straight forward and only list the important information in the 5 pages it encloses. The document is well organized by the use of bullet points and the most important part of each bullet area has a bolded header. The policy contains 5 simple outlines, clearly explaining policy application, the purpose of the policy, examples of potential breach, responsibilities, and policy/procedures. The policy application also list the target team member code of conduct. The document is also respectful to the employees of target, listing what is allowed from the employees and which is not. The policy is very understandable to someone who has never read a policy before by clearly identifying what social media is right from the start.
I think Target did a great job with the social media policy. It is very brief but it is to the point. They started off very general defining what a policy is and then going into detail explaining everything it covers. Target is very supportive and respectful of their employees, encouraging them to participate in social media with group members to share information and get involved with discussions.
This is one of the more legalistic ones I've seen, especially in terms of language use. That approach usually works for the benefit of the company, but they do balance that out by explicitly saying that the policy does not apply to employee media use that doesn't reference the company.
DeleteSpencer Sweetin
ReplyDeleteBest Buy Social Media Policy
http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/Welcome-News/Best-Buy-Social-Media-Policy/td-p/20492
Best Buy breaks down their Social Media Policy into two sections; what you should do, and what you should never disclose and then it gives a tip and the repercussions. When discussing what an employee should do, it talks about what is and is not allowed on social media in regards to Best Buy. Whether that be a zero tolerance policy for racist or intolerant posts, making sure posts regarding Best Buy are opinion based unless authorized to represent the company, or just simple advice. Best Buy recognizes that employees have the right to speak their mind freely, but a line is drawn pertaining to discrimination or misrepresentation of the company.
Then the policy moves on to the common sense and legal side of social media. One cannot disclose financial or operational information about the company, and employees are to never share personal information about a customer. These two things are more common sense than anything and are probably covered in other Best Buy policies. Everything else in this section is in regards to the legality of posting confidential information.
Lastly, the policy comes to the tips and repercussions. This is where it seems the person who wrote the policy became much less formal and is really trying to give advice to the reader. The one tip the Best Buy Social Media Policy gives is, "if you find yourself wondering if you can talk about something you learned at work -- don’t". Very straight forward advice that makes employees second guess what they put on social media. The author of the policy then gives heavy and logical reasons to think about repercussions if an employee were to ignore the Social Media Policy. Being fired, getting into legal trouble, and Best Buy's ability to get customers. This warning in my eyes is an effective scare tactic to keep employees from getting themselves in trouble and from tarnishing Best Buy as a company.
In conclusion, i believe Best Buy's policy is effective. It may be a little cut and dry towards the end but it definitely gets their point across in regards to Social Media. If you are a Best Buy employee and you think you want to talk about work on social media, don't.
Nice analysis. I think this one works because it's brief and direct, which will help newer and/or younger employees who may need an explicit policy since they may not understand the consequences of poor social media practices. It's one of the few that explicitly mentions firing for an offense, too.
DeleteIntel Social Media Guidelines
ReplyDeleteIntel's social media policy is a set of very-detailed guidelines concerning how Intel employees are to represent the company online through social media. Intel's policy is concerned with encouraging honesty without sharing private information. The policy is ethical, even going so far as to encourage employees to "please represent Intel ethically and with integrity." It promotes honesty and warns of the risks of making unsubstantiated claims about Intel's products. In addition, Intel encourages the use of common sense. However, while Intel's policies are clearly laid-out, they could benefit by adding specific examples of desirable and undesirable behavior. This would make Intel's policy more specific and comprehensive. However, overall, Intel's policy is quite effective as written.
Give more detail in your analysis to get to the 200-word minimum. There's a lot of good stuff in this policy, so use the book to figure out what else to discuss.
DeleteBest Buy Social Media Policy
ReplyDeletehttp://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/Welcome-News/Best-Buy-Social-Media-Policy/td-p/20492
The Best Buy social media policy is a short blog post to their forums detailing in short bullets points how employees should handle themselves on social media. Since this is done in a bullet point style, I would say that the do’s and don’ts are clearly stated by Best Buy corporate. Somewhat obviously, they chronicle such things reminding workers that they represent Best Buy on social media even when they are off the clock, and reminding them not to discriminate against others for any reason. They cover the ethics of not revealing information that should not be made available to the public, giving away personal or legal information, or any internal non-public information. As this social media policy is only 12 bullets points consisting of two to three sentences, I would say that Best Buy is not as specific as they could be with their policy and certainly not comprehensive enough. As previously mentioned, they cover not wanting to have their employees discriminate against anyone based on race, sexual orientation, ethnicity etc. but they don’t specifically say what they recommend their employees do not share online. Overall, I think that the policy is effective as a guiding tool for most people to stay out of trouble on social media but does not cover enough cases to be truly called comprehensive.
Here's my guess. The comprehensiveness of this policy is limited because the set of employees that it's directed toward is young and inexperienced (sales people on the floor, basically). I wouldn't be surprised if the company had a more comprehensive policy that wasn't public. That other policy may apply to higher tiers of employees or may be used at need (like when someone messes up), but I'm guessing that this isn't the only policy they have on media use.
DeleteEmployees have always pushed ethical boundaries when it comes to letting people know about promotions or deals. However, letting a friend or family member know that something was about to go on sale is different than broadcasting it to the world, so I'm also not surprised to see an emphasis on protecting Best Buy's financial interests. Good find!
Ameren’s Social Media Policy
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ameren.com/-/media/Corporate-Site/Files/investors/PrinciplesBusinessConduct.pdf?la=en
Ameren’s social media policy is short and gets right to the point. I believe that the policy is ethical because it is very clear about the fact that Ameren does not want its employees’ views to be confused with its own. I believe that it is clear in that it covers the guidelines that the employees should follow and in a fairly easy to understand manner. It is specific on the guidelines regarding posting information that could be harming someone else’s reputation and about not making any statements on behalf of Ameren without approval. The policy is fairly comprehensive but it is lacking in stating what would occur if an employee violated the social media policy.
Give more detail in your analysis so you can hit that 200 word minimum. This is one of the few documents that explicitly mentions business ethics prior to the social media guidelines, so you have plenty to work with in pairing the ideas from the chapter with this policy.
Deletehttp://www.buffalowildwings.com/en-CA/Privacy-Policy/
ReplyDeleteC.J. Kirchner
Professor Santee
PWR360
25 January 2016
http://www.buffalowildwings.com/en-CA/Privacy-Policy/
I chose to do Buffalo Wild Wings, because it is very well known. I believe that they were very Ethical, Clear, specific, and easy to comprehend. They would bold anything that is important, and each header so that you knew when the next section started. They also kept the colors of black and yellow on the website instead of straying off and trying to be crazy. I like that because it shows consistency with the company. They were very specific on making sure that the reader would understand what they are trying to do like with the section about what they collect from us. They say that they collect things from a third party which could be from social media. They made sure that we are protected every step of the way. Like through online ordering, and you had to be 18 years or older and if you were under then you had to get your parents’ permission. They talked about how their sites may contain other third party sites which are not under their control. Basically they are saying they just so you know we can’t control what they are doing. Like I said I believe it was a really easy read, and they made it straight to the point. They did not go crazy with the material.
This is a privacy policy rather than a social media policy. Privacy policies come under far more legal regulation, so even though they mention social media, it's only in passing. They may not make their social media policy public (many companies don't), so for this assignment, you should have chosen another company for which you could find the policy.
Deletehttp://www.buffalowildwings.com/en-CA/Privacy-Policy/
ReplyDeleteC.J. Kirchner
Professor Santee
PWR360
25 January 2016
http://www.buffalowildwings.com/en-CA/Privacy-Policy/
I chose to do Buffalo Wild Wings, because it is very well known. I believe that they were very Ethical, Clear, specific, and easy to comprehend. They would bold anything that is important, and each header so that you knew when the next section started. They also kept the colors of black and yellow on the website instead of straying off and trying to be crazy. I like that because it shows consistency with the company. They were very specific on making sure that the reader would understand what they are trying to do like with the section about what they collect from us. They say that they collect things from a third party which could be from social media. They made sure that we are protected every step of the way. Like through online ordering, and you had to be 18 years or older and if you were under then you had to get your parents’ permission. They talked about how their sites may contain other third party sites which are not under their control. Basically they are saying they just so you know we can’t control what they are doing. Like I said I believe it was a really easy read, and they made it straight to the point. They did not go crazy with the material.
H&R Block Online Communications Policy
ReplyDeleteAfter being informed at work that there are pre-made social media posts we can upload to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. I was in awe of the thoroughness of H&R Block. I felt that learning more about my place of work was a good enough reason to use it as an example. The Online Communications (Social Media) Policy of H&R Block is an ethical, clear, specific, and comprehensive technical document.
It is ethical because in some instances it “protects the public rather than members of the organization and or profession.” An example from the policy is the rule, “Do not use ethnic slurs, obscene language, or harassing, discriminating, violent, or threatening language. Do not communicate information you know (or have reason to know) is untrue or deceptive.” This protects non-H&R Block associates from uneasiness and believing untruthful information. The technical document does, however, focus a lot on the good name of H&R Block and how they would really… REALLY like to preserve it.
I feel that it is a pretty clear document. It has bolded headings and bullet points, making it easy to find the desired information. Also, it is pretty specific, it goes into depth, by fully explaining what is meant by certain things. Here are two examples: “Do not use H&R Block’s logo, trademark or proprietary graphics (collectively, intellectual property or “IP”) for any commercial purpose, such as selling or advertising any product or service, without the Company’s prior written consent.” And, “This policy applies to associates as well as contractors or other authorized users of H&R Block’s communication systems (collectively referred to in this Policy as “associates” for ease of reference).”
And finally, the document has sufficient comprehension. It makes sure to involve any topic it can address related to social media at the original effective date of November 14th, 2007 and it even has a posted revision date or January 19, 2015. Also, the document goes as far as to suggest a hashtag to use on Twitter if H&R Block is being discussed.
This is pretty interesting. I wonder if they have comprehensive policies (this isn't the only comm. policy of theirs I found online!) because of the government oversight of this field in general or if it's specific to their corporate culture. This company deals in knowledge, so protecting their IP is really important. Nice analysis!
DeleteColten Shimer
ReplyDeleteSantee
PWR 360
I thought that the USGS media policy was ethical, clear, specific, and comprehensive. It was well written in a simple way. It contained links to further the details on the rules on social media and they were marked clearly using bullet points. It displayed specific rules on the use of social media while on duty and while off duty. The use of social media was allowed to a certain extent while on duty. It stated you could use social media off duty but you were not allowed to speak in a negative way about the USGS. Overall I thought it was a clear policy. they didn't take any freedom from the employees by taking away their privileges using social media but in the policy, which was repeated a number of times stating that the users should be aware of the reflection made on the USGS and themselves through their postings. The USGS even offered training to their employees that use social media on a daily basis. The training would teach them how to safely use social media and to avoid using it in a negative way that could result in bad reflections upon them and the USGS. The one thing that stuck out to me is that in the policy it stated that employees should avoid commenting our posting regarding elections or debates. I can understand this since it is a government agency and employees should refrain themselves from speaking out on their political opinions.
http://www.usgs.gov/socialmedia/docs/usgs_socmed_employee_use.pdf
DeleteMan, that's a lot of links out to other policies. The political issue is interesting, too, given that the policy is directed toward federal employees who have particular regulations about their political involvements. One other thing that's different about this one is the repeated references to "area of expertise." This recognizes that the employer (the government) doesn't have monopoly on an individual's knowledge and that the individual has a right to use their knowledge on social media in ways that don't conflict with the employer's interests. Good find, here.
Deletehttps://www.phly.com/Files/PHLY%20Social%20Media%20Site%20Guidelines31-5578.pdf
ReplyDeletePHLY Insurance Company was very clear, specific, comprehensive, and ethical. Only being 2 pages long, PHLY insurance social media policy is very specific and clear. They get to the point and make it very clear what they expect out of their social media. An example of that would be when they are stating what Third Parties cannot do. They specifically name certain acts that will not be tolerated what so ever.
“Third Parties shall not post, upload or attach Materials:
• which contain policy, claim, financial or personal information of any person or entity;
• which may be offensive, abusive, threatening, defamatory, pornographic, intimidating, obscene,
discriminatory, indecent, harassing or inappropriate in a public location”
By stating these very specific regulations, there is no room for error. Along with the policy being very specific, it is also ethical. They do not want the Third Parties in any way to be disloyal to them or to make the company look bad. Third Parties cannot post about the financials or any personal information about PHLY. This would be breaking the code of confidentiality and that is unethical. It is also respecting the privacy of the company. Also the policy is comprehensive because they use words that the reader can understand, as well as, being broken down into sections so the reader can take in the information properly. The only thing I believe to be ineffective about this policy is that they do not have any penalties if the Third Parties disobey any of the set rules stated. I saw that they spoke of the third party not receiving compensation for what they do, but not once does is state any type of legal action that will take place if they don’t follow the guidelines.
This is one of the most legalistically worded ones I've seen. The Third Parties focus is interesting, too, because the company will have very few avenues to provide punishment outside of legal action (like you mention). What that means is that this is a different kind of social media policy than the others. It's not directed toward employees but toward those who might post to the company's accounts. I haven't seen one like this before, so good find!
Deletehttp://www.publicpower.org/Media/peopletopeople/ArticleDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=35295
ReplyDeleteI felt like Wal-Mart’s social media policy was very ethical. They were constantly saying to be respectful and honest on social media. Especially to customers, associates, suppliers, members, and people who are associated with Wal-Mart. They also protect their employees in such that they have a retaliation section. It states that if any fellow associate is to report you for violating this social media policy that you cannot go against them or say any wrong things about them, just to get back at them. This policy is also very clear they have several topics in this policy and most of those topics have bullets to help explain everything. They want to make sure that their employees understand what they can and cannot post. This policy is also very specific because they even state in one part the main piece of information they want to keep a secret and to not post about it. After they state that piece of information specifically they go on to state not to post any confidential things too. Throughout this policy I got that any one associated with Wal-Mart cannot post anything confidential, they have to be honest and accurate at all times, they must always identify that they are associated with Wal-Mart, and they have to be respectful to others.
I feel like this policy is very affective. They have all of their rules and guidelines lined out and they have a section to help protect those who are checking to make sure people are following these rules and guidelines. By having that retaliation section, more people associated with Wal-Mart are likely to help make sure that this policy stays in use and that the ethical conduct of Wal-Mart is always being presented. I feel like Wal-Mart has a very strong and useful social media policy.
That retaliation section is interesting. This is better than a previous version of their policy, and since you found this on a site that is interested in labor rights, I assume a previous policy was criticized as being too invasive of individual rights.
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