Samples Social Media Policies for Employers

Social media is becoming an increasingly prevalent aspect in people's lives - regardless if it is their personal life or professional life.  And, let's face it... In more cases than not, those lines between personal and professional have been blurred.  Employers need to ensure they have the appropriate policies in place to limit potential vulnerabilities presented by social media.  Here is a list of sample social media policies...

• Electronic Frontier Foundation How to Blog Safely about Work:  http://www.eff.org/wp/blog-safely
• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:  http://www.insidethecbc.com/bloggingrules
• Harvard Law School Blogs Terms of Use:  http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/terms-of-use/
• Sun Guidelines on Public Discourse:  http://www.sun.com/communities/guidelines.jsp or http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/blogs/BloggingGuidelines.pdf
• GM Motors Blogging Policies:  http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/about.html
• Media companies: For Journalists entering into public debate:  http://rhetorica.net/policy.htm
• IOC Olympic Athletes Blogging Policy:  http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_1296.pdf (PDF)
• BBC Staff Editorial Guidelines Personal use of Social Networking and other third party websites:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/advice/personalweb/blogging.shtml
• Cisco’s Internet Postings Policy:  http://blogs.cisco.com/news/comments/ciscos_internet_postings_policy/
• IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines:  http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html
• Dell’s Online Communication Policy:  http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/policy/en/policy?c=us&l=en&s=corp&~section=019
• Yahoo’s Personal Blog Guidelines for staff:  http://jeremy.zawodny.com/yahoo/yahoo-blog-guidelines.pdf
• Intel Social Media Guidelines:  http://www.intel.com/sites/sitewide/en_US/social-media.htm
• Greteman Group Blog Social Media Policy:  http://gretemangroup.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/social-media-policy/
• United States Airforce “new media and the airforce”:  http://www.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-090406-036.pdf (pdf file)
• US Navy very formal PDF:  http://www.doncio.navy.mil/PolicyView.aspx?ID=789
• DePaul University: http://brandresources.depaul.edu/vendor_guidelines/g_socialmedia.aspx
• Hewlett Packard Blogging Code of Conduct:  http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/blogs/codeofconduct.html
• Chartered Institute of Public Relations Social Media Guidelines:  http://www.cipr.co.uk/socialmedia/
• Hill and Knowlton’s Public Relations Pledge for Bloggers:  http://armadgeddon.blogspot.com/2007/09/h-pledge-for-bloggers.html
• Feedster’s Corporate Blogging Policy:  http://feedster.blogs.com/corporate/2005/03/corporate_blogg.html
• UK Public Service I Am A Civil Servant:  http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/about/work/codes/participation-online.aspx
• Gartner’s PUBLIC WEB PARTICIPATION GUIDELINEShttp://blogs.gartner.com/gartner-public-web-participation-guidelines/.
• Thomas Nelson Blogging Policy:   http://michaelhyatt.blogs.com/workingsmart/2005/03/corporate_blogg_1.html
• Plaxo’s Communication (Blogging) Policies:  http://blog.plaxoed.com/2005/03/29/plaxos-communication-policy/
• About.com generic ones:  http://humanresources.about.com/od/policysamplesb/a/blogging_policy.htm
• LiveWorld Social Media Content Guidelines:  http://socialvoice.liveworld.com/blog-entry/Bryan-Persons-Blog/Creating-Social-Media/1100000608
• The Blogging Church:  http://www.leaveitbehind.com/home/2005/04/fellowship_chur.html
• Walker Art New Media Initiatives wiki:  ttp://newmedia.walkerart.org/nmiwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WalkerBlogGuidelines
• Telstra 3Rs GuardRail:  http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/library/pdf/news/social-media-company-policy_final_150409.pdf
• Australian Public Service (Gov) protocols for online media participation:http://www.apsc.gov.au/circulars/circular088.htm
• New Zealand Government Principles for interaction with Social Media:  http://www.ssc.govt.nz/display/document.asp?DocID=7160
• ParticipatoNZ wiki:   http://www.e.govt.nz/policy/participation/guide-to-online-participation.html