What Policies Do We Need to Protect Ourselves From Bad PR?

I advocate there are two policies that every organization, large or small, needs to have in place to protect itself from potential negative publicity. They are a Communications Policy and a Social Media Policy. Here are the reasons for having both:

Communications Policy

This should clearly state who your main spokesperson is and who the back-ups will be. The main spokesperson may not be there when they need to comment to the media on an issue, so it's great to have backups, who can also speak on various topics if the main spokesperson doesn't have the expertise in that area. Those who are empowered to speak must follow rules to guide their behaviour. They must represent the organization in a professional manner, avoid personal opinions and take the high road at all times.

Once you decide who should speak, then all other employees should be told they’re not allowed to speak to the media. However, rather than giving them a "just say no" comment, let them know that if they’re contacted by the media for comment, they should simply tell the reporter they must contact their main spokesperson for comment.

Finally, it is very important to specify anyone who speaks to the media should get media training before doing so. Why have them speak on your behalf if they don't really know how to do it? A media training course isn’t that expensive, certainly when compared to the damage to your brand and bottom line if somebody says the wrong thing to the media.

Social Media Policy

This is another policy that every organization should have to protect their brand, but very few do, even though virtually all their employees are on social media. There are really three things a good social media policy needs to deal with:
1. How your organization conducts itself in social media
2. How your employees can talk about your business in social media
3. How your employees can conduct themselves in their personal lives on social media

Number 2 and especially number 3 get pretty sensitive, but it is becoming increasing clear to me and many others that how anyone behaves in social media can affect themselves and their employer.

If you have an employee criticizing your company on their social media account, then a policy would serve to remind them of rules they agreed to follow when they joined the company, if the policy was provided to them at that time.

What they do on their own time on their social media accounts is more difficult to regulate, but if it’s a senior person whose social media behaviour impacts the company negatively, then the company has a right to deal with the offending employee.

Take the time to explain each policy and have the employee sign a document to indicate they understand the policy and will abide by it. You never know when that document will come in handy.

Next Question: How Is Traditional Media Using Social Media Today?

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