For those Companies that Allow their People to Represent them via External Social Media, What Types of Activities and Level of Scrutiny are Applied?

Abstract

Social media has been lauded for its ability to connect people and quickly disseminate information to large audiences. In the past decade, these technologies have rapidly become more ingrained in the workplace. A recent survey of 1,100 companies revealed that 75% of employees access social media daily on the job with 60% accessing social media outlets several times per day. With this in mind, it becomes paramount that companies develop ways to protect their brand reputation and manage the risk that comes with increased presence on social media through their employees. In the same survey, 24% of companies monitor social media access by employees.(See Appendix A) Given the varied approaches to protecting brand reputation in light of employee social media usage, several key practices have been highlighted below to guide companies in creating non-invasive, protective measures to mitigate risks related to social media usage.