3. Establishing a Governance Model
It has been said that anarchism can be traced back to the origins of the ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi, the founder of the Taoism religion, more than 2,000 years ago. We’ve also seen anarchy arise throughout the world in 1642, 1720, 1749, and, most recently, 1993 during the crisis in Somalia.
Just as there was anarchy and political unrest in each of these key phases throughout history, there is anarchy in business today. The examples given appear to be more dramatic than what we see today in business, but modern-day organizational anarchy is causing unrest internally as it relates to transforming into a social business.
The modern-day cure for anarchy in business is a governance model. A governance model, also referred to as a governance policy, is a set of rules, policies, and procedures that companies create to manage social media internally. It addresses key factors, such as how to use social networks personally and professionally, training procedures, moderation of comments and user-generated content, and the basic tenets of disclosure and transparency.
As social networking and blogging began to catch on in 2000, employees began to blog about work issues. They shared their frustrations about the company; voiced their concerns about management, the stock price, and coworkers; and talked about (even promoted or defended) their company without disclosing that they worked there. They did this all within their personal social networks. Few problems arose because most people weren’t following blogs and reading these posts about issues at work. But as Facebook began to take over, much of that conversation shifted to the public Wall. The line between work and personal lives began to blur because many employees were also Facebook friends with their coworkers and managers. Additionally, many of these conversations began to appear in the search results.
Fast-forward a few years, and technology has given birth to tools such as Nielsen Buzz Metrics and Radian6, which listen to and report on conversations around the web about a particular topic. Departments such as human relations, legal, and public relations (PR) are now monitoring conversations going on externally about their brand and can identify employees who may be saying inappropriate things about the workplace on Facebook, Twitter, and just about everywhere else.
The consequences for such behavior are not going unnoticed.
In 2010, Dawnmarie Souza of Connecticut was fired from her job when she posted comments about her boss on Facebook. The trouble started when Souza expressed her anger on Facebook after claiming that her supervisor at the private ambulance company American Medical Response (AMR) had denied her union representation after a customer complained about her work performance. From her home computer, she posted on her Wall, “Love how the company allows a 17 to be a supervisor.” The term “17” is a code word medical professionals use to describe someone who is mentally ill. Souza also called her supervisor many derogatory names, but not once did she mention him personally. Friends and colleagues of AMR left several supportive comments on her Wall.
When management found out about her comments, Souza was fired.
Several other employees have been terminated from their jobs because of what they’ve posted on Facebook, Twitter, and personal blogs. Consider a few other noteworthy cases:
• Ashley Payne, a school teacher in Atlanta, was fired in 2009 after a parent complained about a photo of her on Facebook holding an alcoholic beverage.
• In 2009, Müller Tamás, an employee of the global telecommunications company Vodafone, was fired after he retweeted a T-Mobile post regarding network trouble.
• In 2009, Connor Riley, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, wasn’t fired from Cisco—instead, she wasn’t hired by Cisco as a result of what she posted on Twitter: “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 captured this conversation and forwarded it to the hiring manager. The job offer was rescinded.
• In November 2008, New England Patriots cheerleader Caitlin Davis was fired from the team after she posted pictures of herself on Facebook posing next to an unconscious man covered with offensive graffiti, including two swastikas and crude drawings of male genitalia.
• In 2002, Heather Armstrong was fired from her job as a web designer and graphic artist at a start-up because she’d posted negative comments about her boss on her personal blog.
According to a study commissioned by IT staffing firm Robert Half in 2009, 54 percent of organizations in the United States have banned employees from using social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter during work hours. The study also found that 19 percent of companies allow social media use only for business purposes (such as LinkedIn for sales and staffing managers). Sixteen percent of companies allowed limited personal use, managed by controlled bandwidth via firewall restrictions in the IT department. The study was based on telephone interviews with more than 1,400 executives from companies with 100 or more employees.
What this study doesn’t address is why companies are banning the use of social media during work hours. If employees are bashing a company or manager, sharing confidential information, or promoting the company without disclosing that they work there, it doesn’t matter whether they’re doing it during work hours or on their own time, right?
The case of Dawnmarie Souza and others will undoubtedly have an affect on employee privacy when it comes to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Problems like these can be avoided—or, at least, lawsuits can be prevented—if organizations have a governance policy that covers employee use of social media professionally and personally.
Having a governance policy not only addresses employees’ use of social media in their personal lives, but it also establishes standards of practice for employees who use social media as part of their job. In some companies, all employees are encouraged to use social media (both within their personal networks and on company-managed social channels) to talk about the company, regardless of which department they’re in.
The creation of social media policies and guidelines is the first step in creating a comprehensive governance model.
Crafting Social Media Policies and Procedures
The entire premise of this book is that organizations need to open up their firewall, evolve into a social business, and allow employees to engage with customers. To do so, a level of governance must be in place to avoid some of the embarrassing situations discussed earlier and, more importantly, to protect, inform, and educate the organization in its entirety. One element of governance is a social media policy, which is a company’s first line of defense in mitigating risk for both the company and the employee. A nondisclosure agreement (NDA), a general confidentially agreement, or a few paragraphs added to the employee handbook on ethics is simply not enough.
Although it’s not as sexy and engaging as a Facebook application, a social media policy is much more important. First and foremost, organizations need to communicate with their employees and let them know the risks of using social media. They also must inform employees that the right to privacy when posting public content is nonexistent. Posting questionable or obscene content on the social web also can have serious consequences, up to and including termination and legal trouble.
Additionally, companies shouldn’t use a social media policy as a scare tactic for employees. Instead, the policy should be used as a tool that communicates openness and transparency for everyone who engages on behalf of the brand within social media. It’s important here to reiterate that, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, consumers not only trust “people like themselves,” but they trust employees of a company even more. This data alone is enough for organizations to start thinking about empowering their employees to engage with customers.
It’s imperative to collaborate with other business units when crafting a social media policy and to include participation or input from marketing (or a social media team), PR, customer support, legal, information technology (IT), and various business units. As mentioned in Chapter 1, “Human Capital, Evolved,” if social media resides within a centralized function, this is one of its core areas of responsibility.
Two important factors must be considered when writing the policy. The first is that the policy must protect the organization by all means possible. Second, it should empower employees to engage externally with the community without fear of backlash.
Consider an excerpt of the publicly facing Intel Social Media Policy that addresses employees’ use of social media both personally and professionally (dated November 2010):
When You Engage:
Emerging platforms for online collaboration are fundamentally changing the way we work, offering new ways to engage with customers, colleagues, and the world at large. It’s a new model for interaction and we believe social computing can help you to build stronger, more successful business relationships. And it’s a way for you to take part in global conversations related to the work we are doing at Intel and the things we care about.
If you participate in social media, please follow these guiding principles:
• Stick to your area of expertise and provide unique, individual perspectives on what’s going on at Intel and in the world.
• Post meaningful, respectful comments—in other words, no spam and no remarks that are off-topic or offensive.
• Always pause and think before posting. That said, reply to comments in a timely manner, when a response is appropriate.
• Respect proprietary information and content, and confidentiality.
• When disagreeing with others’ opinions, keep it appropriate and polite.
• Know and follow the Intel Code of Conduct, the Intel Privacy Policy.
The Intel Social Media Guidelines also link to Intel’s privacy policy, called the Intel Code of Conduct, which it has also made public.
In 2009, Coca-Cola released a very simple social media policy that featured 10 principles for employees who engage externally:
1. Be certified in the Social Media Certification Program.
2. Follow our Code of Business Conduct and all other Company policies.
3. Be mindful that you are representing the Company.
4. Fully disclose your affiliation with the Company.
5. Keep records.
6. When in doubt, do not post.
7. Give credit where credit is due and don’t violate others’ rights.
8. Be responsible to your work.
9. Remember that your local posts can have global significance.
10. Know that the Internet is permanent.
Several years ago, before the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle, the Sun social media policy simply read, “Don’t be stupid.” It probably wasn’t the smartest, most comprehensive policy, but it does show the level of trust Sun had in its employees.
Every social media policy is different, determined by the organization’s culture and value system. However, some key points should always be present, including the rules of engagement for on- and off-domain web properties and the company’s moderation guidelines.
“Rules of engagement” simply refers to actual employee engagement (or behavior) within social channels. An on-domain property is a corporate blog or community (a site that is operated and controlled 100 percent by the company); off-domain properties are sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and external (third-party) blogs. When employees decide to engage in off-domain properties, it’s important that they remain completely transparent about where they work and what their intentions are.
Transparency and Disclosure
Most people are smart and understand that they need to be transparent while engaging with consumers. Transparency is common sense. It simply means that employees and companies should always be honest and disclose everything (when leaving comments on a third-party blog, tweeting, launching unbranded microsites, and so on). Unfortunately, transparency can be overlooked or forgotten.
Sony learned this lesson the hard way. Back in 2006, the company launched the blog “All I Want For Xmas Is A PSP” but forgot to tell the world that Sony was behind it. Whether Sony simply forgot or purposefully tried to deceive the public and manipulate purchase intent is irrelevant. The company was being dishonest. To this day, Sony hasn’t apologized for its mistake. It merely deleted the entire blog and acted as if it had never happened. That’s one reason Sony won “The Best Fake Blog of 2006” award, given by The Consumerist.
Being transparent isn’t hard to do. As long as people are disclosing that they’re employees of a given company in their bios, within the comments of a third-party blog, and somewhere on their personal blogs, that should be enough. The team at Dell uses consistent nomenclature in naming their Twitter accounts (as in @RichardatDell, @LionelatDell), to easily identify themselves as Dell employees.
The policy should also include some language that covers what employees should be talking about as it relates to their expertise. In other words, if there’s a conversation online in a forum about virtualization and data centers, it would make sense for an expert in virtualization to participate in the conversation, not someone from marketing. Employees have to add value to the conversation. If they can’t, they should think twice about interrupting.
Moderation
The social media policy should also explain moderation guidelines. It’s important for internal teams to not only understand these guidelines, but also set expectations within the community. Moderation includes comments left on corporate blogs and communities, as well as social networking sites such as Facebook via the fan page.
Intel’s social media policy takes a “good, bad, and ugly” approach—that is, Intel accepts comments from the community that are good and bad, but not ugly. Good comments are self-explanatory. Bad comments might be a little aggressive and critical, and might come from a competitor. Ugly comments usually have derogatory statements, curse words, or simply spam content. When receiving ugly comments, it’s good practice to notify the commenters, explain the policy, and then ask if they would like to resubmit their comment for consideration.
Two types of moderation are used: pre-moderation and post-moderation. With pre-moderation, before a comment goes live on a blog, it must go through an approval process with either an employee or an outsourced vendor. With post-moderation, comments go live immediately but can be deleted in the future if they violate policy. In thriving communities, members usually self-moderate and community managers rarely need to intervene.
Many companies today use post-moderation for their corporate blogs and communities. For user-generated content, a pre-moderation policy is used mainly to protect the organization from illegal or copyright material being posted on a branded site.
Moderation is an important characteristic of any social business, but having an escalation process for every external property (such as a micro site or Facebook) that allows comments or user-generated content is vital, especially when dealing with a crisis communication situation.
In May 2010, an activist group opposed to minerals mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo inundated Intel’s Facebook page with comments asking for Intel’s support of the Conflict Minerals Trade Act. This particular congressional bill was created to restrict the import of minerals from war-torn countries.
Intel responded by first deleting many of the activists’ comments and then turning off the ability to comment for everyone. This probably wasn’t the most effective first reaction, but it’s understandable why the company chose to do this. Intel wasn’t prepared to handle this from a crisis communications perspective.
To Intel’s credit, it eventually reinstated the commenting function on Facebook and posted an official announcement on its Corporate Social Responsibility Blog. Kelly Feller, social media strategist, also posted the following comment on Oregonlive.com in response to a critical blog post:
Today we at Intel were reminded about the power of Facebook—and the effect of seemingly small acts, by both passionate advocates and by well-meaning social media employees.
We at Intel would first like to apologize for deleting some comments and temporarily shutting down our Facebook page for comments for a brief period of time this morning. I can tell you that our intent wasn’t to silence the valuable opinions of our Fans. In trying to remain sensitive to all our Fans, we often delete messages that are political in nature or could be perceived as spam (messages with the exact same language repeated, instead of ongoing conversation or dialogue). However we should have been more sensitive to the very important topic at hand. For that we are deeply sorry.
It’s safe to assume that the next time a potential crisis like this happens to Intel or one of its social media properties, the company will be prepared to act. This is why it’s imperative to be proactive in creating moderation strategies for both on- and off-domain properties and to have a crisis communication plan, just in case.
What’s more important than just having a crisis communication plan is to ensure that the entire organization is trained and understands the escalation policy in case an employee comes across a potential crisis on the social web.
Training and Organizational Intelligence
When enlisting in the United States Marine Corps, recruits must first attend the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, also known as Boot Camp. They spend the next 12 weeks being trained in military etiquette, Marine Corps history, hand-to-hand combat, infantry, weapons familiarization, the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, basic grooming standards, and drill (marching). They also have to exercise three to four hours a day to burn body fat, build muscle, and improve their metabolism.
Similarly, in the National Football League, teams normally begin training camp in late July to begin preparing for the regular season at the beginning of September. That gives coaches and players about three months to train, learn the offensive and defensive playbooks, get in shape, get to know each other personally, and start playing as one cohesive unit.
Just as the military and the NFL are constantly trying to get more intelligent, companies should build a culture of learning. Innovation in the social media space is moving faster than anyone could have ever anticipated, and it’s not slowing down. Tools are changing, networks are merging, start-ups are being acquired, and consumer behavior is constantly evolving. Companies need to stay ahead of the game, and, to do this, they must get smarter. This requires training and organizational development. The evolution to a social business doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not a button that can just be turned on. It’s a process that can take years and that requires training and intelligence companywide.
In 2009, Intel created a digital training program called Digital IQ. This was a series of PowerPoint training sessions meant to equip not just digital marketers, but anyone within the organization who wanted to participate in social media, with the tools necessary to engage intelligently. Digital IQ was built on a university model of 100- to 400-level courses. All members of Intel’s sales and marketing organization are required to take a series of digital marketing courses based on their roles. Those roles, with closer responsibilities to the web, are required to complete higher level 300- to 400-level course work.
Training topics include these:
• Basics of digital marketing
• Social media tools (Twitter, blogs, community platforms, Friendfeed, Facebook, and so on)
• Ways to be more conversational on the social web
• Geography-specific training about social networking in specific countries
• Legal and ethics overviews
• Search marketing
The social media team partnered with the internal communications team to make employees aware of the training. In some organizations, training became mandatory. The point is that Intel knew it had to get smarter. It saw the external landscape shift and wanted to make sure it wasn’t left behind.
What’s important in training is that material needs to be updated regularly. Many employees who sign up to engage in social media are doing so above and beyond their normal job responsibilities. They might spend an hour or two each day on Twitter, but the rest of the day they might be optimizing a data network or coding in Java. They don’t have enough time in their day to stay up-to-speed on the changes to the tools they use daily. They need guidance and actionable training. Training in theory with topics such as “Why Social Media” might be an effective way to recruit new employees, but it’s not sustainable in the long term. When employees complete a training module, they should know what to do next. The team in charge of the training curriculum must consider revising the training program at least every two to three months or when something significant happens in social media (such as a merger or acquisition).
Another form of training involves collaborating with other companies to get a better understanding of how they are deploying social media and the best practices they’re using.
Noncompetitive Collaboration
Every organization is different. Every customer is different. And the way each business communicates with its customers is different. There’s no single, or right, way to engage with customers—it’s a dynamic relationship that changes from one customer to another.
Often organizations operate with tunnel vision: They do something one way because they think it’s working. They rarely step out of their comfort zones and try new and innovative things. They might read a few articles, blog posts, or case studies that nudge them to evolve their process, but that rarely makes a difference.
Companies need to communicate with other companies to increase their social intelligence. Obviously, it doesn’t make wise business sense for Intel to get up close and personal with AMD and discuss which community platform they use or how they’re measuring social media.
This is about noncompetitive collaboration. It’s a simple concept that means companies should collaborate with other, noncompetitive companies and share best practices. The Social Media Business Council, formerly the Blog Council, is one organization that is striving to help Fortune companies achieve this. Council members meet regularly, in person and on conference calls, to discuss, collaborate, and share best practices on challenging issues facing social media teams in large organizations. Here’s a brief highlight of discussions (taken directly from the website www.socialmedia.org):
• How are you organized: PR or social media?
• How do you handle negative comments?
• What do you do when your blogger leaves?
• What is your process for setting up a blog or community?
Members of the Social Media Business Council also collaborate on projects that they make public for anyone to use:
• Metrics and the ROI of blogging
• Disclosure policy toolkit
• Benchmarks survey
Whether it’s the Social Media Business Council or simply companies reaching out to colleagues in different companies, it makes perfect sense for companies to learn from each other. Noncompetitive collaboration is a great way to gain insight, gather feedback, and talk through some of the challenges that social media can bring to an organization.
Social Media Executive Councils
Many organizations are creating executive councils or forums to address social media. It’s a meeting where key decision makers in the organizations discuss social media, and it covers a wide array of topics that are relevant to the business. At these meetings, everyone involved in social media can communicate, share best practices, give updates, and learn from each other. For example, Intel created a social media Integration forum, a once-a-month meeting where global marketers and communications teams discuss best practices of social media within their regions. Agenda items usually include these:
• Guest speakers
• Vendor presentations
• Social media program overview
• Quarterly business review (QBR)
• Training and updates
Many times, these meetings are also a place where social media teams and governing bodies can roll out new initiatives for other teams to adopt and use (such as Global Listening programs metrics models, Facebook and Twitter strategies, and more) and also provide guidance and feedback to teams that are starting to launch social programs. Cisco hosts a monthly Social Media Roundtable meeting to discuss recent successes and failures within social media programs and discuss ways to improve and optimize existing programs. The end result is a smarter organization. Usually these forums are facilitated by a team member from the social media team.
Additionally, these meetings can be used to ensure a strong level of collaboration and consistency across the organization. In some cases, anyone who engages in social media may be invited to a meeting to discuss a particular product launch happening in the future. To ensure consistency in the social marketplace, teams will share specific information such as common hashtags for the product, location of online video assets, press release dates, sample product messaging, and sample tweets and Facebook updates. The end result of such meetings is that once the product launches, everyone is equipped with the appropriate information to begin sharing details of the launch within their own micro-communities.
Another form of social media collaboration can also happen at the executive levels. These meetings usually include senior level managers in marketing, public relations, customers support, IT, operations, and finance. The purpose of these committees is usually to discuss the overall vision of social media and how it can drive business value for the organization. Budget allocations to social media and organizational changes are also topics that are normally discussed. These committees also go through approval and selection processes and make decisions about:
• Agency selection and RFP process
• Technology vendors to use internally
• Approve/disapprove social media marketing plans presented by junior staff team members
Taking the Next Step
When crafting social media policies, it’s a good idea to keep it simple, especially if the policies will be public. If employees see too much fine print and legal jargon, they might decide not to engage because they won’t know exactly what they’re agreeing to. It’s fine to have more comprehensive internal policies, as long as they don’t contradict the external guidelines.
Remember to get everyone involved when creating the policy. PR and marketing will most likely be the drivers of the policy because most of what they do revolves around external engagement. IT and the privacy team will need to look at the policy to ensure that it complies with all federal and state privacy laws. Customer support might or might not be involved, depending on that department’s level of engagement on the social web. Finally, legal will want to approve the policy, to ensure that it’s protecting the organization.
Many tools can help you get started. Simply Google “social media policy templates” to see a wide variety of starting points. The Intel Social Media Guidelines are also a good model to follow. Policytool.net is another free tool that can help create social media guidelines. After only five minutes spent answering 12 questions, here’s a quick excerpt of its recommendation (example only):
Smart Business, Social Business Social Media Policy
This policy governs the publication of and commentary on social media by employees of Smart Business, Social Business and its related companies (“Smart Business, Social Business”). For the purposes of this policy, “social media” means any facility for online publication and commentary, including, without limitation, blogs, wikis, and social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube. This policy is in addition to and complements any existing or future policies regarding the use of technology, computers, email, and the Internet.
Smart Business, Social Business employees are free to publish or comment via social media in accordance with this policy. Smart Business, Social Business employees are subject to this policy to the extent that they identify themselves as a Smart Business, Social Business employee (other than as an incidental mention of place of employment in a personal blog on topics unrelated to Smart Business, Social Business).
Before engaging in work-related social media, employees must obtain the permission of Michael Brito.
Publication and commentary on social media carries similar obligations to any other kind of publication or commentary.
All uses of social media must follow the same ethical standards that Smart Business, Social Business employees must otherwise follow.
The policy also addressed key areas, including
• Setting up social media channels
• Protecting secrets
• Protecting your own privacy
• Being honest and transparent
• Respecting copyright laws
• Respecting the community
• Addressing controversial issues
• Admitting to mistakes
• Thinking about the consequences
Eric Schwartzman, consultant and coauthor of Social Marketing to the Business Customer, provides a free template for organizations to download and use (www.ericschwartzman.com/pr/schwartzman/social-media-policy-template.aspx).
An immediate next step is to begin developing a training program that can be rolled across the organization. It’s good practice to partner with human resources or the learning and organizational development teams because they likely have access to the tools and resources needed to build a training curriculum. They can assist in making the training program available online via a learning management system (LMS) such as SharePoint or Intelex. The most important takeaway is to ensure that the training stays up-to-date and consistent with the dynamic nature of the social landscape.
If an organization has the financial resources available, it’s recommended to join the Social Media Business Council. All members of the council have access to other brand marketers. The sharing of best practices, concerns, and challenges is encouraged, and it’s done in a safe environment. Other options include simply reaching out to other marketers in the enterprise via Twitter or LinkedIn and requesting a meeting. LinkedIn also has a library of enterprise marketing related groups that are filled with dynamic discussions and sharing, with some being open for everyone to join and others requiring approval. Last, Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst at Altimeter Group, publishes an excellent resource on his blog titled “people on the move in the social media industry” (see www.web-strategist.com/blog/category/on-the-move/). From there, Googling the names to acquire contact information is easy to do. Most enterprise marketers are open (and even thrilled) to share best practices with others on the phone or over a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop.
Social media executive councils might or might not have executives involved. In either case, it’s important to first define the objective of the council and then invite the appropriate persons. Starting small is important to avoid group think. As the organizations evolve and change, so will the council; and many times, the council will be in the driver’s seat facilitating organizational change.
Evolving to a social business isn’t easy. All companies have to deal with at least a few growing pains. One is the concept of employees running wild and posting obscene or unprofessional comments within their social networks. The other is employees who are sanctioned to do social media making stupid mistakes that can also get them in trouble. Having an effective governance policy that addresses key principles and the basic tenets of disclosure and transparency is imperative in maximizing the effectiveness of any social business.