More thoughts from the BBC on how to get a social media policy working in the real world that we inhabit in our daily business lives…
The golden rule for our core news, programme or genre activity is that whatever is published – on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else – MUST HAVE A SECOND PAIR OF EYES PRIOR TO PUBLICATION.

You may not want to go that far for everything, but go with your instincts. If you are worried about something, let someone else have a look at it.  We all have our “hot button” topics where if we see something erroneous or inappropriate we want to fire off a quick tweet, blog posting or wall post. If that is the case ask someone else to have a look at it first.  It may go against Grace Hopper’s adage,“It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission” but it’s better to be careful!

Don’t just do it because other programmes or website areas have done it, or because you think it’s what everyone does these days.

If you don’t want to comment or address something that you see people talking about elsewhere, or you don’t feel comfortable doing so and you don’t have to, then feel free not to become involved.  People won’t notice if you don’t comment, but they will if you address a subject inappropriately, or try to thoughtlessly shoehorn a marketing message where one should never be.

Make a note of any login names and passwords, and also any other service that you set up to automate the activity (eg: forwards it from Twitter to Facebook). Share those details with members of your team, making sure they are stored safely: if you move to do a different job or are off sick, someone else will have to take over.

This is very important, especially if there are automated tweets set up.  If there is a current event or news story happening that everyone on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn is discussing and automated tweets or posts start popping up from your account at best they stick out like a sore thumb and at worse can be seen to be inappropriate.  Let the other person know in what situations the automated tweets should be cancelled. This is where having a Social Media Manager can pay dividends – it’s essential someone is managing your social media activity as a whole
What does your Social Media Policy or Guidelines Document look like? If you don’t have one, can we help you? What do you think of the BBC’s approach?