For example, your social media strategy might detail the type of content you plan to publish, whereas your style guide would explain how that content should look when you share it. However, social media platforms often have community standards that may drive the platform to unilaterally remove a comment or post. To draft a social media policy for your company, make use of social media policy examples online or work within a template. Set expectations for employee conduct and be clear about your brand’s voice and message. Communicate to employees that they are your brand ambassadors and outline the repercussions for inappropriate online activity.

Use internal communication channels like newsletters, team meetings, or email updates to inform your employees about the policy, especially after any updates or significant events. Consider holding training sessions to review the policy and answer any questions, ensuring full understanding and compliance with legal and ethical standards. You need to determine who’s in charge of your corporate social media policies. Assign clear roles to your team members—know who’s posting, who’s answering questions, and who’s keeping an eye on everything. Creating a social media policy might seem challenging, but with the right tools, it can be much easier.

Try using it to create different versions of the same caption and see which feels more natural for your brand. Since these guides contain somewhat sensitive information, they’re rarely made public. However, we’ve compiled a list of some examples we’ve found to give you some ideas. For example, on Instagram, McDonald’s uses professional imagery and more lo-fi content that feels native to the platform. If you’ve ever looked at a company’s Instagram feed and noticed that it seems themed or well put together, it was usually planned out.

Creating Your Own Social Media Policy: A Step-by-step Guide

A well made social media policy will protect the company from potential lawsuits. Amplifying diverse voices via social media is an actionable step brands can take to prioritize representation and attract top talent from marginalized communities. An inclusive social media policy will empower and encourage voices from all backgrounds to advocate for the brand. When your employees post about the organization online, it can increase brand awareness, establish thought leadership and drive qualified leads. Along with helping social selling, employee posts can support social recruiting efforts, attracting top talent to your company. Learn how Oktopost will help your savvy team, plan, prioritize, and grow a solid social media marketing strategy with the most intuitive tools.

You must archive both types of social posts for at least three years. They often cover advertising claims, data privacy, and recordkeeping. Platforms like Hootsuite help automate approvals, flag compliance risks, archive content, and enforce all those governance rules behind the scenes. Enterprise organizations stay compliant by baking compliance into every step of the social media workflow. Disclosures need to be displayed where people will actually see them (not buried under a “more” button).

Licensing And Brand Management

Even if you’re outside the U.S., HIPAA’s general principles provide good guidance. That’s a question each firm will have to answer depending on its risk tolerance. Your compliance strategy should involve input from the highest levels of the organization. Static content is considered an ad and must go through pre-approval for compliance.

Diocesan entity websites and social media accounts should declare that they are an “Official” website or account of the Diocesan entity. In short, it’s a good example of a social media policy for employees. The items above can also serve as a social media policy template, so feel free to copy and customize it to fit the needs of your organization.

Let’s check out three examples of brands that have nailed their social media policies, balancing the brand’s needs while demonstrating empathy. In today’s digital age, where information spreads rapidly and public perception can make or break a business, having a social media policy is crucial for every company. By following these steps and incorporating practical examples, you’ll be well on your way to crafting social media guidelines that protect and enhance your brand.

How To Measure Policy Effectiveness

This is why you need a set of social media guidelines for your employees and team members to ensure protection from harassment or cybersecurity risks. Start by determining your brand’s colors, as they should remain consistent across all social media platforms used by your company. Select a font style for the images and posts’ caption or invest in creating a custom font that remains specific to your brand.

This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to forget you are representing not only yourself but also the company you work for. This is also worth remembering when using AI, it needs to be taught the brand style and tone. Stand out from day one with these expertly crafted welcome email templates. Build engagement, reduce anxiety, and set your new hires up for success. Pairing strong social policies with a wellbeing program amplifies these benefits.

This helps protect your brand reputation, widens your audience reach, and aligns your online presence with organizational values. A social media policy is an official company document that provides guidelines and requirements for your organization’s social media use. In addition to providing a set of guidelines on behaviors to avoid, you should also help employees understand what they should post to help them build a personal brand. Instead, PR crises and lawsuits usually arise from well-intended yet poorly handled situations, and you might not foresee these scenarios to include them in your social media policy examples. While social media guidelines act as a reference point, social media policies contain rules for posting on social media, the conduct, as well as the consequences for breaking them.