Corporate Social Media Policy: Top 4 Guidelines

The following guidelines are relevant to Facebook and Twitter but are not limited to these sites:

(1)   It is recommended that Business Owners with profiles accessible by clients use care with privacy settings to keep personal content private. Employees are encouraged to limit content that clients can see to information relevant to educational purposes. Business Owners should never misrepresent oneself by using a false name or persona on social networks unless that characterization is connected explicitly with their real identity.

(2)   Social networks should never be utilized as the sole, mandatory communication method for interaction between community and clients. Official business activities should be kept in official online tools, not on social networks. Businesses should never require clients to participate in social networks or have participation influence a business (with an exception being made for projects that may use social networks for research purposes).

(3)   Business Owners should not friend, follow, request a connection or otherwise “connect or align” themselves with clients unless the student requests the connection so as to maintain the integrity of the business/client relationship. Business Owners should accept all friend/connection requests from clients unless making a decision to not connect with clients at all to avoid the appearance of favoritism.

(4)   All communication on social networking site (i.e., wall posts, etc.) should be kept in accordance with standard ethical practices of the institution. Official business communication (feedback on a project, for example) should never be posted in a public area of a social network. Private educational, employee or health records should never be communicated through a social network. Common sense should be used regarding profiles, posts, photos, and other information accessible through social networks.