Before setting up a social media account and starting to post content, it is important to have guidelines, policies and procedures in place for the use of social media and in the event that you need to deal with issues and social media crises.
Strong social media policies and procedures will govern the way a business uses and responds to social media issues and ensure it remains compliant with relevant legal and ethical considerations, as well as ensuring policies and procedures align with the overall marketing strategy of a business.
By the end of this topic, you will understand:
- The importance of social media policies
How to establish guidelines for social media engagement - Why it is necessary to develop guidelines for responding to crises
- Legal and ethical considerations
- The importance of the alignment of policies and procedures with marketing strategy
Social media platforms are key to communicating with past, current and future customers and clients, and it is important to ensure that any planned social media activity is governed by relevant policies and procedures to ensure that communication remains appropriate and professional.
A policy sets the parameters for how decision making is made, whereas a procedure explains how a task is performed, usually in the form of step-by-step instructions.
For example, a social media policy may describe how a social media platform is to be used in alignment with the overall business strategy, whereas a social media procedure may provide the step-by-step instructions for how to post content to a platform.
The scope of social media policies and procedures requires consideration of how a business engages with social media (e.g. posting content and moderating comments), the personnel who have authorisation to use social media channels and the personnel who have authorisation to respond to media enquiries.
An organisation will need to create policies and procedures to guide and monitor engagement with social media that is internal to the organisation. Social media policies for employees detail how they must engage with and behave on social media on behalf of their organisation. For example, it may not be appropriate for team members in an organisation to respond to customer comments or complaints, as this is usually managed by a specific team or department.
Policies and procedures that govern the use and monitoring of social media platforms must be relevant to the social media activities that have been planned.
For example, there may be a specific procedure for responding to customer complaints that are posted on the organisation’s social media accounts or a procedure for developing posts that adhere to branding requirements.
When developing policies and procedures for social media engagement and the publishing of content, it is important to provide guidelines for:
- Appropriate employee engagement with social media
- The creation and publishing of social media content
- The handling of complaints and crisis management
- Privacy and security
Even with the best-laid plans and strategies in place, it does not take long for social media posts or comments to take on a life of their own, spiral out of control and cause a negative impact on a brand and its reputation.
It is important to look closely at the organisation, the industry and the types of social media activities planned for the future to identify:
- Possible issues or crises that could arise
- The potential impact of each issue or crisis on the organisation
- Guidelines for the appropriate response to issues and crises and how they should be managed
Case study
Woolworths In 2015, Woolworths launched the marketing campaign ‘Fresh in our memories’ for Anzac Day, a solemn day of remembrance to honour the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who sacrificed their lives for their country in World War One.
Woolworths was heavily criticised for taking advantage of the Anzac soldiers to market their brand. Social media users took to creating memes in return to mock the organisation.
Types of Social Media Issues, their impact and management strategies.
| Types of Social Media issues and crisis | Potential Impact | Management Strategies |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-channel crisis - This happens when more than one channel, e.g., web, social media, radio, television, etc. promotes a problem for your brand. It has the potential to go viral, in a negative way, if not addressed quickly. | Extremely dangerous because it has the potential to go viral and generate a great deal of negative publicity very quickly. |
|
| Emerging crisis - This happens when trends start to escalate in your industry. It could be anything from a broccoli shortage to a product recall. If left unanticipated and dealt with quickly, it could escalate into a larger scandal. | If you don’t anticipate and deal with it as soon as possible, it can quickly escalate into a bigger scandal. | |
| Industry crisis - This is common when a brand, product, or industry experiences a boycott. Or, when a major malfunction happens across an industry. | It occurs when a vendor or competitor is experiencing a social media crisis. For example, when many fashion brands are suddenly all attacked for non-transparent actions. | |
| Fake news - each person on social media can spread false statements about your brand, products, employees, company culture, and more. | In the age of social media, a post can go viral in just one click. The ability to detect rumours about your brand quickly is essential. |
Twitter guidelines for crisis management
Twitter provides some guidelines for businesses developing a crisis communication plan:
- Be ready
- Most social media platforms enable the user to track hashtags and keywords so they can stay ahead of issues. It is also worthwhile tracking influencers that are relevant to the brand or industry, as they may be the first to spot an issue that could affect the organisation.
- Know what to look for
- Watch for spikes in conversations. Is someone posting the same content over and over? Are accounts with a large follower base also providing input? Are people using negative hashtags? Tracking factors such as these will help identify and address an issue before it gets out of hand.
- Establish the severity
- Look at the analytics for a conversation that could cause a negative impact to the brand. How large is the conversation? Is the engagement with it growing? Is it actually a potential crisis or will it eventauly fizzle out without intervention?
- Consider a pre-mortem
- A pre-mortem can be useful to identify and play out different scenarios that could occur, while mixing up the variables, to work through the potential solutions. For example, the variables could include scenarios where the person who is authorised to liaise with the media is unavailable or a particular post or comment suddenly goes viral. Introducing potential variables will help to lan for the various scenarios that may occur
Further Reading:
For the full guide to developing a crisis communication plan by Twitter, visit the following link:
Guide: How to create a social media crisis management plan (twitter.com)
Case study – Coles
The following complaint from a consumer about a capsicum he bought from Coles was posted to the Coles Facebook page. The response from Coles was witty and humorous and cleverly provided a win–win solution, gaining a positive response from its followers as well as the original poster.
It is important to ensure that all guidelines, policies and procedures for the use of social media comply with legal and ethical requirements. Non-compliance with legal requirements can result in hefty fines.
For example, in 2019, the Privacy Act was amended to increase penalties for all entities covered by the Act, including social media and online platforms. The maximum penalty of $2.1 million for breaches has been increased to $10 million or three times the value of any benefit obtained through the misuse of information, or 10% of the company’s annual domestic turnover. Make sure you are familiar with the following:
Australian Consumer Law
Guarantees consumer rights when buying goods or services.
- The Copyright Act 1968
- Grants the copyright owners exclusive rights over their materials (e.g. text, photos, images, video, etc.)
- The Privacy Act 1988
- Provides consumers with the right to know why their personal information is being collected and who it will be provided to
- Relevant codes of practice
- Data and personal security laws (State and Territorybased, such as the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic)
- Govern how personal information is collected, handled and used, and promotes the privacy of an individual
When developing social media policies and procedures, ensure they:
- Align with the strategy of the business
- Align with the marketing plan of the business
- SAre customer-focused
For example, a strong social media policy that sets the parameters for how decisions are made will be aligned with the overall strategy and direction of the business as well as its marketing plan.
It will also be focused on ensuring the best overall result for the customer in regard to the type of content that is published and ensuring the resolution of any customer issues is focused on the needs of the customer
Activity 4
