One of the main guidelines that we use, although it is not in our official policy, comes from Richard Guerry of IROC2 (The Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication.) I work at a middle school and we teach this to all of our students and live by this principle: "Public and Permanent." Assume that everything you post online is public and permanent and you'll be covered. If you are okay with whatever you are writing being put on a billboard in your front yard, post it. If you are comfortable with your grandparents and your grandchildren seeing what you write, post it. If you are in any way uncomfortable, don't post it! Rich breaks down his motto in this way - the tools that you are using to post were made to communicate with the world (Public.) Also, once you post something, anything can happen - someone could screen shot it and post it somewhere, someone can forward it, someone can find your phone or computer if you lost it, a company can be hacked and your information released, someone could print out your postings and keep them forever, etc. (Permanent.) Rich is a great speaker or consultant for things like this. He has spoken to our students and parents several times and his message always resonates! Best of luck!

I echo Avery's post above, guidelines and best practices are a great way to maintain autonomy. I also think it's important to remind people they are ambassadors for their organization if they choose to share that affiliation. It can also be good to remind people about their 'digital footprints' and the lines of some public information and private information can blend.

This is an interesting topic that I never thought that much about! So relevant for today.

Social media professional here! It depends entirely on the organization. If an employee is going to be promoting the company, they should include some disclaimer that they're part of the brand - popular hashtags include #Team___ that they can add in their posts. If their profiles are public and are representing the brand, there are a lot of HR and legal hoops to jump through as you cannot control an employee's outside life. It's tricky, but I think guidelines are always best!

My company has very clearly defined policies related to social media. They put out several different “one pager” type documents that hit the high points for different situations. They also have tons of custom templates to allow staff to add content in a way that maintains a uniform brand standard without being cumbersome to use. At times it may come off as a little preachy to some. However, there’s a very real possibility that that is unavoidable. For me, the templates make all the difference. And if I have a question it’s easy for me to figure out who to ask.

Ours does, and their is a clear delineation between company thoughts and personal postings. While i can post company info/blurbs on my personal LI, I hesitate to do so unless i really find the thoughts/info therein personally fascinating.

Our small association does not have a policy for staff because most of our staff is the older demographic and they don't use social media. However, we serve local board of education members and part of my role is to train them on responsible social media usage. It's a challenge!

ours does specific training on what you can share in general that is or isn't a conflict, etc, that's on social or in person.

All of my companies have had a policy. Much of it is around not disclosing proprietary information, code names, cool new stuff, etc. Opinions on non-work matters is trickier but also depends on roles. The more senior or the more public, the more important it is to be thoughtful.

The company I work for has a social media policy. From the training I received, the examples provided of what was okay to say and what wasn't okay to say helped make it crystal clear (they used mock Facebook posts). In my situation, the guidance was around not using specific words (e.g. we can't say we're an expert) and not referencing back to the company. When you saw the examples side by side it didn't feel like a huge restriction.