Intel has published their Social Media Guidelines.
I like their approach of giving users guidelines for they should and should not do. The context is to place the responsibility on the individual. It is that person who is creating the content. They are responsible for the content and the consequences. I think it is a great balance of encouraging people to interact with responsible behavior.
These guidelines are actually a great starting point for a law firm. You just need to add in a section about not creating attorney client relationships and a section about attorney advertising disclaimers.
Intel could have added some specific recommendations for some high profile sites. Of course the sites are changing so often that it might be hard to keep the policy up-to-date.
I also like how Intel integrate these guidelines with other policies like the Intel Code of Conduct (.pdf) and the Intel Privacy Policy. (That may be the new compliance side of me revealing himself.) This modularity avoids duplication and inconsitencies.
Doug, this is a really interesting and well-timed post. I've been hearing some rumbling from others about the need for creating guidelines to help employees understand their obligations and the opportunities available in using social networks. I've been wondering if separate guidelines are needed or if orgs can simply extend their communications and IT policies to include 2.0 technologies.
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing this to my attention!
Wendy -
ReplyDeleteI think it can be integrated with existing policies to avoid overlap and inconsistencies. Most of the bad behavior in 2.0 is bad behavior in email and phones.
The thing you can do with a social media policy is encourage its use and make it clear what is good behavior and what is bad behavior.
One of my earlier posts has a proposed policy for law firms.
http://kmspace.blogspot.com/2008/11/blogging-social-policy-for-law-firm.html
Doug,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Intel policy is good, and I also like the way it draws in other company policies. It is similar in that respect to IBM's social computing guidelines (at http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html). The other interesting thing about IBM's guidelines is that they were developed in a wiki by the people that are affected by them. I am sure that helps the guidelines remain effective.
Mark -
ReplyDeleteAs someone is now drafting policies, I get much better buy-in and better policies when it the policy making process is open.
Policies drafted in a vacuum are more likely to be ignored.