The benefits of social media are obvious. It is fun, informal, instantaneous, cheap and, let’s facebook it, if you are not following, tweeting, updating, face-timing or linking in, you are behind the times.
In a world where you can have thousands of friends who know more about your social life than your family, new communities springing up around you to direct advertising at and people following you who you have never met, is it all too good to be true?
Like any form of advertising, marketing and communication, a company needs to consider not only the benefits but also the hidden costs and risks.
We all know about the opportunities for hackers to steal our identity, so strong password management and security settings are critical. But before you update your status, also consider the risks that can be caused by your employees:
o An M&A lawyer for an IT company tweets to announce his arrival in Taiwan. One of his followers is a journalist who suspects the reason for him being in this city is that his company is about to merge with another less successful IT company based in Taiwan. This innocent update fuels a rumor that the company is merging and shares drop overnight.
o Employee X has just been informed that there may be job losses in his region over the next 6 months. X uses their personal social media account to complain about this. Their post is picked up by a friend who is prompted to respond by tagging a photo of X in an uncompromising position drunk from the previous night with a comment “given the state of most of its staff, it’s no wonder they’re making job cuts”. Each contributor has around 1000 friends each. There are then 10 friends of friends commenting on the tagged photo and state of your company which becomes a talking point on facebook and twitter and goes viral around the world.
Mitigation:
Please contact us via www.crglobal.com.au if you require further advice on the potential risks to your business, training of your staff, and drafting or updates to your policies.
Nicole Rose
In a world where you can have thousands of friends who know more about your social life than your family, new communities springing up around you to direct advertising at and people following you who you have never met, is it all too good to be true?
Like any form of advertising, marketing and communication, a company needs to consider not only the benefits but also the hidden costs and risks.
We all know about the opportunities for hackers to steal our identity, so strong password management and security settings are critical. But before you update your status, also consider the risks that can be caused by your employees:
o An M&A lawyer for an IT company tweets to announce his arrival in Taiwan. One of his followers is a journalist who suspects the reason for him being in this city is that his company is about to merge with another less successful IT company based in Taiwan. This innocent update fuels a rumor that the company is merging and shares drop overnight.
o Employee X has just been informed that there may be job losses in his region over the next 6 months. X uses their personal social media account to complain about this. Their post is picked up by a friend who is prompted to respond by tagging a photo of X in an uncompromising position drunk from the previous night with a comment “given the state of most of its staff, it’s no wonder they’re making job cuts”. Each contributor has around 1000 friends each. There are then 10 friends of friends commenting on the tagged photo and state of your company which becomes a talking point on facebook and twitter and goes viral around the world.
Mitigation:
- Uninformed employees are just one issue for you to bear in mind. Before commencing, or when reviewing, a social media campaign it is advisable to carry out a risk analysis. This will enable you to determine:
- The requirement for policies and standards and whether other policies (such as electronic resources and discrimination, bullying and harassment) need updating
- Training for employees on the dos and don’ts of social networking
- What resource and expertise is needed to properly maintain social media sites and keep up with trends – nb: must respond to comments, tweets etc. promptly. If you do not – could face criticism.
- What maintenance is required to ensure relevant expertise and regular monitoring.
Please contact us via www.crglobal.com.au if you require further advice on the potential risks to your business, training of your staff, and drafting or updates to your policies.
Nicole Rose
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