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Recruitment and Beyond
The Importance of Social Media Policies in the Digital Workplace
If you have a social media account, do you represent the company you work for? Or, if it is a personal account, is it nothing to do with your business?
If you are using it for business, are you doing so professionally? Should you need to worry about doing it professionally or will this stifle creativity and reduce the impact of the account with your audience?
Employees with strong social media accounts can add real value to a business and with the introduction of new platforms like TikTok, the reach can be incredible.
However, it's fair to say the line between work life and personal life on social media has definitely blurred and it's difficult to determine what level of control your business can have and is entitled to.
So, maybe it's time for businesses to revisit social media policies?
Tune in to hear Ewan and Natalie's thoughts.
Follow our social channels where we continue these conversations!
Eden Scott LinkedIn
Beyond HR LinkedIn
Hi, welcome back. Today we're going to talk about social media and the balance between personal and professional life. Welcome back. back in our new setting. This is much better, actually, all it's the greenery. Yeah, we thought we would have a chat today about social media and its impact on, well, the work life and how that, where that balance comes now, I guess, because it's pretty much blurring the lines now, isn't it, in terms of personal branding, how it's used in social media, how we're engaging with people on our social media accounts, and then how that relates to our work, I guess. So, yeah, do you want to give us a bit of historical context, Natalie, about, like, How have companies dealt with this in the past? What have been the expectations? And what have been the policy approaches to this?
SPEAKER_01:I think before, probably you might agree or disagree, but personal life and your work life are two very different things, weren't they really? Yeah. Has the pandemic changed that? What's changed that? Has all these different platforms changed this that might be used for a variety of things as well? And we can certainly delve into that in a wee moment. But certainly the gap's getting smaller, or blurred, or grey, or whatever you want to call it. But the gap is definitely getting smaller between you and the professional and you and the personal with everything else, isn't it? Yeah. For example, if you think as well, if we were on a Zoom call, you would see... That's
SPEAKER_02:a good
SPEAKER_01:point. Yeah, you would maybe see my house, the picture that I've got above. You're getting an in-shot into that where before I would have turned up to the office and you wouldn't know what colour the walls were, what I had at home. You might even get an in-shot into my friends and my family or pets or whatever's knocking about in the background at the time, isn't it right? So this is... The realms are very, very different
SPEAKER_00:now. Yeah. Yeah, I guess, I mean obviously working from a marketing point of view, you're thinking about your own personal brand and now people are becoming influencers in different sectors, in different areas. So maybe, you know, maybe they work for a bank but they do marketing on the side or they're really interested in sports so they've got their own TikTok account or YouTube account. So I guess the balance Because it's in their own time. They can do what they want, can't they? Essentially. Can they? Well, this is the question. Can they?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Can they?
SPEAKER_00:I don't know. I mean, can you still represent your organisation in a professional manner, but have your own social media account that promotes sport or promotes your own interests? I mean, everybody's got their own interests outside. So what's to stop them? And where do employers... draw the line. Can they draw the
SPEAKER_01:line? Yeah, and I think that traditional kind of social media policy that people wrote maybe four, five, six years ago is outdated. People need to bring that back out again. Yeah. Really test it, look at it and see, do we need to adapt this? Particularly if you are mentioning certain social media sites. How much has it evolved now? Isn't there like, there's so many more, isn't there?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I mean, somebody could be working for a bank and have an OnlyFans account. Absolutely,
SPEAKER_01:if they choose to do so. And I think maybe you might agree, disagree, Facebook before was all about the personal you, wasn't it? It was all about what he's doing as a dad, what is he doing cooking, what is his hobbies and his passion. LinkedIn was mainly before about business you and only business you. But you are now seeing even that, the realms of that slightly different now, isn't it? You've got people posting their kids' first day at school or what they're cooking for their dinner. And that's not for everybody, but... certainly and then from a marketing perspective we're all about the personal brand
SPEAKER_00:as well aren't we? Well absolutely and I think because you can bring that personal brand into your business and it depends what your job is obviously but I mean one of the interesting things I've been reading about is the lack of soft skills or the people aren't they don't come to the office with them but they come with skills that are different you know they've got these personal brands they've developed in these different areas and that can really benefit your business if you're looking for business development or contact and so on. But on the flip side, you have to represent your company in a professional manner. And sometimes that might dip between the two. Those lines have definitely blurred because I know certainly, again, just thinking from a marketing point of view, people need to be on the edge a wee bit to gain some traction. If you've got a TikTok account, and you're very professional on it and you're very staid and everything's very scripted. You're not going to get what you need from that. You're not
SPEAKER_01:going to get it. We've got Facebook and LinkedIn, which in the past were quite separate. Then we throw in TikTok. Where do we even start with TikTok? Like you said, if you want it to be effective, you're the marketing expert, but you're probably doing all the wee quirky things. Yep. Is that in line with the company policy? If you're working in a bank, are you being professional by dancing about to whatever in the background? But maybe that's also what's needed. And
SPEAKER_00:millions of people could be following you doing that, you know? Absolutely. Or like you
SPEAKER_01:said, your account is linked up to another account, which could be your evening job, which might be maybe not desirable for a professional in a bank. If it's linked there, then again, we're in... what control does the company have? So what control does a company have over the employee in terms of what they're using and not? So get that social media policy that you had previously written six years ago, seven years ago. Refresh it completely. Is this still fit for purpose? Because chances are it's not going to be.
SPEAKER_00:It's not going to be, is it? No. I mean, that's the thing. And so where do we start with that? I mean, obviously, coming and speaking to someone like yourself and just saying, right, we need something that's appropriate. And I guess the point here is, Is it appropriate for our business? You know, if I'm a marketing agency, then actually I need people out there promoting themselves, promoting their brand, you know, building themselves up. Because I know a lot of marketing is about building communities. And again, that's essentially what people are doing. But if I'm a bank, do I need my employees? So I guess the policy has to adapt based on what your business is. And it's quite a complex area, isn't it? So is it a case of just looking at your own values, your own direction, your own purposes in an organisation and thinking, right, how do we reflect that?
SPEAKER_01:Getting some advice to make sure what's written down. And you made a really good comment about, well, it's outside the workplace, so it's OK. Is it? Yeah. Yeah, you are doing it in your own time, et cetera. But there are many cases where, although it was maybe in the evening, it's still considered an unlinked because it's during the course of employment. So actually... not always an employee might think that does your policy actually state that as well so if you do have a TikTok account that's linked in any way there might be TikTok accounts there that's not linked to what you do at all and that's okay but there might be that one that is something is linked or you've been in the uniform by mistake doing your TikTok like you've heard all those stories haven't we and you've been in the uniform of your company and Doing something maybe that's maybe a wee bit not quite in line with the company values or what they stand for or against.
SPEAKER_00:Because you do see that, I mean there's people, professionals in their uniform, clearly identifiable in their uniform, doing things on TikTok. Now I guess, I mean it's, has it always been the balance between you can do whatever you want outside work or has there always been, I mean these social media policies have come in to say you represent the organisation at all times, is that the case? It's very
SPEAKER_01:difficult, it is because at the end of the day we're shouting about people being individuals, people having a privacy life and a home life and it's very very difficult but is it out in the public domain there as well? But really drilling right into your policy in terms of what do you stand for and telling people as well, educating so that people know what is. And if you want to maybe do that dance that's a bit whatever, maybe not with your uniform on, et cetera, or not with a company van in the background or whatever, so there is absolutely no link. But that person is still entitled in their own free will to do that dance or whatever they're doing or make a complete fool of themselves as long as it's not maybe linked to the company. the organisation might be your role. So it's maybe sitting in properly, not just having something written down, but actually something meaningful, but something that you can work with and everyone knows as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because again, the other side, obviously we're talking about it being a wee bit risky, some of the stuff being a bit risky, but the other side of this is that a number of people use their own personal profile to benefit the business. I know for a long time, and certainly in tech and digital, or sorry, the startup space, people use Twitter a lot, and they use it individually to go out and build relationships with people. So should that be factored into your policy? Should that be factored in there that, you know, where does that balance come? No, because we're
SPEAKER_01:shouting for people to be individuals, aren't we? Yeah. And we're shouting them to say, actually, we want the company, we actually want your personality to be out there, but how do we do that without, is there, it's such a funny area at the moment, isn't it? And it's getting more blurred with the likes of TikTok, with Instagram, with all the, before when we only had the likes of LinkedIn and Facebook, it was hard enough. Yeah. But now, what are we seeing? What is our stance? Yeah. And how do we put that in writing and then how do we communicate it out as well? And how do we keep on top of it? Because it just keeps evolving. And like you said, if other accounts are linked to other things that maybe are not ethical with the company, how do we prevent that? Is that okay? There are a million questions for social media and that gap now is... It's
SPEAKER_00:getting less and less. It's getting less and less. Because I suppose the other thing is that we do... You want to be an inclusive organisation. You want people to come and express themselves. And on one hand, you can't say, come and express yourself and be part of this organisation and be inclusive and bring your ideas to the table. And your ideas might be off the wall, but that's where innovation comes from. And to be fair, innovation could be driven through some of these social channels. It could be driven through these ideas and concepts that they get from pushing out there. So it's such a fine balance. So I suppose... If I'm going to write up my social media policies, there are kind of two or three steps that we need to really drill down into. What are the core things that people should be looking
SPEAKER_01:for? Make it unique and bespoke. So don't be considering other organisations, what they have. Really engage the expert to see what you need as a business because you're that banking professional to that marketing agency to recruitment company, whatever that is, they've all got their own spin. And there might be other legal restrictions for a bank, for example, that don't apply elsewhere. that there's maybe a wee bit more rules in place or things that they need to think about. So it's really making it bespoke workable. So we can't say trap it down. You and you cannot be an individual in any of these things. You cannot have any social media accounts. You cannot do this. Obviously, there's differences, kind of teachers you'll see. They've never really got their own name there. There's lots of kind of speculation behind social media in that profession as well. A legal advisor, would you want to see what their evening job is if it was maybe something that wasn't in line. So we just need to be very, very careful, but really get that advice before you, because that's your policy that you abide by, and that's what you stand by, but you can't be too restrictive
SPEAKER_00:either. Yeah, because teaching's a really interesting one. You don't want your pupils, essentially, to see some of the stuff you've got on there, so your privacy policies have to be so nailed on, but... you know, how do you control that? Yeah, and they bring different things. I mean, essentially, you know, it could be a musician, a musical teacher who's wanting to make sure that they're using their social channels to promote what they do. I mean, I know my son plays football and football coaches will be on there putting on their football drills and so on. So they want that to be out there. So maybe a PE teacher would be the same, but then... And maybe a history teacher wants to talk about history and talk about these things. So there's a real positive there. But any school would be
SPEAKER_01:happy that there are 12-year-olds, 11-year-olds watching their channel. That could be great for your business. It could be detrimental to your business. It could be non-ethical. It's all that stuff that actually... But you're right, you need to be very careful in terms of your policy. Don't be naming all the different channels because it's evolving every day, isn't it? Couldn't keep up, could you? What's the new thing? It's like threads. Is that in people's social media? So they could do something on threads and then an employee could say, well, it doesn't mention threads then. It mentions LinkedIn, TikTok, whatever else, but threads isn't there. So be careful about what you're also stating in terms of the different channels. It might just be something that encompasses them all. And make sure it's bespoke. Make sure you're still, you're not restricting people's, personal and privacy life either.
SPEAKER_00:That's a really good point, actually. If you mention certain channels in there and they jump on the latest one that's just come out, well, you never said. That is tough. And make
SPEAKER_01:sure that employees are aware, although it is at working hours, on their own PC, in their own time at night, sitting and munching popcorn while they're doing. So completely outside of the work, it can still link back to during that course of employment.
SPEAKER_00:Right, okay. So that's the thing, actually, is... Yeah, just... just being really explicit about where this counts, I suppose, and what the level of expectation is. Yeah, I would imagine that. And that is hard, yeah,
SPEAKER_01:because like you said, I'm on TikTok at three in the morning. That's nothing to do with work, yeah, but actually your account is linked some way to the job that you do and you're posting views maybe that the organisation doesn't represent or whatever the situation is or something quite explicit. you can see where like as a business owner you would be a bit stressed out that because if someone got hold of that information next thing you're on the front of the paper and you're stressed out your head and what am I doing here with so have you been quite clear for people as well it's a whole explosive area and I think the likes of all these different channels that are coming out it just blurs it so much
SPEAKER_00:and see if I'm a company leader or HR director or whatever should we be having regular sessions on this and just making people aware and talking through the policy because policies can be a little dry sometimes so maybe sitting reading through that oh
SPEAKER_01:absolutely absolutely there'll be more tears at times so kind of putting it into real life examples or kind of showing rather than sitting talking A to Z through the policy the policy is there to read but what examples or what problems or what are we maybe doing or helping people in the right direction in terms of maybe what they do um outside of work but we need to be careful because people have their own life as well outside of work so well it's it's a great area um a great area in terms of topic of conversation lots to think about um tested and tried to know obviously with activity outside of work all the time but that reputational damage could be massive isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Are you getting a lot of people coming and asking you about this? Is that quite a key topic just now?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah absolutely and it's about where are the realms like can I say that they can't post on social media? Well can you exactly? You can never post on social media. Some companies just maybe want to protect what they do, so there can't be any link to the company that you work for. You can say who you are, but maybe no link to the company at all in the event, worst case, because it's not even sometimes about what you post. someone could tag you in something that you have nothing to do with and then the next thing your company's dragged into this and nobody remembers the name. See newspaper articles if something's went wrong or somebody said a comment, it's never Ewan Anderson, it'll be the company that's at fault. It's never the person, so you can see the danger.
SPEAKER_00:And it goes both ways because it can explode so quickly. you know, because that's the nature of social media. But on the flip side, it can be, you know, like you say, nobody remembers the individual, they just remember the company and that's it, you know, it's forgotten about. So yeah, it's such a difficult area because it touches on so many different areas with this inclusion and, you know, you want to be that organisation that brings people in and lets them be themselves, you know. And then
SPEAKER_01:you've got the new kind of employees that their life is social media, everything they do. So if we do have certain policies that are restricting things, they're going to be like, oh, God, I can't post about that today. But they're used to it. It's just natural. They post about everything. They post about their dinner. They post, like, whatever they're doing for the day. And actually, you may be restricting some stuff for work there as well to shout out about what you guys do as well.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's it. Because that's how they've built their community. That's how they've built their following is just to talk about themselves. Even if it's just a picture of themselves that day, you know, that's how they build it. Obviously, we talked about the fact that there's... There's loads of channels. People are on all these channels. They're on lots of them or they're on none of them. How do companies stay on top of it? I mean, do you have people looking at this? Is there a kind of social listening tool that people are using? Or is it just a case of, here's the policy. Trust them to do what you expect them to do.
SPEAKER_01:It would be lovely, here's the policy, trust them to do what you say that you're going to do. Some organisations probably need to have a wee bit more security in place, not security, but a wee bit more monitoring. Monitoring, yeah. So they might have some software that can just ping up to them daily alerts in terms of where the company name is featured and make sure it's okay. Is there anything else that you're aware of that companies are using at the
SPEAKER_00:moment? Yeah, I mean, it's because a lot of the social media planning tools will have social listening part of it. And the bigger organisations, enterprise-sized organisations will have Social listening. And Google Trends, sorry, Google Alerts and so on can definitely let you know, but that's more announcements within the press rather than social media. But, yeah, I think... I think
SPEAKER_01:more people will ask for those. Like, do you think it will become a bigger trend?
SPEAKER_00:I think it has to be. I think, you know, in bigger organisations, I don't know, I mean, we obviously work with a lot of SMEs that probably don't have the scale and size of marketing team. You know, it might be something that's a balance between the marketing team and, say, the legal team or the HR team where we need this monitoring to happen. Maybe you produce us a monthly report that says, here's the social mentions. Or
SPEAKER_01:maybe some organisations don't want to know either unless something goes wrong. But maybe that, is that a good thing? Is it that risky? Is it not? But maybe, as it were, people say, well, I'm not really interested in a private life as long as it doesn't impact. And if there's no impact and nothing's happening, then we're okay. I know. But then they maybe just have to deal with the things that come to light, whether it's someone... calling in a complaint or something's happened or it's offended someone but by that point it's maybe too late but yeah it's quite interesting to know our people it would be great for the audience like are you using
SPEAKER_00:yeah
SPEAKER_01:are you using anything how are you keeping on top of these things yourself
SPEAKER_00:yeah it'd be great to get some some thoughts from people just to say this is how we this is how we go about it because you're right I think you could have I'm quite relaxed if people you know we've always had a policy we're quite relaxed here you know we want people to be as as as, or want to be as inclusive as possible. So let them, as an individual, yeah. So let them do what they need to do until it goes wrong. It's like this, you know, working in PR, you would always have a disaster recovery plan or your emergency recovery plan. And you need that. And more often than not, you think, well, I'll never need it because it doesn't really matter. I'll do that next week. I'll do that next week. Until it goes wrong. And you need things in place. So I suppose it's about having everything in place to say, we're not going to be over the top here in Tesla monitoring, but we want to have the policies in place. Reputational damage, it can go so quickly, can't it? Yeah, our usual top three tips then. So what are your top three tips for helping us manage our social media in the company?
SPEAKER_01:Pull that policy out with the dust on it, get the dust off. Is it still fit for purpose? So be careful if you are mentioning the channels like we said. You might not want to do that because it might restrict you because again next week you'll probably need to pull it back out again because I'd like to know how many companies that do talk about them have threads now included, the new ones. So review your policy, make sure it's completely bespoke to your business, the risk to your business, the risk to the individual as well. And third top tip would be just be mindful that we are still wanting to treat people as individuals but there is that certain level of professionalism so does your policy just go as far as it has to and it doesn't restrict too much more either as
SPEAKER_00:well it's a fine balance isn't
SPEAKER_01:it yeah ideal thank you very much thank you Thanks everyone for listening today. Please get in touch if you want to find out more on today's subject.
SPEAKER_00:And if you enjoyed the podcast, please subscribe and leave us a five-star review.