With today’s advances in technology businesses have to be proactive in protecting themselves.  The latest topic of concern that businesses have?  Social media.  If you are not concerned about social media in your firm, you should be!  Why?  Your reputation is on the line.  Let’s say that you have a disgruntled employee who is very social and starts to post comments on their Facebook page regarding confidential information on your firm.  Or, how about using your time to update their status on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, exc.   All of their connections will see their posting and if some of their connections work for you, then they will see it as well.  This can lead to a trickle down effect where it could impact everyone in the business and create issues.

Now, social media can also be a huge money generator for your business.  How?  Social media has drastically sped up today’s business cycle where now people are making a decision in seconds to do business with someone.   Sites like LinkedIn allow users to see the connections of people that they are connected to.  This is a great way of finding the person you want to talk to right away instead of wasting precious time on the phone trying to find the person you want to talk to.  Plus, you can ask your connection for an introduction, qualifying you as an expert right away.  I have had so many questions about this topic that I decided that today would be a great day to blog about it.  I am going to share with you how you can protect your business from within.  Why is today a great day to blog about this?  I have been getting so many messages from my contacts about the Packers vs. Vikings game that it fits in perfectly with establishing a social media policy because several of my contacts are sending messages from work (FYI I am a huge Packers Fan).

Establishing a bullet proof social media policy is crucial and can protect your firm not only in the short term but also in the long term.   This policy needs to be strict and be enforced consistently throughout your firm, even for your sales staff.  Further, having a solid training program for your employees on how to use social media successfully for your business is also vital.  For more information on developing  a training program, give me a call.

“Well Sam, that is great.  But how do I monitor my employees posts?” you ask.  I recommend establishing a social media team within your HR Department (if your HR Department is big enough) or assigning someone the task of monitoring posts.   Check out this free tool (not yet published) that I have developed for you on how to layout the guidelines that your HR department/person should be looking out for and how report findings to management.  I have also developed a “Social Media Policy” (not yet published) that you can also get.