Corporate America is embracing the new hybrid work
model. Obviously, some like it and some
don’t, but with whatever we are faced with, we are going to have to deal with
it as the American Workforce.
But one thing is for sure:
We have to get used to abiding by a new set of rules, which is that of
our employer’s. One such area where this
will be felt is in the Social Media platforms that your company uses for its
marketing purposes, and even how you can use company equipment to access your
own Social Media accounts.
While we were WFH (and still for the most part), we had
certain liberties that we took for granted in this regard. For example, we could access Facebook and
Twitter whenever we wanted, without the fear of our boss looking over our
shoulders. In fact, Social Media has
much become like our smartphone: We love
it when we have it, and when we don’t, we feel totally paralyzed.
But for an employer, the fears and angst of how to deal with
Social Media for the employees is increasing at great levels. Since the world has gone digital, anybody can
post anything, anywhere, at any time when it is least expected. So what can a company do to protect
themselves in this regard? Here are some
tips that you can follow:
*Set clear and distinct guidelines about posting:
As a company, you probably make extensive use of Social
Media for your digital marketing efforts, and rightfully so. After all, for the most part it is free
(unless you are running a PPC campaign) and it is a perfect way to reach out to
your customers and prospects about your brand, products, services, and even
what is down the pipeline for your company.
But being the owner of your business, you obviously do not have the time
to post all of that stuff yourself, so you rely on your marketing team to do
that. But that is where the trust now
become implicit and clear. You have to
remind your employees that the stuff which is posted on company Social Media
sites can only be used for those purposes – and nothing more than that. For example, its great to talk about an
upcoming trade show that your company will be hosting, but it is totally wrong
and unacceptable to post anything else which could be deemed as a smear
campaign against your competitors. Yes,
there is the thing called the Freedom of Speech here, but remember, your
employees in this regard have to abide by your rules that you set forth. After all, they are playing on your
playground.
*Visting on personal accounts:
In this regard, there needs to be a little bit of
flexibility here. For example, your
employees probably get burned out looking at their computer screens and
Word/Excel files all morning. They need
to take a break, and see something that will make them feel more relaxed,
perhaps like seeing family pictures, getting caught up with a close friend,
etc. But you need to make it clear when
and how they can access their personal Social Media accounts. For instance, it should be restricted to only
break times, the lunch hour, and after work.
Also, they should not be allowed to use company issued devices for this,
they should only use their own devices, and away from the workplace setting.
*Put all of your policies in writing:
Any and all of your Social Media rules and penalties for not
abiding by them need to be written and spelled out very carefully in the
employee handbooks. That is one area,
but if you have something like an employee portal or an Intranet of sorts, make
sure it is posted there as well in an electronic format. But keep in mind, you have to be very careful
with the language that you use. You
don’t want your employees to feel that Big Brother is watching, or that any
privacy rights they may have are being intruded upon. So, it is wise to have your attorney and/or
even a professional human resources consultant look this over before you post
it.
*Keep tabs on what is being posted:
Now of course, as an employer, you have no control as to
what your employees post on their personal accounts during their break times
and after work hours. But you can keep
tab on what is being posted on the company sites. In this regard, you could probably make use
of both AI and ML tools to track for certain keywords, or even the
language/syntax of the content that is being posted. This is not restricted to just during work
hours, you also have the right to monitor these sites 24 X 7 X 365. But the caveat here is that you need warn
your employees that they are being watched as they post stuff on company
related Social Media sites. You may even
want to hire somebody to keep watch on all of the content that is going up, if
you make that much use of Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In. There is also another reason for doing
this: You will also be able to keep
track of any signs lurking about a potential Insider Attack that could be
brewing from within the confines of your business.
My Thoughts On This:
There are two other reasons why you need to keep tabs on all
of this stuff, and they are as follows:
*It is a known fact that the Cyberattacker is becoming
extremely sophisticated and covert in the way that they launch their threat
vectors. As I have written about many
times before, they are now taking their own sweet time studying their
prey. This also means scouring all of
the Social Media sites that are being used by your employees, for both job
related and personal uses. It is from
here that the Cyberattacker will start to build a profile of their victims,
find out their weak spots, and dive right in from there. This is something that you need to remind
your employees of on an almost constant basis, and make the point is
simple: They need to be careful of what
they post, because if your company is hit by a security breach, they could very
well lose their jobs as a result.
*Unfortunately, ever since last January, the use of Social
Media sites to fan the flames of racial extremism has become a reality. Therefore, you really need to keep a very
close eye on your company related Social Media sites to make sure that with
what is being posted, this will not spark any controversy. The last thing you would ever want to happen
to your business.
Finally, INMO, be selective of the Social Media sites you
use for company purposes. You don’t have
to use all of them to get your word out. For me, I just used Linked In, because
it is a great platform for Cyber professionals.
Plus, it is very carefully monitored to make sure that only business-related
content is posted, and nothing more than that.
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