Now that we understand the reasons for having a social media policy, let's look at the steps you can take to create such a policy. While different companies include different things in their policy, these are the steps I suggest you follow. First, list the official social media accounts for the company and ask employees to follow them. For example, a company may have a LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram account, and another may have Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Having a list and a short description of how they are being used can make it easier for employees to find them and use them appropriately, and by following the accounts, employees will get a good sense of how you like to talk about your business on social platforms. Next, help employees understand who is responsible for what and specify which responsibilities individual employees have. Here are the steps you can take. Specify who's responsible for posting on company accounts. If you have a social media team, provide their contact info. Communicate that employees can talk about a company in their personal accounts, but that they should do so in a responsible manner that's consistent with the brand's image. Tell employees they should disclose who they are and where they work when posting about a company. As a third step, clearly specify what people can talk about, tell employees what's considered confidential information. You should provide clear examples of what can be shared. For instance, you can tell employees that news about product launches or official press releases can be shared. For important announcements, consider creating sample posts that employees can post on different social media platforms. Make it clear to employees what can never be shared, like internal communications, financial or other proprietary information. Some industries like pharmaceuticals, for instance, have strict regulations when it comes to disclosing information or promoting products. If that's the case for your organization, you should tell employees how this affects how they communicate on social media. Fourth, focus on how you want employees to talk on behalf of the company. Some people refer to this as the tone of voice that's used on social media platforms. Common guidelines includes, be honest and polite, make sure to cite your sources, don't post negative comments about people or competitors, and remind employees that what they post on social media is permanent. Even if they delete a comment later on, someone may already have taken a screenshot. So it's a good idea to give some thought to what you post. Here's an example from Intel social media policy, where they refer to what they want employees to keep in mind when participating in social media. Don't slam the competition or Intel. Play nice. Anything you publish must be true and not misleading and all claims must be substantiated and approved. Finally, recognize that mistakes happen and provide a plan for dealing with conflict, negative interactions, or a real crisis. It's a good idea to provide clear direction on who to alert and what process to follow for reporting negative interactions. The company should also designate people or departments who are responsible for helping to manage the situation. Include contact information and encourage employees to immediately share any issues they see. It's important that a company tries to discourage people from reacting to negative messages. Always better to forward those to people who are trained to deal with them. Following these steps will help educate and enable employees who would like to participate and talk on the company's behalf in social media, and it will help to protect a company. In our next video, we'll take a look at company blogs, which often form a starting point or a hub for the messages a company wants to communicate.