A review of numerous companies’ social media policies3 indicates numerous risks that a company may face with employees’ use – whether for their personal or business purposes – of social media.

1. Misuse of work time
2. Misuse of company resources
3. Risk to company computer systems, network or data
4. Disclosure of confidential or other non-public information
5. Disparagement or Harassment
6. Conflicts of interest
7. Advertising and marketing and fair competition
8. Records Maintenance
9. Espionage or fraud
10. Privacy
11. Personal reputation damage

Corporate Use of Social Media

Because of the many ways in which social media can be misused and thus lead to ethics and compliance problems, companies that plan to use this media for business purposes should consider setting standards and other expectations that address:

• Collecting and using personal and corporate information belonging to individuals who contribute.
• Creating or maintaining company-sponsored blogs, discussion boards, chat rooms, audios/videos, contests, marketing activities and other social media, and employees specifically authorized to do so.  In certain instances, companies also may want to limit employees authorized to contribute to these channels.
• Reviewing information to be posted on company social media.
• Disclosing the company’s sponsorship and ownership of certain posted materials.
• The company’s rights regarding use, redistribution and retention of others’ contributions to its social media.
• Disclosing any company conflicts of interest with information posted on its social media.

As many companies are now experiencing, social media’s use in the workplace poses numerous risks because it crosses so many different ethics and compliance topics and because its applications and use are rapidly and constantly changing. But as with all business topics, a company can successfully manage its own and its employees’ personal use of it by employing a common framework applied to most other ethics and compliance topics, albeit with some modifications specific to social media.  The sooner that a company gets its arms around use of social media the better it will fare as the fast rate of change in social media going forward is expected; a delinquent company will have further to catch up the later it responds to the challenge.

This article is available in full at Corporate Compliance Insights.