Five Imperatives For Your Airline’s Social Media Policy

So you’ve got a sizeable social media presence for your airline over the past year. And now, the employees are starting to participate too. But there’s a constant tug of war, between Legal, Corp. Comms and Marketing – on how employees should and shouldn’t participate in social media. The solution? An airline-wide social media policy.

What is a social media policy, you ask?  Basically, it addresses the concerns that many airlines have when getting started in social media… What if an employee says something they shouldn’t?  How do we respond to passenger complaints and compliments?  How can we possibly control what our employees are doing online?  If you’ve been up and running on social media for a few months, it’s time you formalize your thoughts in this area, and ensure everyone at the airline is on the same page.  Here are five key imperatives for your social media policy:

 

1. Explain the Scope in User-Friendly Terms

When you say “social media policy” to many of your employees, they may think “that doesn’t apply to me because I’m not in Marketing.”  So, it’s important for your policy to explain what types of activities it covers, possibly including their personal Facebook profile, their Twitter account, YouTube accounts, etc.  Giving these types of examples up front in the policy will ensure that employees understand that their online persona is a reflection of the company, even if they are not an “official spokesperson” for the company.

 

2. Authenticity and Transparency

I could write an entire blog post alone about what these two terms mean!  But, basically, employees need to be transparent; meaning that they should use their real names in anything they are writing online, and disclose that they work for your airline when appropriate.  For example, if they are commenting on a blog post related to the airline industry, they should be clear that they work for your airline. And state clearly whether or not their views are personal, or official.

Authentic and transparent also mean being human. Show who you are as a person, not just an employee.  Be real.  Be wrong.  Be personal.

 

3. Confidentiality

Being authentic and transparent don’t mean that everything that happens in the company is open for public consumption. Employees need to understand what is confidential, and exercise judgment about what to share and what to keep private. Explaining what is considered confidential and off limits for social media, is an important part of your social media policy.

 

4. Think About Who is Listening

Before anyone writes anything online, they should think about who could see it.  If your competitor saw it, would that be OK?  If your airline’s promotions agency saw it, what would they think?  These questions should be asked with every online interaction. If the employee is unsure, they shouldn’t post it.

It’s also important to remember that the Internet is permanent.  Anything written will stay on record in some way.  Nothing is ever fully deletable.

 

5. Guiding Principles

Porter Novelli, a public relations company, has a set of guiding principles in its social media policy.  This is a great way to summarize the policy into overarching guidelines, rather than rules, that are easy to remember.

  • The web is not anonymous. Assume that everything you write can be traced back to the company, if not you personally.
  • There is no longer a clear boundary between your personal life and your work life.
  • Do not lie or withhold the truth.
  • he web contains a permanent record of our mistakes. But do not try to change things retrospectively.

I can picture these as thought bubbles running through someone’s head before writing anything online.

 

While these are the 5 most important items to include in your social media policy, there are many more considerations when writing one.  Look out next week for a follow up post with more on this topic.

What do you think?  Have we missed any imperatives? Have you had success with a social media policy? What are the key elements there? Let’s discuss.

(Photo credit: Transparency, Big Ear)

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