Social
media, being one of the fast growing electronic medium in our world today, has
become an essential tool for business success. A large number of organizations build
strong presence on social media with majority of them having many accounts on
Twitter and Facebook, which makes it easier for product branding,
communication, information sharing and building strong relationship with
people. Social media has come to stay. Those organizations or enterprises that
choose not to key into social media could be at a competitive disadvantage and
experiencing operational deficiency.
Social media has introduced complexities into the
business environment which now stands as a challenge to many organizations.
There are vast differences in functionality and cultural expectations on the
use of social media sites both personally and professionally. For instance,
Germany makes a distinction between private social media (Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram) and business social media (LinkedIn). Efforts are been made
by organizations and regulators to enforce appropriate compliance guidelines
for social media activities.
QUESTIONS BOTHERING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
The main issue that arises from using social media
in a business setting is that it alters the way we present ourselves, merging
our roles as people, professionals and consumers. As we share more of ourselves
on a growing number of social media platforms, questions quickly surface around
appropriate social media behavior - how often and on what social networks
should we post? When should we present ourselves in our professional role and
when should we share our personal opinions? Is it right to be social media
friends with co-workers, clients or a boss?
No doubt, these are complicated questions for
individuals and absolute puzzle for enterprises concerned with how employees
behave and interact within and outside workplace. Controlling employee’s social
media usage is even more difficult for enterprises. The questions now are, can
organizations dictate how their employees use social media? Can they monitor
social media conversations or use them to learn more about prospective job
applicants? When does the personal connection allowed by social media tools
cross the line from business to personal? To this end, regulators and
government agencies are revising specific guidelines, regulations and
laws relevant to social media management and oversight. Among them are; Federal
Financial Institutions Examination Council's (FFIEC) which proposes
"Social Media: Consumer Compliance Risk Management Guidance" and the
proposed European Union General Data Protection Regulation.
A security and risk analyst (Nick Hayes) has identified five common categories of
requirements that organizations must begin to address immediately to ensure
social media regulations and compliance.
DATA PROTECTION AND PRIVACY
The rise of social media is in large part to blame
for the growing controversy between privacy and appropriate personal
boundaries, which has caused heated debates between various regulators, as
people are willing to share more and more information about themselves in
largely public forums. At the same time, firms are investing in advanced
technology to harvest this data and convert it into actionable business
intelligence. To avoid potential conflict, organizations should evaluate how
they collect social media data and work to clearly address their intentions in
a public way, such as through their websites' public privacy policy statements.
EMPLOYEE RIGHTS
Approximately two-thirds of U.S. and EU
Web-connected adults are accessing social networking sites regularly. This
means that employees in virtually any industry are likely to use social media
in some form, which drastically increases a company's exposure to potentially
negative branding and reputational events. To address these concerns,
organizations can adopt policies to guide employee use of social media in some
form. However, they must be careful that these policies don't conflict with
country or state privacy laws, or other labor laws. In particular, companies
should be wary of how they monitor employees, restrict behavior through their
corporate social media
policy, and gather information for recruiting and hiring
purposes.
DISCLOSURE AND THIRD-PARTY ENDORSEMENT
A difficult issue posed by social media is how to
communicate sensitive, often complicated messages with limited words. Twitter
restricts messages to just 140 characters, for example, but organizations that
need to comply with the FTC, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other
disclosure requirements must ensure that all social media messages meet strict
specifications. What is considered acceptable practice depends on specific
regulations and how they deal with certain aspects of social media usage. For
instance, how long can a post remain on an account before it's considered an
endorsement? The FTC's guidance is less prescriptive and more about overall
intent, leaving it up to them to judge on a more case-by-case basis. The FDA,
on the other hand, has provided little guidance specific to social media, often
leaving its corporate constituents wary of pursuing an aggressive social media
strategy. Any organization that is planning a push into the realm of Twitter, LinkedIn and
the like should become familiar with the specific social media regulations and
compliance challenges that pertain to its company and industry.
GOVERNANCE AND OVERSIGHT
Employees across organizations are leveraging social
media to deepen customer relationships, improve team collaboration and
strengthen lead-generation efforts. In fact, Forrester has found that
career-driven information workers are almost twice as likely as the rest of the
workforce to use social media for business purposes. Considering these
statistics, firms are increasingly allowing employees to use social media for
business purposes, but regulators in some industries, such as FINRA and FFIEC,
now want to see that organizations develop proper internal procedures and
controls to ensure they manage associated risks effectively.
INFORMATION ARCHIVING AND RETENTION
Social media also presents new challenges for
organizations that are required to retain records of all business
communications. Namely, social content doesn't remain static; content creators
can edit or delete posts after they are published, and other posters can
comment and add to the discussion as well. Further complicating matters is
determining what content is considered "business" communication and
when that content should be captured and archived. Forrester recommends
determining the appropriate context of business communications first, and then
deciding which devices and applications employees are permitted to use and
under what circumstances.
The reality for most organizations is that social
media is not receding. In fact, it continues to grow and evolve at an alarming
rate. Consumers increasingly discover and communicate with businesses via
social media channels, and just as importantly, workers across many
organizations enjoy increased productivity thanks to the likes of Twitter and
LinkedIn. Instead of cowering from social media due to compliance fears,
enterprises should take the same precautions they've always needed to in the
past by focusing on all applicable regulations and putting the right governance
processes in place to comply with them. Organizations that are thinking about
and acting on such issues now can begin reaping the business benefits today and
avoid exposing the company to unnecessary risk later.
