Yesterday Telstra was the first major Australian corporation to publicly release it’s social media policy. Called guardrails to help employees navigate the world of social media the policy is defined around three concepts, the 3 R’s; Representing, Responsibility, and Respect.
After the last few weeks I think both employees, management and stakeholders at Telstra will be pleased to have a few boundaries. However as Stephen Collins said where are the boundaries in the policy? That said it is good to see companies coming forward with policies allowing others to learn.
As a bit of a review, let me compare the Telstra policy to my recommended best practices:
5 key areas:
- Provide rights for the participants and define their equitable treatment – Yes
- Protect the interests of all stakeholders, external and internal -Yes
- Define roles and responsibilities for implementation and operation – Yes it is covered but I would like more information on how the implementation will take place.
- Define integrity and ethical behaviours of participants – Yes
- Cover disclosure and transparency – Yes
5 main messages:
- Stop & Think – Implied but not explicit
- Use your loaf – Yes
- You can always disclaim, but you cannot hide – Yes
- Keep it real – Yes
- Respect the channels – Yes
So all in all a good first release.
It might also be good for Telstra to reference some of the relevant legislation:
- Copyright Act, 1968 (Cth)
- Spam Act, 2003 (Cth)
- Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act, 1998
It should be noted that Telstra is in no way the first Australian entity to release their policies online, The Powerhouse Museum did so in April 2007!
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6 responses so far ↓
1 Latest HR/Recruitment Articles | The Job's On! Blog // Apr 26, 2009 at 10:46 am
[...] Telstra’s social media policy – after the Fake Stephen Conroy fallout [...]
2 Assorted Links and Stuff IV | Netpreneur Blog - Making a Living on the Web in Australia // Apr 26, 2009 at 10:50 am
[...] Telstra’s social media policy – after the Fake Stephen Conroy fallout [...]
3 Amit Desai // Aug 5, 2009 at 12:23 am
Nice article and thanks for sharing your thoughts. I firmly believe that every organization big or small should have a social media policy. Recently I completed an analysis on usage of social media and its impact on productivity and have published my findings here http://www.gigathoughts.com/social-media/do-you-have-a-social-media-policy-for-your-organization.html
Hope you guys find it useful and also do let me know your views on the same
4 Chris Boudreaux // Aug 21, 2009 at 1:18 am
This database contains links to more than 70 social media policies, and you can filter by industry:
http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php
5 Telstra’s 3 R’s of Social Media Engagement // Oct 20, 2009 at 2:26 am
[...] http://specht.com.au/michael/2009/04/21/telstras-social-media-policy/ [...]
6 Calculated Risks | the human network // May 28, 2010 at 9:02 am
[...] Telstra’s policy is wordier – it runs to five pages – but it is, in essence, very similar. It is good that Telstra has a social media policy, but that policy was only developed after a very public and very embarrassing incident. Last year, Telstra employee Leslie Nassar, who posted to Twitter pseduonymously under the account ‘Fake Stephen Conroy’, revealed his identity. When Telstra realized that one of their employees daily satirized the senator charged with ministerial oversight of their organization, the company was appalled, and quickly moved to fire Nassar – only to find that it couldn’t, because Nassar had violated no stated policy or conditions of employment. Shortly after that, Telstra developed and promulgated its social media guidelines. Learn from Telstra’s mistake. This same sort of PR and political catastrophe needn’t happen in your organizations, but I guarantee that it will, if you do not develop a social media policy. So please, get started immediately. [...]
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