NOW is the time to draft a social media policy for your business, advises Rochelle Cameron, the head of LIME’s legal and regulatory Division.

Unlike traditional print media, companies have very limited control over what is said about them on the Internet, beyond the scope of their own corporate websites, and the potential audience for negative comments is unimaginable, she said.

A social media policy sets out the standards that an organisation expects from its employees when using online social media.

It should provide guidelines of acceptable behaviour and explains what employees should and should not do when using social media in the course of their employment, as well as the possible consequences if the policy is breached, Cameron told guests at the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) President’s Club Forum at the Jamaica Pegasus yesterday.

Of course, the various stakeholders, such as a company’s human resource department and and its young employees, should be consulted before finalising policy guidelines.

“Consulting the trade union is an important aspect, as with such a policy there will be sanctions, so there are certain parameters that must be set,” Cameron said.

Citing a study conducted last year in the US by York College of Pennsylvania, she said that half of human resource professionals thought IT abuses have increased over the past five years.

Moreover, the senior legal practitioner noted that employees must understand that there is no privacy on the Internet, as a photo or comment can be shared even with those you didn’t intend to.

A social media policy can help to manage the loss of productivity, prevent the damage of a company’s reputation, outline what is considered confidential, state clear consequences of an employee’s action on the social media, designate a company spokesperson responsible for answering questions and outline the proper way to engage with others as well as reflect the company’s core values, according to Cameron.

A social media blunder may have a significant impact on a company.

For example, in the aftermath of the viral Domino’s Pizza video in 2009, when two of its employees filmed a prank in the restaurant kitchen — company revenue reportedly fell by two per cent that quarter, she said at the forum.

Despite the domino effect of social media, there are also advantages.

The use of social media has become a big business — so much so that companies justify their marketing programmes based on the number of likes, shares or followers they have on the brand or product.

Cameron pointed out that the very use of social media can guide the policy and that there are numerous templates available on the Internet. Moreover, it has to be flexible and can be re-written as time progresses.

The president’s forum is the first official PSOJ event for the New Year and was previously known as the chairman’s club.

According to president of the PSOJ, Christopher Zacca, re-branding reflects the broad-based nature of the topics the PSOJ plans to discuss and the range of members it wishes to appeal to.

At the event, seven new members were inducted into the PSOJ. They are the Medical Association of Jamaica, Sol Petroleum Jamaica, Info Exchange Limited, Human Resource Management Association of Jamaica, Cari-Med, DGS Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors, and Jamaica Central Securities Depositories.