We’ve all heard the stories – you send out a tweet or post a facebook status update, the wrong person sees it, and you no longer have a job! We like to laugh a little at the stories and think “How could they be so careless, don’t they know everything gets around on the web??” Unfortunately, we are all guilty of small snafu’s…I’ve done it, and if you think back, you know you have too. Even if they weren’t ones to lose your job over, you still wish you could take them back. It is so simple to think before you tweet or update. It is easy to forget how many people really do see what you say, and it is easier to press enter than it is to pick up the phone and deal with the situation.

For an individual, this can be troublesome, but for a large company or a sports team, this can be a PR nightmare. For example, Jon Buscall shared a story about a Liverpool Babel player causing issues when he released ahead of the game that he would not be playing, and maybe not even staying with the team! As Jon points out, what if it was an employee tweeting about a product in development? Or a meeting that know one was supposed to know you had? He wraps with the question: should companies have twitter/social media policies?

I think the answer is a definite yes. And not just because of these types of examples. What Jon’s article didn’t include, and actually the biggest reason I think a company needs a social media policy, is for blogs. Just like twitter or facebook, anyone can set up a free blog and start writing. Even if they create it under a pseudonym and keep their identity private, it is only a matter of time before they are discovered.

What if an Apple employee was touting Microsoft, and how much better a PC is than an iMac? How would Apple handle this situation? It should have been prevented with a social media policy in place.

What about an ex-Disney employee who starts an “I hate the mouse” blog? Yes, this could have been prevented too with a social media policy for terminated employees.

Think this is silly? That no one would really have these policies? Tell that to Cisco, IBM, Fellowship Church, Mayo Clinic, and many, many more*.

The key to remember is that a social media policy doesn’t need to be draconian, but it certainly needs to exist.

Does your company have a policy? What is included?

*note: some of these are outward facing, but most are internally facing for the employees*