How Can Organizations Adopt Social Media Governance Without Crossing the Line?

This blog is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center.

Over the past decade, employers have realized the importance of the content employees share on their personal social media accounts about their jobs and the organization. Social media offers employees a platform to praise their organization’s strengths, but also openly criticize its shortcomings. It is, therefore, not surprising that many organizations develop a social media governance framework to guide employees’ social media behavior in the right direction.

But how far can organizations go in managing their employees’ social media use? Tesla has faced scrutiny for monitoring the Facebook activity of its workforce, while Sherwin-Williams has been criticized for firing an employee who made TikToks at work. These real-life cases illustrate how employers are challenged to balance the fine line between protecting the organization from reputational or legal risks and respecting employees’ freedom to express themselves online.

Through our research, An-Sofie Claeys and I helped organizations develop an effective social media governance framework that considers both employer and employee interests. In a recent study, we surveyed 502 Belgian employees to examine how people communicate about work on social media, and to what extent this online behavior is influenced by their employers’ social media governance tools. Based on our findings, we formulate three recommendations:

1) Prepare the soil. Before considering any social media governance tools, organizations should “prepare the soil.” If they want positive social media behavior to grow among their workforce, they must first create a supportive work environment where employees feel a strong connection and relationship with the organization.

2) Develop a stimulating social media governance framework. Once the foundations are built, organizations can develop a social media governance framework to stimulate employees’ social media use between well-communicated boundaries. A common mistake organizations make is adopting very restrictive measures (e.g., social media ban, punishments) out of fear that employees will post sensitive or negative things about their job or the organization. This overly restrictive approach is often misplaced. Our research, and that of other scholars, showed that it is quite unusual for employees to post negative work-related content on social media. In addition, restrictive measures rarely lead to the desired outcome. When organizations ban social media from the workplace or threaten punishments for inappropriate social media use, employees can feel that their freedom is being threatened. This can trigger a sense of resistance in them, eventually leading them to speak negatively about the organization on social media.

But what approach should organizations take instead? Our research proposed two effective social media governance tools for organizations to consider:

– Social media guidelines are a set of rules and recommended practices developed by an organization to guide employees’ social media use. Our research showed that such guidelines successfully stimulate positive online behavior among employees. Organizations will benefit most from these guidelines when they focus on what employees can do on social media rather than only addressing what they cannot do. It is, in other words, best to implement primarily stimulating guidelines (e.g., “As an employee, you can add value to public conversations and online discussions. With your knowledge and expertise, you can provide a framework for others on social media”) and only a limited number of restrictive guidelines (e.g., “You are not, under any circumstances, allowed to disclose confidential or internal information on social media”).

– Rewards are a good way for organizations to show appreciation for their employees’ positive social media behaviors. Employees who act as organizational ambassadors on social media can, for instance, be honored with shout-outs or awards at a company event. Other examples of rewards are extra vacation days or financial bonuses. However, organizations should keep in mind that such rewards could undo the positive effects of employee ambassadorship and may even backfire. Amazon, for instance, faced backlash after it came to light that they were paying warehouse workers to say positive things about the company on Twitter.

3) Facilitate employee ambassadorship on social media. Organizations should make it easy for employees to become company ambassadors on social media. A good place to start are the organizations’ official social media pages. Does the organization regularly post relevant and pride-inducing content, for instance about sustainability-related initiatives, that employees would likely repost? It is also important to remember that many employees use social media just for fun. Company events or staff activities can be a little nudge for employees to post something positive about work, even if it is just a fun photo with colleagues.