So faced with behavioural shifts such as:
- The rapid growth of Social Media tools such as Facebook and Twitter
- Widespread digital piracy (with 95% of downloaded songs not paid for)
- The advertising market shifting rapidly away from print and broadcast to digital
- The political use of social media - and support from the public of this
- The emergence of mobile technologies and the expectation that this will be the tool of choice by 2020.
Organisations cannot afford to ignore the digital world: how they operate in this environment must be addressed: policy must be established to ensure that:
- The organisation projects an image consistent with its mission and culture
- The employees of the organisation are able to engage with social media in a manner which is acceptable to the organisation
- The organisation is able to respond rapidly and effectively to any complaints or negative activity within the digital environment
- The organisation engages with its clients in meaningful ways
The team writing policy must include:
- staff with a deep knowledge of organisational mission, aims and goals
- staff with a knowledge of operational procedures
- staff who are keen participants in social media
It is possible that staff with organisational and procedural knowledge may be older and more experienced. Conversely, staff with social media experience may be younger and therefore have less organisational experience. Nevertheless, all members of the team must be allowed input and be respected for their area of expertise. Understanding the power (good and bad) and the culture of social media tools is a vital component when writing policy for the environment. The organisation must accept the power of social media, and incorporate its use in its dealings: staff who are already active participants are best placed to be able to take the organisation into this arena.
"Future-oriented" and "evolving" are the two areas of policy writing which can be difficult to achieve within some organisations, especially those with a "mature" or well-established culture. It can also be disruptive within any workplace if the procedural goalposts are constantly moved. Given the highly evolving nature of social media, employees must be given the freedom to be able to move with the trends. Policy should therefore focus more on the culture of the organisation, rather than a micro-managing approach. If employees are aware of mission, aims, and conventions of an organisation, they are best able to adapt to changes in social media whilst still maintaining the desired vision of the organisation. The National Library of Australia's Social Media Policy advocates for all staff to be involved in social media: the policy is written to enable participation rather than obstruct.
The issues of privacy, online security, intellectual property are of particular concern for the social media policy-makers. Opening the doors too wide can result in online chaos, locking the medium up too tightly negates the purpose by shutting down collaboration and community, making it a pointless exercise. Again, employees who are already conversant in the culture of social media can straddle these opposing sides and help other staff members comfortable with the medium. More importantly, they can flag possible problem areas, therefore enabling policy to be written which pre-empts problems and has ready-made solutions built in.
Organisations must involve themselves in social media in some fashion or find themselves left behind and irrelevant to their clients. Policy writing must involve staff from a variety of backgrounds, and must include staff who are already engaged in social media, even if they are relatively new to the organisation. Policy must empower rather than cripple employees, and should also be fluid, allowing for the inevitable changes to the various social media platforms.
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