Businesses should not underestimate the importance of implementing a social media policy and monitoring employee activity carefully, as failing to do so could result in unwanted publicity.
This is the advice of Catherine Taylor, a partner at law firm Olswang, who said in an article for Lexology that many firms were hit with criticism for their actions on Facebook and Twitter in 2012.
Use of these sites is not expected to slow this year and Ms Taylor recommended companies take action to ensure staff tweet and post Facebook updates in a suitable manner.
She urged businesses to inform their staff if they intend to carry out social media monitoring, a move that may be part of a wider written policy on use of social sites.
This, Ms Taylor explained, should be “tailored to the organization and set out the parameters for the acceptable use of social media”.
Joakim Nilsson has also extolled the virtues of social media monitoring to check on the public’s perception of a brand, stating in Business2Community that enterprises should have a process in place and, importantly, analyze the data they collect.