Balancing Social Media Policies against Digital Marketing Strategy

Social media policies aren't typically the first thing that comes to mind when you’re masterminding a social media marketing strategy.

But it should be. And here's why.

Without social media policies that encourage employee advocacy, any earned or owned digital marketing strategy is unsustainable.

On social networks, reach is a function of engagement. Without engagement, no one sees your post. So you want your employees to share the company line on their personal social networking accounts.

Thus, in order for social media marketing messages to get noticed, they need to get passed along to friends of friends and their friends. That means other people have to like, comment, and share.

Drafting corporate social media policies may not seem as important as creating great content to share; but, if your addressable market – your employees, resellers or members – haven’t been given clear, easy-to-follow social media guidelines on permissible use, they’re much less likely to participate, so you’re much less likely to reach their friends.

Here's my top three reasons why executing a social media plan before you’ve provided everyone with easy-to-grasp social media guidelines is putting the cart before the horse.

1. Social Media is A Team Sport

Making social media outreach the sole responsibility of the marketing department is unsustainable. To be heard, you need to engage at scale by getting others to like, comment on and retweet your content so consider the legal issues but be fair.

If employees post, like and retweet brand stories, they need to reassured that they won't be violating your social media guidelines.

There are only so many relationships one person can maintain. You need to get folks talking online, and it’s going to be easier to engage those with a vested interest in your success. Social media policies are the first step to promoting widespread adoption among your addressable market.

2. Fear Is The Enemy

For others to engage, they need to feel safe. What if an employee gets asked a question about a known product performance issue on Facebook? Are they clear on…

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