Social media considerations for businesses

Businesses have been told to make sure they have a social media policy in place to protect themselves against staff indiscretions.

According to a study by Gartner, social networking services will replace email as the main communication channel for 20 per cent of businesses by 2014, while many will also use it to complement existing communications.

Doug Miles, UK managing director at AIIM Europe, speaking at the AIIM Roadshow 2010, explained the considerations businesses need to make with social media.

“Executives need to understand the difference between playing around on Facebook and building a true collaborative infrastructure for the organisation. Collaboration without governance is a recipe for disaster,” he said.

He also pointed out that having a social media policy in place could help to deal with situations when employees are indiscreet through external channels.

Mr Miles added: “If you don’t have a policy, when you discipline that member of staff, what are you disciplining them against?”

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