Your social media branding guidelines should first note all your profiles. So, if your brand is also on Snapchat, Reddit or TikTok, don’t neglect them in your style guide. Think of a social media style guide as an extension of your brand guidelines. Panacea Neighborhood Pharmacy uses marketing and promotion to interact with customers through a variety of social media channels.

Increase Your Reach On Social Media

It should explain why compliance is important and offer tips to help mitigate risks. Compliance and social media training should be part of your new employee onboarding process. When employees are familiar with the rules, they’re more likely to flag compliance risks. Armanino, one of the top independent CPA and consulting firms in the U.S., built a content library of brand-approved content to share with a network of internal brand ambassadors. After launching the library, they saw more than 14,700 website clicks from employee posts. More than 19 million people were reached through that approved employee content.

Enterprise tools like Hootsuite offer role-based access, built-in approvals, content archiving, and integrations with compliance solutions. This gives organizations consistent controls across teams, regions, and accounts (something native social tools can’t do on their own). Make sure your compliance team understands your content creation and approval process (including any AI tools you’re using). Clarify when you should consult them or if you need to change your procedures. In the United States, organizations like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulate social media posts.

For non-profits trying to make the most of social media, the choice of management tools can be overwhelming. Which one will save you the most time and effort, if you’re a non-profit struggling with resources and people power? In this e-book, we compare the most popular social media management platforms in depth, so you can make an informed decision. These guidelines are intended to complement existing university policy.

Images for backgrounds, avatars, and cover photos should be in good taste and representative of the University. This requirement exists to minimize the spread of misinformation and content shared out of context. After drafting the policy, share it with the core team for feedback before finalizing it. As social media and your brand evolve, the policy will need to be revamped accordingly. In the following sections, we’ll detail what a social media policy plan should contain and why it’s a must-have for businesses navigating the digital realm. Let your employees know where they can find further training and guidance on social media best practices and remind them again of how the training may help their careers and professional brand.

Outline The Do’s, Don’ts And Whys

Ensure that you set consistent standards for using images that align with the dimensions as recommended by each platform. Social media is one of the most powerful ways for any company to engage its customers and target audience. Research and review policy documents from trusted companies and organizations to help improve your document. In the case of personal use for employee advocacy or customer contact, it should clearly define any review process, approval process, and expectations for appropriate behavior when engaging online. Your company’s brand reputation and even trade secrets can be at risk in a world where every detail of our lives seems like fodder for our feeds.

Add quick links to documents like the company’s code of conduct, mission and values, employee agreements and privacy policies. These direct the employees in the right direction and prevent them from going astray while posting online. Oracle’s social media participation policy documents how social media is used as a business, but its employee code of conduct and business ethics touch on how employees can engage in personal social media. Walmart is dedicated to its social media accounts and believes in social media as an avenue for customer service. Its social media policy mentions all the networks it has a presence on, zeroes in on Twitter (X), Facebook, and Instagram.

The University of California in Santa Barbara policy includes a list of security protocols for social media use. These protocols help secure the organization’s accounts and protect against possible data breaches. A social media policy is a living document that evolves and changes to account for changes in technology, trends, and in response to experiences across social platforms.

In social media guidelines, you should expect to find guidance on how to write copy (the tone of voice), the types of creative assets to use and how to interact with your audience via comments and messages. It can be quite a simple document if you’re a small business – maybe just a shared Google Doc listing out the do’s and don’ts. Or it could be a more detailed, visual document intended for global teams. If you’re looking for a tool to simplify the way you manage your company’s social media accounts, consider Gain. The following 12 social media guidelines examples are suggestions to incorporate into your social media policy to help employees feel confident engaging online and protect your brand.

A clear policy protects both the brand and its employees from reputational, compliance, and security risks. Keep reading to learn more and download our free, customizable social media policy template so you can start building or updating yours right away. A company’s social media guidelines should be used by anyone across the business who’s creating content for social media.