According to a 2012 State of Social Media survey conducted by Useful Social Media, 93% of corporations responded that social media is becoming a more important part of their marketing strategy.  Yet, 79% of businesses said that current social media metrics are insufficient.  Management of social media is lagging behind its use.

According to a Silk Road Technology survey of 1,105 employees in North America, 75% of employees access social media via mobile devices at work and 49% of employees look to connect with co-workers via social media.  “Employees will use social media during the workday.  These findings make it clear: companies can either find ways to use social media to achieve measureable business results, or they can ignore it at their own peril,” said Flip Filipowski, CEO, SilkRoad Technology.  “There is a common misperception that people only use social media for personal reasons.  This research proves that people are looking to social media to help them be better at their jobs – including connecting with co-workers and customers.”

Given the increased social media use in the workplace, organizations should address maximizing return and mitigating risks through strategy, risk management analysis, and integration of these strategies and analysis into organizational policies and training.  Corpedia published a white paper “Millennials, Social Media, and Employee Usage: Effective Practices to Mitigate Social Media’s Emerging Risk” that provides food for thought in this arena, including integrating social media policies into the organization’s ethics policies.

Social media may be covered in the ethics policy under many other topics including Appropriate Technology Use, Harassment and Discrimination, and Confidential Data Use and Sharing, or, all of these topics may be covered under a separate section dedicated to social media in order to ensure proper focus and employee understanding.  Contact Ethical Advocate if you need assistance in defining and integrating social media policies into your ethics and compliance program.