Oh no! You’re in trouble!
Well, not really…..I mean, if you really know what your doing when using Facebook or Twitter. But what’s most concerning is, when organisations utilize them without the proper policies. One slight mistake in this kind of system may tip the balance of a business’ life and reputation, furthermore; if in the event something unfortunate happens such as, posting confidential information by an employee, that company will have to go through a time-consuming process just to cover up their tracks and address it.
This would be a lot easier if we actually take a look at an organisation. Let’s bring out our beloved Westpac, since it’s well known, has a reputation to uphold and has a lot of confidential info that needs to be managed. Not to really get into what it does, I would rather mention what they use Facebook for. Well, it’s pretty basic stuff, they share news about whatever’s new about the company, events and all about exciting new financial services they provide.
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The things to consider is or ultimately the questions that are needed to be asked would be:
1. who controls this page?
2. who chooses what to post or share
3. what information gets to be shared?
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Now this is where I throw out all the ‘what if’ scenarios. Let’s imagine this, an employee that was in charge of this page goes rogue! BOOM! What happened you asked? Oh, basically an employee got sacked or had a mental breakdown is going on a rant and using the company’s Facebook page to bring it down to it’s knees! What could they possibly post that can be so damaging to the organisation? Well, here’s a few thing:
Miss-use of Social Media
- password will be changed by this employee, preventing other moderators to regain control
- confidential info could be posted e.g. business strategies that could give the competitive market the upperhand
- high profile staff or employees may be exposed negatively and possibly with image attachments
- bank account details may be exposed to the public
The few of these possibilities are the reasons why organisations should consider how their platforms are controlled and by whom. The presented examples obviously retort to a security issue therefore policies should be made on this matter. Who controls the information? Should it even be controlled by a lower staff party? What’s the contingency for the worst case scenario?
Controlling these kinds of situations must be mitigated otherwise it could be implosive to the company’s reputation. Ultimately, legal action must be taken to address problems such as this. If the company fails to draw up policies about controlling their page, who is at fault? It will be massive blow to the organisation nonetheless due to the fact that it has come down to the legal situation.
To sum up, I’m simply giving a food for thought for companies (especially high reputation orgs) that plan to expand their reach by using social media. Don’t get me wrong though, these platforms can do wonders when used correctly. But one mishap can just turn a business upside down, no matter how much they have accomplished. Here’s a list of what should be taken into account:
- Profile Control Policies
- Privacy Policies
- Share Policies
- Security Procedures and Policies
Well that’s it for now, hope I haven’t given you too much to read on but I hope my point has come across. If there’s any other things you would like to add about what organisations should consider legally using web2.0, please let me know. Cheers ya’ll! 🙂
msion2013 