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Rules for employees who blog
April 8, 2008
Blogging is a national (and world) past time for over 100 million users. People are blogging at work, blogging at home, and blogging about their daily lives. If they work (which most do), chances are they're blogging about their company too. Some large companies have standards or guidelines for their employees if they choose to blog. It keeps the tone consistent and helps build the brand. Below are established guidelines from Sun, IBM, Yahoo! and Thomas Nelson, plus some articles about the subject. In this age of social media marketing, it helps to implement directives on how your employees can help build your company's presence online.
Sun
IBM urges employees to blog with care
Yahoo! blog guidelines
Guidelines on policy development (written for EMS managers, but applicable to all)
Thomas Nelson's corporate blogging rules
Responding to employee blogs (article)
Blogger bust leads to Cisco nightmare (article)
Blog-bashed bosses laying down the law (article)
Example of blogging rules and regulations (credit given to this great blogger - located about halfway down his blog)
"IBM regards blogs as primarily a form of communication and relationship among individuals. When the company wishes to communicate publicly as a company – whether to the marketplace or to the general public – it has well established means to do so.” However, conceding that blogging isn’t going to go away any time soon, IBM published its own version of the eleven commandments, a set of rules discouraging rude comments, warning employees not to disclose information useful to competitors, and reminding managers that “A blog is not the place to communicate IBM policies to IBM employees” (IBM n.d.).
Guidelines for IBM Bloggers: Executive Summary
1. Know and follow IBM’s Business Conduct Guidelines.
2. Blogs, wikis and other forms of online discourse are individual interactions, not corporate communications. IBMers are personally responsible for their posts. Be mindful that what you write will be public for a long time – protect your privacy.
3. Identify yourself – name and, when relevant, role at IBM – when you blog about IBM or IBM-related matters. And write in the first person. You must make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of IBM.
4. If you publish a blog or post to a blog and it has something to do with work you do or subjects associated with IBM, use a disclaimer such as this: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.”
5. Respect copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws.
6. Don’t provide IBM’s or another’s confidential or other proprietary information.
7. Don’t cite or reference clients, partners or suppliers without their approval.
8. Respect your audience. Don’t use ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, etc., and show proper consideration for others’ privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory – such as politics and religion.
9. Find out who else is blogging on the topic, and cite them.
10. Don't pick fights, be the first to correct your own mistakes, and don’t alter previous posts without indicating that you have done so.
11. Try to add value. Provide worthwhile information and perspective.
Posted by Suze Bragg on April 8, 2008 | Comments (0)
