# Drafting Your Company's Social Media Policy Social media statistics reveal that more folks are registering on sites like Facebook and Twitter every day. According to Econsultancy, Twitter has 175 million registered users, Facebook has 640 million registered users, and you can find 100 million professionals registered on LinkedIn. The chances of one's employees being active on these sites are relatively high considering the statistics. Although they might be active on social media marketing, it doesn't mean they understand how to conduct themselves in a specialist manner. And as great as social media marketing is for online marketing, it could hurt your online success when it is used improperly. That's why it's important for companies to create a social media marketing policy that employees can very quickly digest and comprehend. **What Else Is Social Media?** When most people think of social media marketing, they think of Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. But it could be a lot more than that. It can include community forums, chat services, and social bookmarking sites, among other things. In other words, social media marketing is any website or online application where conversations take place. ![](https://i.imgur.com/292rvyl.jpg) As you create your company's SM policy, address what sites, services, and platforms are an integral part of your brand's knowledge of **[south asian demographics usa](https://www.touchdown-media.com/)**. Your employees need to find out what social media marketing is, and what it's comprised of, to understand how to conduct themselves and represent your brand. **Define "Common Sense"** Most companies implement a "common sense" code of conduct when instructing employees on how to engage with others through SM. But we often hear stories of individuals getting fired over tweets and brands scrambling to combat unwanted Facebook posts from employees. And each time this happens, we wonder why. Why did that staff member say what he said? Why didn't he use common sense? The answer generally comes right down to three things: age, diversity, and a lack of professional SM experience. Your staff comprises people from different races, ethnic groups, and they might be as young as 17 and as old as 60. A young adult's knowledge of common sense will be slightly different from an individual who has been on the work for 10 years. Additionally, social media marketing platforms like Facebook and Twitter are relatively new considering how people have communicated with one another since the Web was introduced over 20 years ago. Compiling a set of "common sense" do's and dont's is a boring tasks but it could save your valuable company from the trouble of mobilizing your reputation management team for unwanted posts. Assuming that the employees have exactly the same knowledge of common sense is something you intend to avoid when coping with social media. Create Boundaries For Professional and Personal Use Social media is a great online marketing tool not only for brands but for people who would like to express their particular thoughts, ideas, and opinions. It is a fun and entertaining medium and your employees may feel compelled to use it for their particular needs in your time. How do you want to balance or moderate their SM use in the workplace? Will you allow them to speak about your brand on the personal accounts? Will you require them to create professional profiles to disseminate company messages? Or do you want to prohibit them from speaing frankly about your company all together? There is no right or wrong strategy to create boundaries for SM use. It will depend in your marketing strategy, how you intend to market your company to achieve web success, and the freedoms you intend to give your employees. Considering that the boundaries between professional and personal use are often blurred and difficult to moderate, consult having an online marketing agency to discover the professionals and cons of the boundaries you intend to set.