The phenomenon that is social media has been around since the early noughties.  Facebook was launched in 2004 and Twitter, or X as it has been renamed, was launched two years later in 2006.  The advent of social media has without doubt altered the social norms of most westernised countries and been embraced by many companies as the best way of promoting and advertising their goods and services.  But along with the good side of this form of media – the immediacy and the targeted communication being just two examples - comes a potential world of risk and controversy for both individuals and companies alike.  Perhaps more so for companies as they have to deal with managing their own social media accounts as well as anything that their employees might publish to the whole world on their private feeds.

There have been numerous examples of high-profile broadcasters or celebrities getting into difficulties through a careless or ill-worded “tweet”. For example, Gary Lineker courted controversy when in 2023 he tweeted about the then government’s policy on illegal immigrants.  But there are also numerous cases of “normal” people posting comments or even just liking someone else’s comments that have landed them, and sometimes by implication their employer in hot water.

The overlap between an individual’s personal life and their professional one is becoming ever more blurred in the 21^st century.  As the digital world is now an integral part of everyday communication, it is becoming more and more relevant for employers to put a well-defined boundary in place to ensure that employees understand where their professional lives end and their personal lives begin.  Ensuring that your employees are mindful of how their online activities may reflect on your business should help to ensure that,  you do not end up working out what your social media policy actually is, in full gaze of the general public!

Reasons to have a Social Media Policy

1. Protecting your Company’s Reputation.

Employees may well include details of where they work on their own personal social media platforms, which may have a detrimental on a company’s reputation if the employee then goes on to post inappropriate or damaging content.  Ensuring that clear guidelines on what is acceptable and what is not will help employers to avoid being caught in the cross fire if, to use the language of social media, there is a “pile-on”.

2. Mitigating against Defamation/Harassment Claims.

There is the potential for social media to become a legal minefield for employers If an employee was to share false information about an organisation or an employee on their social media feed or even to disclose sensitive/confidential information.  The possibility of becoming embroiled in a legal claim from this type of incident is a real one.  Setting clear expectations and consequences for employees for inappropriate online conduct or content is key to ensuring that your business can avoid or at least defend claims made as a result of your employees’ behaviour or comments.

3. Increasing Productivity

Excessive use of smart phones and social media during working hours can impact productivity hugely when employees are obsessively checking their phones for the latest notification.  For transport operators this could even give rise to safety concerns.  Having a policy in place that sets guidelines on what is allowed during office hours and which helps to minimise any distractions from the job at hand will help avoid potential problems and ensure that employees are using their time effectively and efficiently and safely.

4. Demarcation Lines – personal vs. professional

Companies should ensure that their social media policy gives clear lines of demarcation over the use of social media privately and the use in the remit of an employee’s job, for instance when they are asked to update the company’s X feed to promote something the company is offering.  Knowing what is appropriate to post as a representative of a business versus what might be acceptable as a private individual is key to ensuring that wires are not crossed and no damage is done.

What Should You Put in A Social Media Policy?

How your policy is written and what it includes will be specific to your company’s own circumstances but here are some essential “headings” to start the process;

• Be specific about what you define as social media and don’t forget to include less well-known applications, such as Discord or Snapchat.
• Keep the list of platforms that you define as social media up to date as you need to keep your policy up to date with the ever-changing landscape of social media apps/platforms.
• Ensure you protect important data, intellectual property and customer confidentiality. These are all critical and your policy should define what types of information are prohibited from sharing on a social network site.
• Be very clear about the Company’s expectations and the consequences of breaching them. It may be that your company has a social media presence.  What are the rules for checking posts before they are published?  Is it appropriate for your company to comment on political events on the feed, and if so to what level?  Is it appropriate to post images of colleagues or company assets on social media? These are all questions that should have a defined answer before allowing employees to publish posts to the world.   Then down the track, what are the consequences if an employee posts inappropriate content or comments either personally (which is then linked to your company) or on behalf of the company?

Transport Operators and Social Media

As well as all the usual employment issues social media poses, as a transport operator there are other areas that need consideration when drafting a policy.  It should go without saying, but probably the first thing in any policy should be that the use of social media whilst driving is forbidden.  There have been a number of road accidents in recent years caused by commercial drivers who have been using social media whilst driving their vehicles, with tragic consequences.  Shockingly, statistics show that around 3,000 people die in accidents involving “distracted drivers” each year.

As a transport operator consideration should be given as to whether employees should be allowed to post pictures of themselves and their vehicle or any details of the route they are taking so as to ensure that criminals do not have access to information that would allow them to work out the location of the truck and possibly steal the contents.

The proliferation of video recording devices on vehicles now has seen people posting videos of other dangerous drivers or near misses on the road to social media.  Whilst having this footage can be useful when investigating the cause of an accident, for instance, the other side of that coin is that if the company’s driver reacts aggressively or inappropriately during the incident then the video may end up coming back to bite both them and the company.

If you would like any help or advice to draw up your own social media policy then our solicitors are here to help.  Give us a call on 01279 818280 or click here to send an email.

(C) Richard Pelly - July 2024