Social Media: Training Is Key

How we can manage risks of Social Media through Policies?

Frequent face-to-face training on social media policies is a vital component of any risk management effort. Once an organization develops social media policies designed, in part, to prevent privacy violations, in-person training sessions offer the best way to make certain that policies are followed.

Training sessions should provide real-world examples of inappropriate uses of social media to reinforce the risks involved. In spelling out proper uses of social media for communication, an organization must ensure that employees "understand that posting on Facebook is really no different than talking at the water cooler or sending an e-mail.

Because organisations can use social media for many purposes, It is highly recommended to create a multi-disciplinary team to develop policies. The team should include representatives of the human resources, legal, information technology, marketing, risk management, public relations and compliance departments.

The other key recommendations are:

• Document current and intended social media use. For example, if a human resources department intends to use social media for recruiting and hiring purposes, that will require the creation of policies about allowable uses of information gathered.
• Perform a risk assessment. A key component of this effort, is to conduct a workshop with upper management and key stakeholders to discuss all risks identified so they can be mitigated.
• Expand current policies to include social media and implement safeguards. For example, organizations may want to expand their information security policy to explain the potential for downloading malware by clicking on a malicious Facebook page. In addition to adding new details to existing policies, organizations may also want to create a freestanding social media policy to highlight key issues.
• Provide social media training. It's important to provide frequent updates with reminders about security incidents in the news.
• Monitor social media channels. By tracking mentions of their organization on social media, executives can use the information to adjust their marketing message, offer personalized replies to negative comments and capitalize on positive comments.