We are a plugged-in people, constantly bombarded by friend requests, photo tags, status updates and links to videos of funny babies and pets. At Greteman Group, we not only embrace the media and technology that make these bombardments possible, we harness them for our clients. We also welcome the power of individuals to leverage and enhance their personal brands through these tools.

At the same time, we recognize the challenges of the increasing competition for our time and attention created by this barrage of messages. To address these challenges, we have created the following guidelines for team members’ use of social media tools both in and out of the office.

*We’re adding the following policy to our official employee manual. We thought that many of you might be having similar discussions at your companies, and that posting our policy might help guide your conversations.

Overall Philosophy
While you are on company time, please refrain from online activities that don’t bring value to Greteman Group. Think of your personal time online in the same way you think of personal phone calls or emails.

Blogging
Microsoft has a bone-simple blogging policy. Be smart. We ask the same of you. Please be smart in your online activities. They reflect on both you and the agency. The ability to publish things that may never go away and can be forwarded endlessly, well, it gives us pause and we hope it does you, too.

We view personal websites and blogs as good things. We want you to avail yourselves of these media. We respect your online activity as a medium of self-expression. Please note, though, that confidentiality agreements prevent disclosure of all client and Greteman Group business. Readers may view you as a de facto spokesperson for our company.

While you are employed with Greteman Group, please observe the following blogging guidelines for your personal blogs:

1. Do not work on your personal blog during business hours. If you just have to scratch the itch to blog, write a post for the Greteman Group blog.
2. When posting to your personal blog, please make it clear to your readers that the views you express are yours alone and that they do not necessarily reflect the agency’s views. To help reduce the potential for confusion, we would appreciate it if you put the following notice – or something similar – in a reasonably prominent place on your site:
   The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
3. Respect the company’s confidentiality and proprietary information.
4. Ask your direct supervisor if you have any questions about what is appropriate to include in your blog.
5. Be respectful to the company, fellow team members, clients and competitors.
6. Understand and comply when the company asks that topics not be discussed for confidentiality or legal reasons.

Online Social Networking
Online social networks include sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn (and many, many more).

There have been a number of questions regarding proper “etiquette” on these sites. While there are no official rules when it comes to the following, these are our recommendations:

• Use Facebook and MySpace (and similar sites) as your personal network. If you don’t want to friend coworkers, vendors or clients, don’t feel pressured to.
• Use LinkedIn as your professional network for adding work-related colleagues.
• If you are uncomfortable with adding a contact, don’t add him or her. These might include former employees, competitors or that random, slightly creepy guy you met at an organization’s mixer.

The following are guidelines we request you abide by while you are employed with Greteman Group:

1. Do not access your personal social network on company time.
2. In your LinkedIn privacy settings, block your connections from viewing your other connections. The setting should read: “Your connections are not allowed to view your connections list.” Sounds confusing, we know. Which is why we will show everyone how to do it at our next Oxygen Bar. If you’re still confused, just see a member of the iTeam for instructions.
3. Be smart about what you publish. Once you put something out there, it can be difficult to retract. Make sure your online brand doesn’t diminish or tarnish your offline brand.

Twitter
Twitter has become so prevalent that it has earned its own section in our guidelines. The biggest concern when it comes to Twitter is not the time it takes to tweet, but the time and focus you spend keeping up with the numerous conversations.

Please observe the following Twitter guidelines:

1. Do not let your Twitter posting interfere with your billable and company projects.
2. Moderate the use of your Twitter monitoring tools (Twhirl, Twitterific, TweetDeck, etc.) during working hours.
3. Part-time employees have no reason to use Twitter while at work. Therefore, they are not allowed to use Twitter – either posting or listening – during their time at work.

Social Video
Watching a quick video on YouTube can spark creativity and lighten a stressful day. We don’t want to ban YouTube, we just ask that you moderate the time you spend watching videos. And, obviously, don’t let them interfere with your billable time.

Blog Reading
Just like videos, blogs are invaluable sources of inspiration and information. Please refrain from reading personal or non-industry blogs during company time. And, again, don’t let blog reading interfere with billable time.

Online Shopping
Unless it is work-related, please refrain from online shopping during company time.

eMail Forwards
Jokes, urban legends and get-rich email forwards are the oldest form of Internet-based social media. When it comes to company email, we ask that you think twice before hitting send and be judicious with the number of items you forward. And, if you’re unsure whether a certain Nigerian prince really is being truthful about a promised fortune, a quick stop by Snopes.com might be in order.

If you have any questions about these guidelines or any matter related to your site that these guidelines do not address, please contact a member of the iTeam.

Location Based Social Networking
Wouldn’t it be great to know exactly where our competitors were, all the time? Just the same, we don’t want to clue in our competition on which potential (and current) clients we’re visiting and when. Please refrain from checking in with Foursquare, Gowalla and the like at our clients’ locations during business activity.

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If your company has developed a social media policy, share it in the comments. If you haven’t, share how you’re handling social media usage. We can all learn from each other.

*This post was updated on June 2010. Original post January 2009.

Blogging can be scary. We understand that. It requires a high level of transparency. Heightened honesty. A willingness to listen. And often a generous helping of patience.

Something happens to certain people when they go online. All decency and kindness leaves them, and they transform into angry trolls, stomping all those who dare get in their way. Having a troll loose on a blog, forum or even the newspaper comment section can derail meaningful exchange and chase off more reasonable commentators.

But you don’t have to let the trolls ruin your day and deny you the numerous benefits a blog affords. A few simple steps will help keep the trolls under the bridge where they belong.

Recognize that negativity is different from trolling.
There are going to be some people who just don’t like your brand, a certain position you take on a topic or the way your hair looks in a particular picture. Just because they disagree doesn’t mean that they’re the enemy. In fact, their voice can be the spark you need to generate valuable conversation.

The key to differentiating negativity from trolling is to remember that a troll is simply there to pick a fight. Their comments will be mean, irrelevant and probably anonymous. There’s no reason to publish such comments.

Create a comment policy.
It’s OK to not post every comment that is submitted. While some might claim that moderating a blog stifles authentic dialog, allowing offensive or off-topic comments will have far more damaging effects. But it’s important to have a set of guidelines in place for what will be blocked. Here’s the summarized comment policy we’ve set up for our blog:

Comments may not post immediately. We review them first in an effort to remove foul language, commercial messages, irrelevancies and unfair attacks. Thank you for your patience.

Reach out.
It’s possible that the trolls are individuals who have a valid frustration with your company, and just don’t know how to communicate it. It might be worth your time to send a quick email to the individual explaining why you blocked the comment and asking if there’s anything you can do to remedy the problem. Sometimes a personal communication is all it takes to defuse a thorny situation.

Dealing with trolls can be frustrating, but remember the Three Billy Goats Gruff. They knocked the troll into the river, making the bridge safe for all who followed. Use your wits and you, too, can make your blog a place where people feel free to speak freely without fear of attack.

What advice do you have for beating back the trolls while encouraging lively discussion?

Photo by Ken Davis.