STUDY: Your social media policy hits the right legal issues, but…

Your social media policy may be good when it comes to addressing legal risks. But getting that message across to your employees…

Not so much, according to a recent survey from Protiviti (here).

The Protiviti survey shows that more businesses are addressing employee use of social media — 57% of respondents have social media policies. And, generally, those social media policies do a good job of addressing legal risks. For example, 90% of surveyed companies with social media policies have provisions in those policies what address disclosure of company information.

However…

Where social media policies are lacking, according to the survey, are the practical uses of social media. Just over half of policies discuss the organization’s purpose in using social media. And just 38% of those policies address employee training. Tellingly, the most commonly cited obstacle to addressing social media risk within the organization is — you guessed it — employee training.

So, use this survey as a wake-up call. Make sure that your social media policies educate employees about social media. Then train your employees on those policies.

And, guess what? Because social media changes, remember to retrain your employees too.