Crafting a Social Media Policy that Protects and Promotes Your CompanyIn today’s digital age, companies are faced with a dilemma. You want to use social media to promote your business, but you’re wary of letting employees post on the channels. Indeed, social media can be a double-edged sword. Business owners need to understand both the power – and the risk – involved.

Your employees are using social media. About three quarters of adults who go online participate in social networking. Most business owners recognize the risk involved – team members could share confidential information, misrepresent the company, or even speak negatively about their employer. And yet, 73% of companies don’t have a written social media policy. Read more

There’s always a risk of an employee misusing (either intentionally or accidentally) a company social media account. Stories of these mishaps are frequently in the news. And if it can happen to McDonalds , it can happen to your company.

In 2005, Microsoft came out with this social media policy: “Be smart. Don’t be stupid.”

While many of us wish that sentiment were enough to govern responsible online behavior, today we have to go a bit further. Here are some key points to keep in mind when drafting social media rules for employees. Here’s how:

SET REALISTIC GOALS

The best social media policies don’t try to prevent every tricky situation that could arise or lay out how each one should be handled. (Social media changes too fast for that approach to be effective.) Instead, they empower employees to work within guidelines, make good choices, and avoid pitfalls.

Don’t try to dictate every aspect of every social media channel. Again, the sites change and your policy will be out of date quickly. You can implement separate written guidelines for each social media channel to cover the details, but your overall policy should focus on the big picture.

STRUCTURE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM

Your policy should clearly outline who will be communicating on social media on behalf of the company. If this responsibility will be handled by a team, ensure that everyone is on the same page about the type of content that will be used, and the brand voice and personality.

You will also need to decide whether social media content will need to be pre-approved. How does the approval process work? If approval is not necessary, be clear about guidelines for what should not be posted – confidential or not yet released information about the company, your employees or your customers should never appear on social media.

Make sure to include guidelines on responding to customer questions and feedback. It’s a good idea to craft standard responses that can be issued in the case of common questions, and especially in the case of negative feedback. There should be a protocol for responding to angry or unhappy customers – it’s never a good idea to allow an employee to wing it, especially in an emotionally charged situation.

OUTLINE AFTER HOURS BEHAVIOR

Many companies choose to have two social media policies. One for employees who post on social media as part of their job, and one for employees using social media in their personal lives.

Even if they are posting on their own social media accounts, chances are, it’s pretty easy to figure out where your employees work. How they present themselves online will reflect on your company. Your policy should alert employees that offensive or inappropriate comments, or illegal behavior that shows up on social media could affect their good standing at work. They must represent themselves according to the code of conduct of your company and brand.

Tread lightly when telling employees what they can and cannot post. It’s smarter to educate them about how their online behavior reflects on your company, and train them on best practices for professionals in their position.

Once you have crafted a policy for your company, it’s a good idea to have it reviewed by an attorney. There are certain legal aspects that need to be considered. The National Labor Relations Board has taken a firm stance on these policies, saying that employers can’t prevent or suppress discussion about the terms and conditions at work.

REVIEW, TRAIN, REPEAT

Once you have a written social media policy in place, you will need a plan for how to roll it out to employees and train them to follow your guidelines.

In the case of new employees, your policy can become part of the onboarding process. It can be reviewed at the same time as the company handbook or other policy documents.

The digital environment changes quickly and maintaining an up-to-date policy means reviewing it every 6 months to ensure that nothing needs to be updated or changed. This gives you an opportunity to revisit the policy with your team, and reinforce it.

By providing education for your staff about online best practices, you are preventing problems before they start. Therefore, the importance of a social media policy in the workplace can be the deciding factor of company success.

Let’s not forget that there are many upsides to using social media at work. These channels can be used to market your company, launch a new product or build a community around your area of expertise.

As a business owner, you probably don’t have time to run them yourself, so you will need to trust your employees to post and respond without your guidance. A good social media policy is one that allows you to focus on other parts of your business. Use this information as a social media guideline for your employees and be vigilant about what they’re sharing!

– Katie Wagner – President, KWSM, a digital marketing agency

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn here

Domain Tools by Mike SantoniI find that Domain Tools is a good resource to determine the registration information about a domain name (otherwise known as “Whois”).  The registration will supply information about the name of the registrant, their address, phone number and email address. It also lets you know who the registrar is for the domain name. If the registration is privacy protected (registrars supply this as a service to protect the identity of the registrant), in Domain Tools you can review the Whois History. Oftentimes, when someone creates the domain, they list their name, address, etc. and then later down the line, they decide to privatize it. But with the Whois History, you can review all the registrations and updates dating back to the creation of the domain.

If the domain is privatized, you can send an email through the registrar that hopefully will get to the true owner. However, if you know the name, etc. of the true owner, you can then do some background on that person to determine if they are “domainer” (someone who owns numerous domains and will often squat on them until they get the right offer to sell), a company with a legitimate business reason for having the domain, a private individual who only owns this domain (Whois will tell you how many domains are affiliated with the registrant’s email address), etc. Knowing this type of information supplies you with information on how to best negotiate buying the domain from the registrant.

To get the Whois History, you need to subscribe to the paid version of Domain Tools, but it’s invaluable.

Mike Santoni

Connect with me on LinkedIn here

What I have learned in 40 Years Mike SantoniWhen I first got into the private investigation business in 1976, the landscape, technology, etc. was completely different than today. For public records such as voter’s registration records, court records, recorder’s office records, etc., it was necessary to take all your cases, get in your car and travel to all the various offices that housed those records and do an in person search. Even the criminal and civil records were in different court houses, depending on the county.

We had to rely on phone books (both white pages and yellow pages) and maintained a library of phone books for all of California and the rest of the U.S., not only for the current year, but for past years as well. And to research neighbors and their phone numbers so we could call them to get information, we relied on the Haines Criss Cross Directories that had phone listings by address. We would get updates on these Haines Directories every quarter or so, but the problem was they were out of date when we first got them. The only thing in our favor was back then, people seemed to move a lot less and landlines were the norm, not the exception.

Because our access to public information was not so readily accessible, it was very important to develop effective interview techniques.  This was absolutely necessary whether you were interviewing the subject of your investigation, a neighbor, an informant or whoever. Once you got that person on the phone, it was very necessary to obtain any and all of the information that you could at that time. This was important as people tend to give out more information about anything if they don’t have time to think about it. Once they have time to think, they begin to question everything, from who you are, why you’re calling, why you want the information, etc. The goal (and this applies to today also) is to get all the information you need and then have the person ask the questions to themselves once they hang up the phone.

Also, it’s very important to listen to what the person you are interviewing is saying (once again, this is just as important today as it was 40 years ago). For example, if you are interviewing a subject’s mother and trying to learn the subject’s whereabouts, and the mother tells you she has not seen or talked to her son/daughter for x number of months, has no contact information, no idea how to get hold of them, it’s almost always a good bet the subject is in jail or prison. It could also be that the mother and son/daughter had a falling out, but usually not. But always listen to the tone of what they are saying and how they are wording what they are saying.

Today, with the new technology and having most information at our fingertips, we can investigate more efficiently and more cost effectively. But we also have to recognize that not everything we read on the internet is true. People make up Facebook profiles, LinkedIn profiles, etc. And even if they’re not made up, a lot of people don’t update their profiles on a regular basis. So, if your subject lists on his Facebook page that he lives in Los Angeles, it may or may not be true. He could have lived there at one time and moved and not updated his profile. Or, he might have made up his city of residence all together.

It becomes very necessary to review ALL the information you are able to gather on an individual. This will give you somewhat of a story about the subject and then you can proceed from there. But just any one piece of information is not likely to tell you what you need to know. A database report (such as TLO) is great, but you need to read and review the report for clues on what may be true or untrue. A database report also gives leads to relatives (usually great sources of information because most of them are probably not hiding like your subject), prior addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, business affiliations, utility records, Consumer Public Filings (negative credit), etc.  If someone has a judgment for unlawful detainer that is indexed to their name and an address you know about, then that person is not going to be living there since he was sued by the property owner for nonpayment of rent.

I have several favorite tools for investigations, depending on what I’m looking for. For residence history, Consumer Public Filings, utilities, etc., I like to use TLO. For phone research, I find that Skip Smasher seems to have the best information. For trademark cases, I like to review the filings on the USPTO website. Going through all the documents filed (including application, specimen, etc.), you usually will find a lot of clues about what you are investigating.

The internet is a great thing, but there is no substitute for getting on the phone and calling someone to usually obtain the best information.

Mike Santoni

Connect with me on LinkedIn here

Kids will be kids and they are often naïve enough to trust people that they haven’t met or who appear to be credible based on their social media profiles. Local police aren’t likely to take a report and conduct an investigation for social media online stalking.  Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are not going to disclose account information to help you identify the stalker and even if they did reveal profile information, the person’s name, email and other identifiers could be made up. Here are some tips on how to stop cyberstalking and prevent it from happening.

What can you do?

You should attempt to identify the true identity of the stalker and determine where the stalker lives, works or goes to school. Hiring a licensed private investigation firm with national resources that specializes in locate/skip-trace investigations, is one way to accomplish these items.

The Private Investigation firm that you hire can also conduct a background investigation to discreetly profile the stalker and assess the threat level of the individual.  If you are able to identify the true identity of the stalker and where he or she resides you can potentially gain the attention of law enforcement in the appropriate jurisdiction.  Another option is to have an attorney initiate contact by sending a letter and or making some calls to the stalker directly or to his/her parents. Overall, it takes an aggressive approach to stop social media stalking.

Recently Santoni worked on a locate investigation case where an adult male befriended a teenage female on Instagram. She eventually stopped communicating with the person, but he continued to repeatedly contact her and even wrote that he would come see her soon, uninvited. We were contacted by the family’s attorney to gather information on the subject and identify him through his social media.  Through our social media investigation we were able to determine where he lived, who his parents are, places he frequented, who his friends were and eventually his true identity. The information we uncovered was provided to the family and their attorney. The family of the stalker was contacted, and the background information was provided to law enforcement. If a situation like this should present itself to you, contacting a professional investigative service to report cyber stalking will provide you with the best expert solution. 

Tips for monitoring your child’s social media:

It’s not easy.  The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a startling statistic. The study found that 22 percent of teenagers log onto their favorite social media sites more than 10 times a day, and that 75 percent own cell phones. 

  • Have regular and open conversations with your children about the guidelines of using social media and set your ground rules.
  • Make sure your child has secure and appropriate privacy settings. 
  • Don’t let your child join social media until they meet the age requirements. These guidelines are in place because of legislation to help protect children.
  • Educate your child not only about the dangers of online stalking, but also cyberbullying. According to DoSomething.org, 43{2f3748b5ca5ab0ef62f1154c571df9c56b0d52fa28ba96fa4f869e5919b9e929} of children have experienced cyberbullying and 1 in 4 has had it happen more than once.
  • Limit the time that your child is allowed to be online and keep the computer in a main area of the house
  • Monitor the photos and location info that your child posts online.Is your teenager being stalked on Social Media