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Don't Let Tony Hayward Write Your Social Media Policy

Posted by Matt Kucharski on June 21, 2010 at June 21, 2010 5:53 AM

Tony Hayward, BP's CEO and up until recently spokesperson for spill response, went from oily water to hot water this past week when he was seen cheering on his yacht at a high-brow race back home in the UK. His latest gaffe is a great example of why companies with traditional corporate communications strategies are having a difficult time getting their arms around social media policies. It seems like a good thing to discuss on the day we're launching Padilla's A4ward social media strategy product.

Every good company needs to have -- or at least discuss -- the nature of their social media policy, and where the lawyers and conservative corporate communications folks get hung up is on this concept of the spokesperson. Most got their experience in an envrionment where you had your three key messages and your handful of trained spokespeople who were the only ones authorized to speak on behalf of the company. As companies introduce social media policies, that concept gets a little fuzzy, and we've seen it be the main point of contention in the review process.

Look at it this way -- there's no policy in BP's manual that says that Tony Hayward couldn't go to a yacht race, but in many people's eyes, this was worse than his "I want my life back" comment to the media and his Joe Friday performance in front of Congress. He may not have been a spokesperson for BP at the time of the race, but he certainly was a representative.

And that's the important point -- your social media policy needs to distinguish between being a spokesperson for the company and being a representative of the company. Spokespeople are authorized to speak on behalf of the company on a wide range of issues from financial performance to market position to response during a crisis. Representatives of the company are those individuals who by the simple act of going about their daily routines reflect positively or negatively on a company's reputation. That includes spending time on social media sites. That doesn't mean you can't mention the company or talk about what you do there -- all it means is that as a representative, when you're online, you're wearing a company golf shirt, so act appropriately.

And if your company is under seige, stay away from yacht races.

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