The privacy and security of your
customers, your partners, and your hospitality or tourism company are crucial
to maintaining a healthy social media presence. According
to Vogel, Social media network security involves choosing strong passwords
for your accounts, not revealing too much personal information, being wary of
scams, and educating yourself on social media. A social media policy is
essentially a list of guidelines for how an employee can interact with others
on social media while referencing their company. Collins
et al explain that employer policies should not be too strict in that they
violate federal law. Below is a safety and security checklist to consider when thinking
about privacy and security for your business:
·
Strong Passwords:
As our friends at Burger King learned
recently on Twitter, no account is safe without strong security. To choose
a strong password, always use complex wording and choices, never share account
information, and be unique (Vogel, 2011).
·
Create a social media forum for employees to share their
concerns: Instead of staying quiet and
causing your employees to post negative opinions about your company through their
accounts (this
speech is protected), create a social media forum (through your social
media policy) for them to have open discussion with your organization (Halpern,
et al, 2012). We all know negative reviews hurt our industry and these reviews
should not come from the inside.
·
Integrate social media into employee training: The US
Department of Defense has an informative module that explains social media
in a brief overview. Next, split up your employees into groups based on the
infographic below and train them based on their experience and knowledge.
Sources
- US Department of Defense
- When is Your Company’s Social Media Policy an Unfair Labor Practice? Recent NLRB Decisions Offer Long-Awaited Guidance for Employers
- Media Bistro
- NRLB Report: Employers' Social Media Policies Must be Narrow, Must not Restrict Right to Engage in Protected Activities
- Tips for Safe & Secure Social Networking
Way to go, James. I was browsing my Facebook news feed and saw your Facebook post under "Jimmy" about your blog and clicked the link. Here I am! It works ... you drove me to your blog with an effective use of integrated social media!
ReplyDeleteWell done,
Mark
Thanks Mark! Hope you enjoyed it.
DeleteJames,
ReplyDeleteI loved reading your post! The content and links in your blog were very informative.
It’s important to protect a business from breaches of security; something like a breach in security, especially via a social media account can hurt a company’s image that they worked so hard to build. Even worse is when that breach is not handled properly. Do you think that BK handled the Twitter hacking properly? What would you have done differently if anything?
According to Bennett (2013), in one day BK gained 30,000 new Twitter followers, do you think BK will lose any of these followers after the hacking has “blown over” or do you think these followers will stay?
I also liked the checklist you provided. “Create a social media forum for employees to share their concerns”, this is a great idea since so many people take to social media to vent about their job and termination ends up being a result of their words. I see this as a good idea but do you see any problems this may pose?
I look forward to hearing your response and sharing mine!
Christine
Hi Christine,
DeleteI think Burger King handled the hacking as best as they could. It was sort of a funny situation and they made the most of it. Obviously their account was not protected and they should have taken preventative measures to have a stronger password. I would recommend making sure all company accounts have very unique and complicated passwords (numbers, words that don't necessarily make sense, etc.). Also, a key contact list is necessary. Who do you contact at Twitter or Facebook when you have suspected a security breach? How do you get your account temporarily suspended? These are all questions that should have been answered ahead of time.
It's funny that Burger King gained all of these followers. It made the most of a bad situation; that's for sure! I think a small percentage will leave but the majority will stay. I do not think people un-follow accounts very often so Burger King will win in the end. They now have a whole new following!
As for your final question, yes this could pose problems. This is why a social media policy is needed to facilitate the conversation on the employee social media pages. People could easily get carried away and use inappropriate speech. Companies should create a set of rules tailored to their culture that explains what can be said on these forums while not crossing ethical boundaries.
-James
I too think BK handled this situation as best as they could. According to Freed & Choi (2013) BK spokesman Bryson Thornton stated "Upon learning of this incident, our social media teams immediately began working with Twitter security administrators to suspend the compromised account until we could re-establish our brand's official Twitter page. We apologize to our loyal fans and followers, whom might have received unauthorized tweets from our account. We are pleased to announce that the account is now active again." (para. 9).
DeleteI hope that other companies learn to take better precautions, like having stronger passwords and having a key contact list.
I think some followers will un-follow but most will not, this seems like one of those rare situations where good can come from the crisis, since the amount of new followers was an extreme number and they will most likely keep a good amount of those followers.
According to Freed & Choi (2013), “Its social media team and an outside agency manage the Twitter account, but Thornton declined to say how many people knew the account's password.” (para. 8). Do you think this was a personally attack from within the company? Who do you think should have access to passwords and sensitive information like this?
Employees need to be trained on how to use social media. I don’t think people realize it doesn’t matter if you own a company or just work for a company but you end up being that face of the company regardless.
Freed, J., & Choi, C. (2013, February 19). Burger king apologizes after twitter hacking. . Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/burger-king-apologizes-twitter-hacking-043209206--finance.html
I never thought of this as an attack from within the company but now that you mention it, it could make sense. It sounds like several people knew the password and perhaps someone was laid off, disgruntled, or just trying to be funny. You never know with people! I do not like the idea of several people having the password. However, there is no way for one person to monitor a big company's social media accounts 24/7. Perhaps passwords should be changed every couple of weeks to avoid leaks. Several people could still know the password but at least it was being changed often. If anything, it would make sense to me for only internal people to have account information. Outside agencies are reputable but account information should not be shared with the outside.
DeleteJames,
DeleteI found the article below. It states that MTV and BET pretended their accounts were hacked in an attempt to gain more Twitter followers. I remember last semester we learned that any press is good press. Do you see other companies following in this “trend”? It makes me think about recent companies who have been hacked and gained something from it, I wonder how many of these companies, if any, did this purposely.
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-mtv-bet-fake-hack-twitter-followers-20130219,0,6633758.story
Interesting! I am now wondering if other companies have done the same thing. Honestly, I think this is unethical. Creating fake news stories to gain more media attention is just wrong. It looks like many Twitter users were angry about this stunt and now see both of these brands in a negative light. If a hacking happens naturally, a company should do all they can to make the most of it but never create a fake crisis. In the end, I do not think this will help MTV or BET. What do you think?
DeleteThat really does come across as a snub of the IABC Code of Ethics for Professional Communicators. Article one states that "professional communicators uphold the credibility and dignity of their profession by practicing honest, candid, and timely communication by fostering the free flow of essential information in accord with the public interest." Article 12 starts with "Professional communicators are honest ..." Of course, the next logical question is whether such social media stunts are really part of professional communications. Where is the line between being playful and fun v. unethical?
DeleteI think it was foolish and I hope no other companies follow in their steps. Just like with BET and MTV, the truth will come out and when it does it makes them look senseless. Personally I could not support a company who feels like they have to do this to get attention. I am sure there is a better, more creative way to gain followers and advertise for an upcoming award show. This was really tasteless. In BK’s situation, yes they gained a ton of new followers but they seem to be legitimately hacked and if so they have much more to deal with behind the scenes than the public realizes. They now have investigations to do and research to do so they can up security so it does not happen again. BK was a victim and I feel like BET and MTV were mocking them in a way. I hope they don’t jinx themselves because being hacked now would seem like a boy who cried wolf and could they could take a hit in the reputation department.
DeleteJames, nice how you hit on the need for employers to balance employee rights with protection of the employer. That point struck me because of the nature of the subject of my blog (Law Enforcement). I think employers have a hard job in this regard. The graphic you posted does a nice job of laying out the importance employee training relative to all this. If the law is going to allow employees to use social media to some degree without repercussion then a strong training policy probably makes a whole lot of sense. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteThanks, George. Social media policy is a balancing act and employers have so much to worry about when it comes to social media use. The thing I found most interesting about the infographic is that your employees should be trained in different groups. It's true - we all have varying knowledge of social media and cannot be trained the same. I would hope law enforcement agencies have solid social media policies just because the law is in their hands! It makes sense that they would need to think about the law and balance protecting the employees and the employer itself.
DeleteJames, law enforcement absolutely has what might be considered more stringent policies than normal business. They are under tremendous pressure to tow the responsible social media line because officer safety is at risk, potential embarrassment can result, and prosecutors can (and have) discredited law enforcement personnel on the stand specifically due to social media activity. To make matters even more difficult many agencies extend the responsibilities of proper social media use to after work hours. As they sometimes put it, the job doesn't end when they take the uniform off.
DeleteHi James,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post this week! With regards to Burger King, the article you provided a link for indicated that although many unsavory comments were made after the account was hacked, in general people were sympathetic and protective of BK.
So, looking at the other side of the coin, what opportunity could be presented to BK as a result of this communication issue? What benefit might the company gain? Clearly it enjoyed increased social media attention despite the negative commentary. I wondered what further thoughts you have on this.
Also, I would imagine BK employees were communicating about this on their own personal social media. What types of guidelines might BK have provided to employees prior to this crisis that would have assisted those employees with handling this situation correctly? If you were the BK PR person writing the employee policies, what types of guidelines would you have wanted in place for when this occurred?
Thanks Kristin! It's nice to see people have been sympathetic. In a way, BK lucked out in this case.
ReplyDeleteBK has been presented with a great opportunity as a result of this issue. With thousands of new followers, BK has a whole new set of publics they can reach out to and engaged with via Twitter. Being blunt with a post like "Welcome our new friends! Glad to see you here!" Just some posts like that would be nice to welcome all these new people. This would feel very personalized.It looks like they have already done some posts like this.
BK handled this really well so it seems as though they may have had somewhat of a decent social media policy in place. I am not sure that a company can forsee every incident and provide guidelines flexible to every PR crisis, however, something simple along the lines of asking employees to not escalate the problem. For example, no re-tweeting or anything like that. I think that's a reasonable request to ask. An alert system would have been great as well. "If you see something fishy on social media, report it immediately to this person."
James,
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point about organizations needing to have strong secure passwords on their social media sites. Having a site hacked sounds like a PR nightmare! I agree with you that it seems like Burger King has handled the issue with as much grace as they could. What Kristin mentions about BK receiving sympathy and support reminds me of the book we read last week for COM 505, where it mentioned the power of having strong brand advocates. In this case it worked in their favor to have those people who supported the brand.
You mention in your response to Kristin that BK lucked out. I tend to agree with you that they have been granted a great opportunity to reach people that may not have been following them otherwise. The way they handle it going forward will of course determine whether those people will remain followers, but I agree that making them feel welcome and engaging with them is a start.
Hi Laura,
DeleteBrand advocates have become every companies' greatest allies! It seems like these people can really sell a product or service because of their brand loyalty. Social media gives these people a voice to express their enthusiasm for a brand and this in turn increases a brand's positive image.
BK definitely lucked out with this one. From a scan of Twitter, I do not feel like there is too much negative energy. I'm going to keep an eye out and see how they engage with their new followers. It will teach us all a lesson, that's for sure.
-James
James and Laura,
DeleteI think brand advocates are going to evolve as one of, if not THE most, powerful assets on social media that a business can have.
Brand advocates speaking to publics on behalf of a company provide that third party endorsement that increases credibility. The brand advocates can essentially fill the gap where media is no longer third party (due to the social media).
I think company's that design their social media plans with the goal of building brand advocates, rather than driving people to their site, or whatever else the goal may be, will see the most successful results and gain in business.
I agree with both of you, brand advocates are extremely important. Kristin, I know that we had a previous discussion about trusting information that is published on social media as opposed to traditional media. Would you consider a company that has many brand advocates to be more trustworthy?
DeleteJames, it will be interesting to see if BK takes their new followers and runs with them or if they slowly start to lose interest in the company.