Learning how your organization should best use social media is worth your time.

If your organization has a clearly defined social media strategy, and a set of policies in place to deal with whatever may come in its forays into social media, then you should start feeling great about where you work. Or perhaps, you should feel suspicious that you might be living with a false sense of security. One thing is for sure, such a secure attitude towards social media usage, is rarer than you might think. 

According to a recent study done by research and consulting firm Protiviti, which surveyed 1000 internal audit professionals, 57% said they had some sort of social media policy in place and 53% said they had a social media strategy. Among those with some sort of social media policy, 43% describe it as being in the initial stages of formulation, while 33% describe their policy as "repeatable". 13% were able to describe their policies as defined and 10% could describe it as managed (Canadian Underwritier, 2013).

Only 1% described their social media policies as being optimized (Canadian Underwritier, 2013). It could be the case that the participants of this study were being modest. Nevertheless, 1% is a pretty low number. 

Though, it is not hard to imagine why this might be the case. The social media landscape is rapidly changing as technology progresses and fantastic new ideas are constantly dreamed up and realized by talented programmers. Any organization serious about utilizing social media has to keep its eyes and ears open at all times. Just today, new Twitter features were announced to allow product information, image galleries, and App information to be seamlessly integrated into Tweets through Twitter's Card feature (Price, 2013). Such a change could very well have an impact on how Twitter is used by your organization. Changes like this are happening all the time so it is no wonder, an "optimized" social media strategy is such a difficult thing to maintain. 

The study goes on to detail the attitudes towards social media which organizations hold with regards to the risks it poses. Around 50% reported that their organizations account for social media in risk assessments. They also reported that social media poses the greatest risk with regards to damage to reputation, data security, & regulatory compliance issues (Canadian Underwritier, 2013). 

Their concerns are quite valid. American family restaurant chain, Applebee's, provided a textbook example of the dire consequences of misusing social media earlier this year with what many called, a social media meltdown (Weisbaum, 2013). 

Here's a positive note. If you have some sort of social media strategy or policy in place, no matter where it is in its stages of formulation, then congratulations, you're ahead of 47% of the game. If you are part of that 47%, well... at least you're not alone and there is room to improve. Perhaps in a later post, I'll provide some tips so you don't become the next Applebees. Here's a sample: Don't delete negative comments. It will just make people more angry, and make you look like some kind of oppressive dictator that will not tolerate criticism. 

Canadian Underwriter (Apr 02, 2013) Lack of Social Media Policies seen as Risky for Organizations Retrieved Apr 03, 2013 from http://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/news/lack-of-social-media-policies-seen-as-risky-for-organizations/1002194173/

Price, E. (Apr 03, 2013) Twitter Updates Mobile Apps to Support New Twitter Cards. Retrieved (Apr 03, 2013) from http://mashable.com/2013/04/03/twitter-card-app-update/

Weisbaum, H (N.D.) Applebee's Social Media Faux Pas a Learning Experience. Retrieved Apr 3rd 2013 from http://www.nbcnews.com/business/applebees-social-media-faux-pas-learning-experience-1B8251556