A friend of mine got an amazing opportunity to intern with some of the top designers in New York City. She was an active social media user with over 6.4k followers and her supervisor had warned her not to embarrass the company on social media.

Of course, she thought what could she possibly do to embarrass the company? A new designer had signed on with the company she was interning and my friend was so excited to share her new job with her follows.

She took an innocent selfie and went about her day.

A couple of hours after, she received a link to an article who had her selfie on the front page of their website with the headline, “Intern leaks the launch of fashion designer’s new line”.

In the background of her selfie, which she did not notice before, was one of the pieces from the new line.

She was subsequently fired and ruined her chances to work with any other designer in the city.

Had my friend, received a social media policy at her internship, she might have kept her job.

What is a Social Media Policy?

A social media policy helps a company’s reputation.

It is a company’s first defence in mitigating risk for both the employer and the employee. A well-structured policy will help to clearly define what is appropriate and what is not appropriate for an employee to post about a company on their social media channels.

In the instance with my friend, if provided with a policy, it might have prompted her to be more mindful of where or even when she took her selfie.

While the policy does not restrict employees from using their social platforms. It does limit what the employee posts as it relates to the relationship between themselves and a brand/ company irrespective of whether they are on company time or not.

A small post could expose the company to legal liabilities that damage the company’s reputation, or the leakage of confidential data as in the scenario with my friend.

With a policy in place, all parties are protected and no one would have lost their jobs or reputation.