Social Media in the form of Training

Introduction:

When I first thought of how social media and training tied together, I thought I would find many interesting articles on how companies train their employees using social media. As I expected, I found articles on training with social media, but it wasn't the type of training I had pictured. Instead of finding information on how training was used by social networks, I found articles on how employees should be trained to use social media networks while being employed in their professional fields.

Social Media Policies

In order to help employees understand what's acceptable with social media, majority of companies tend to have social media policies for employees to follow. In the workplace, it is Human Resource Management's responsibility to monitor these social media behaviors. During a survey implemented by the SHRM on January 12, 2012, multiple random employers were surveyed with various questions about what should be included in company policies regarding social media. The following lists the top four elements used in employers social media policies and the percentage of employers whom implemented them (Leonard, 2012):

1. A code of conduct for employees’ use of social networking for professional purposes (68%)
2. A code of conduct for employees’ personal use of social networking (66%)
3. A notification of the employer’s right to monitor social media usage (56%)
4. Guidelines for social media communications (55%)

As shown, each top element was issued by over 50% of employers that completed the survey. Employers were also asked how they monitor employees' social media networks and how they handled the outcome. About 40% of employers said they monitor social media networks while they are in the workplace and on the companies' devices. Thirty three percent of employers stated that within the past 12 months, they have disciplined each employee which whom violated their company policy (Leonard, 2012).

Avoiding Social Media Crisis' Using Social Media Training Programs

Agreeably, many employers think social media training should be mandatory. However, their are other ways employers are training their employees' on how to appropriately behave on social media. Some say social media policies are rehashed versions of existing employee contracts that say things such as "Don't post pictures of yourself drunk" (Saper, 2013). Instead of using policies, major corporations including Unisys, Sprint and HP are creating social media training programs for employees. One major reason for creating these social media training programs is to avoid social media disasters in the workplace. An interesting example is one called "Dirty Domino's Pizza" which two employees were playing with customers food while preparing it to fulfill orders. These two employees of Domino's filmed themselves "messing around and having fun" and posted it on YouTube for the world to have access to. The two employees were immediately terminated and charged for the contamination food. Not that the employees matter in this situation, better yet the big picture is of how this changed the reputation for Domino's pizza and put their company at risk, also costing them many customers. Understandably, this incident caused many customers to be furious with the company while also catching the attention of health administrators. Forcing the Domino's location to shut down, health administrators went into the location clearing out all open food and sanitizing the entire facility. This caused Domino's costs to rise and their reputation to go down the drain (Meister, 2012).

Another example of a social media crisis that occurred took place within the medical field, violating patient confidentiality. Across medical schools in the United States, about 60% of schools who took a survey reported that medical students were involved in posting unprofessional and confidential patient information on the web. Of the surveyed schools, 38% of them did have social media policies. The schools who didn't have policies are suggested to implement policies regarding this issue immediately and those who did should examine their policies and make them more effective. Unprofessional social media postings by these medical students include the following (Williams, Johnson, Patterson, 2013):

• The violation of patient confidentiality
• Using of profanity 
• Making discriminatory remarks
• Posting sexually suggestive material
• Posting pictures of the individual being intoxicated

Companies and employers need to implement social media training programs and policies in order for social media crisis' to stop in the workplace.

 

Learning from Social Media Training Programs

Not only can social media training programs teach employees' how to avoid crises but can also educate employers and employees on legal implications of social media. These legal implications should be focused on to teach employees about copyright laws dealing with sharing content and defamation laws. These laws will educate employees on how to avoid sharing company information  and avoid writing defamatory reviews about a competitor on their social media sites (Saper, 2013). These implications will help employees be able to effectively do their job, which is what training programs are all about. 

Speaking about effectively doing a job, social media training programs do so by teaching employees that social media is a valuable business tool that can increase performance and productivity for companies'.  A Sprint social media manager, Sara Folkerts, speaks about how the company has a specific tool for employees to use social media while at work, called "Sprint Space". She continues by saying that many employees were confused on how they should use the companies social media site. Some employees started getting out of hand when it came to using Sprint Space and didn't realize that it was the same thing as Sprint HR, asking which they were in trouble with. Realizing that this was a problem for employees, Folkerts found that what they really needed was social media literary programs on top of the social media policies. Gloria Burke, director of Knowledge and Collaboration at Unisys, says "offering social media training creates a team of advocates who are equipped to represent their employer online; When you give them that training, you’re empowering them to be more confident and effective in what they’re sharing” (Meister, 2012).

Social Media Training Programs - Effectiveness

Below are five guidelines for effective social media training (Meister, 2012):

1. Start early - implement this training on the first day of a new hire employee to show how important it is to the company.
2. Create a branded program for social media training -employees receive a certificate after they have completed the training courses; they can offer input on how to change the training program and what helped them best
3. Be specific and explicit about what you want - to help employees who are stuck on what to say when using social media sites, companies should tweet and create status updates on their social media page in order to give employees an insight of what they're looking for.
4. Include game mechanics to engage and reward employees - after receiving certificates and badges for completing the training program, employees can post these on their social media sites such as LinkedIn to motivate themselves to want to personally brand themselves
5. Create a vehicle for continuous improvement - social managers should allow for feedback from employees who completed the social media programs and allow them to share their thoughts and teach other employees about the program itself 

Conclusion/Take Away Points:

Social media is important for every workplace to involve their employees with. Many companies provide different training programs for their employees in order for them to work properly in the workplace. It is interesting to find out that ever since social media has blown up around the world that employers do not only have social media policies but offer social media training programs for their employees. Social media programs are a better way for employees to learn how to deal with social media in the workplace than policies because programs are there to teach you. Policies are not often utilized by management and therefore employees don't remember policies. If there are training programs throughout an employees career with the company, they will always be aware of the new and changing policies in that training program. There are many companies who aren't strict about their work policies and that's how trouble starts. For an example, the two Domino's Pizza employees were obviously not talked to about how to behave in the workplace. That incident caused the whole company to have a negative effect and gave Domino's Pizza a bad reputation. To prevent incidents like that one, social media policies and training programs should be mandatory by all companies.

References:

Leonard, Bill. (1/18/2012) SHRM Survey Shows HR Has Active Role in Social Media Policies. Retrieved from www.shrm.org

Meister, Jeanne. (10/31/2012) Social Media Training Is Now Mandatory: Five Ways To Make Sure Your Company Does It Right. Retrieved from www.forbes.com 

Williams, Lee; Johnson, Erica; Patterson, Jo Ellen. (3/06/13) The Appropriate Use and Misuse of Social Media in MFT Training Programs: Problems and Prevention. Retrieved from link.springer.com

Saper, Daliah. (4/02/2013) Hire Responsible People, and Trust Them. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com