Have Rules, But Don't Overdo It - Tip #4 for a Successful ESN
In this fourth in a series of tips for building a successful enterprise social network (ESN), I want to discuss the rules and guidelines related to an ESN. First the tip, then the explanation:
Have rules, but don’t overdo it.
Since an ESN is a means of communication within a business, it’s reasonable for there to be some rules of the road. Companies frequently have policies in place about what is and is not allowed in various forms of communication, so it’s understandable to have such expectations around an ESN. However, the fact that an ESN is a form of social media can lead some businesses to strangely think they must go far above and beyond in detailing (and supposedly controlling) what is said and what happens there. That’s unfortunate.
I suggest two levels of rules: (1) a formal social media policy for the company that covers internal and external social media, and (2) a set of simple guidelines that serves as the practical, day-to-day rules people are more likely to remember and follow.
As for the formal policy that covers all forms of social media, it should focus on what the employees are encouraged to do – the opportunities they have to use the media creatively and successfully for the business, in addition to the obvious constraints to live within. Too many such policies focus only on what employees can’t do - what they’ll get slapped on the wrist or even fired for doing. That’s unfortunate and a giant missed opportunity. Employees need to be guided in making the most of this vital form of 21st-century communication – not cowering in fear that Big Brother is hovering over them, waiting to catch them doing something wrong.
When forming a formal social media policy, several business areas will be stakeholders in the process – HR, Legal, Marketing, IT, Communications, Public Relations and perhaps more. The larger the business, the more likely such a policy update process will take woefully long due to the involvement of so many business areas, each with its legitimate concerns in the final product. At our company, the most recent major update to the social media policy took about two years (gasp!) for the process to work from start to finish. That’s inexcusable, really, but that’s what happened. (Disclaimer: I wasn’t in charge of the process.)
One of the temptations of some involved with setting such policies is the desire to protect against anything and everything that might go wrong. If you succumb to this misguided temptation, you’ll end up with another wrist-slapping policy of “don’ts” rather than a helpful and encouraging policy of “do’s.” I love what Carrie Young wrote about regarding this temptation in her article “You Might Die Today from a Lethal Spider Bite, and Other Pressing Enterprise Concerns.” Take the time to read it. It's brilliant. Didn’t you hire trustworthy people? If so, act like it in your policies.
So while it’s wise to have a formal social media policy, the primary opportunity for day-to-day guidance regarding ESN communication is best found in a far simpler set of guidelines that people can easily remember and point to when needed. For our ESN at Humana (called “Buzz”), those guidelines are the Buzz Ten Commandments. (Confession: Our initial Terms of Use consisted of only six words: “Hey, don’t do dumb stuff here.” Eventually, we had to beef it up a bit as the typical business area stakeholders found out. The users were good with the six-word guidance, though, and behaved perfectly fine.)
Unlike our company’s formal policy that was devised over two years by multiple official departments and countless meetings, the Buzz Ten Commandments were crowdsourced. That means that I simply posted to the community upon its launch in 2010 an open discussion asking the members of the community what rules they thought we all ought to live by on Buzz. We got a lot of thoughtful suggestions, some helpful discussion to massage ideas and improve on them, and then I took those suggestions and logically grouped them together, coming up with a final list of ten simple rules. They ended up being a mixture of do’s and don’ts. The whole process unfolded over a few short weeks and required no meetings – just open dialogue on Buzz.
Because the community was involved in the process, they have ownership of the guidelines. That ownership dramatically increases the likelihood that community members themselves do the self-policing necessary to stay within the guidelines and to call out others, referencing the guidelines when needed.
Let me ask you… When someone on our ESN crosses a boundary and needs to be informed about it, which do you think our people reference the most – the formal social media policy developed by many offices over two years and stored someplace where it’s rarely seen, or the Buzz Ten Commandments which are easily accessed from the community and referenced often in training, posts and discussion? You know the answer. (Another good, simple example I heard of was from Chris Catania of Walgreens who spoke of his company’s ESN guidance to “Be helpful. Be human. Be smart.” That’s brilliantly simple and easy to remember. It’s also six words. I think I like six-word policies.)
Even though our community is largely self-policing when it comes to the rules (impossible otherwise with up to 10,000 posts per week currently), I still have an additional, simple policy of my own as the community manager that I enforce when needed. It's a three-strikes-and-you’re-out policy. That means that if someone consistently and belligerently disobeys the rules – either HR policy or the Buzz Ten Commandments – I issue a strike and a warning to stop whatever the behavior is that warranted the strike. Should the person receive three strikes from me, I ban them from Buzz for at least three months, after which they are welcome to return under a one-strike-and-you’re-out rule. The good news is that I’ve only had to ban three people out of more than 60,000 accounts in the past five years. I always approach them privately first with a request to edit or remove offending posts, and if they do so, no strike is issued. But if they know the rules and choose to violate them anyway, they will be removed.
So go ahead and update your company’s formal social media policy if you haven’t in a few years so that it covers internal and external social media. When doing so, please focus on the opportunities – the do’s – of the platform rather than the don’ts. But also think of some simple, easy-to-remember guidelines that community members are more likely to learn and reference as they interact with others. Better yet, involve the community in establishing those simple guidelines so that they have ownership of them and can self-police as needed. You'll end up with a nice, informal ESN "neighborhood watch" program that keeps you as the community manager out of the governance weeds most of the time.
In summary, if you want to have a successful ESN when it comes to establishing effective rules, guidelines and boundaries, follow tip #4: Have rules, but don’t overdo it.
[This post has been modified from the original version first published at jeffrossblog.com.]
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You'll find the previous post tips in this series at the following links: