Social Media Policy
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We are plugged-in people. Constantly bombarded by friend requests, comments and shares of news, memes and videos. Now, across more social media platforms than ever. At Greteman Group, we not only embrace the media and technology that make these bombardments possible, we harness them for our clients. We also welcome the power of individuals to leverage and enhance their personal brands through these tools.

At the same time, we recognize the challenges of the increasing competition for our time and attention created by this barrage of messages. To address these challenges, we have created the following social media policy for team members’ use of these tools both in and out of the office.

We’re revising the following social media policy in our official employee manual. We thought that many of you might be having similar discussions at your companies and that posting our policy might help guide your conversations.

Social Media

Social media include networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn (and many, many more). Social networking apps, such as TikTok and Snapchat, are also gaining ground in the U.S. and around the world.

There have been a number of questions regarding proper etiquette on these sites and apps. Here are our recommendations:

  • Use social media as your personal network. If you don’t want to friend or follow coworkers, vendors or clients, don’t feel pressured.
  • LinkedIn, as your professional network, is great for connecting with work-related colleagues.
  • But if you are uncomfortable with adding a contact, don’t. These might include former employees, competitors or that random person you met at an organization’s mixer.

The following are guidelines we request you abide by while you are employed with Greteman Group:

  • Block your LinkedIn contacts’ contact information from your other contacts. Confused? Please see a member of the digital team for clarification and instructions.
  • Be smart about what you publish. Once you put something out there, it can be difficult to retract. Make sure your online brand doesn’t diminish or tarnish your offline brand.
  • Again, be respectful to the company, fellow team members, clients and competitors.

Speaking of LinkedIn: Any requests for online references, should be forwarded to the human resources department. Team members are not authorized to speak for the company with regards to job performance of current or former team members.

Location Based Social Networking

Wouldn’t it be great to know exactly where our competitors were, all the time? Just the same, we don’t want to clue in our competition on which potential (and current) clients we’re visiting and when. Please refrain from checking in with Swarm, Facebook and the like at our clients’ locations during business activity.

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Blogging

Microsoft has a bone-simple blogging policy. Be smart. We ask the same of you. Please be smart in your online activities. They reflect on both you and the agency. The ability to publish things that may never go away and can be forwarded endlessly, well, it gives us pause and we hope it does you, too. We view personal websites and blogs as good things. We want you to avail yourselves of these media. We respect your online activity as a medium of self-expression. Please note, though, that confidentiality agreements prevent disclosure of all client and Greteman Group business. Readers may view you as a de facto spokesperson for our company.

While you are employed with Greteman Group, please observe the following blogging guidelines:

  • Do not work on your personal blog during business hours. If you just have to scratch the itch to blog, write a post for the Greteman Group blog.
  • When posting to your personal blog, please make it clear to your readers that the views you express are yours alone and that they do not necessarily reflect the agency’s views. To help reduce the potential for confusion, we would appreciate it if you put the following notice – or something similar – in a reasonably prominent place on your site: The views expressed on this website/blog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
  • Respect the company’s confidentiality and proprietary information, and be respectful to fellow team members, clients and competitors.
  • Understand and comply when the company asks that topics not be discussed for confidentiality or legal reasons. Ask your direct supervisor if you have any questions about what is appropriate to include in your blog.

Consuming Content

Reading an industry newsletter, catching up on the latest marketing trend or watching a quick video on YouTube can spark creativity and lighten a stressful day. We don’t ban content consumption, we just ask that you moderate the time you spend doing it on company time. And, obviously, don’t let them interfere with your billable time.

Email Forwards

When it comes to company email, we ask that you think twice before hitting send and be judicious with the number of items you forward. We all get so many emails a day.

Online Shopping

Unless it is work-related, please refrain from online shopping during company time. Unless, of course, you’re ordering lunch on an app.

If you have any questions about this social media policy or any matter related to your site that these guidelines do not address, please contact a member of the traction team.

This post was updated on June 28, 2021. Original post January 2009.