How a company’s business reputation can be damaged by employees’ social media
A company’s business reputation is made up of various components, including the way its employees communicate information. Through social networks, each employee can influence the image of the business by publishing certain information about his or her activities. And the perception of the brand by the audience depends on what kind of content – positive or negative.
According to an expert from the company Oberon, nowadays it is not enough just to control the references about the business in the media; personal accounts of employees require much more attention. There is a code of business ethics to prevent the Internet activity of employees from reflecting on the reputation of the brand. This document is a list of the company’s key values and also contains clear rules for external communications that affect the business image in one way or another.
As soon as a person changes his status on a social network, informing about his work in the company, he becomes its official representative. Through his personal pages, directly or indirectly, he can interact with clients, which means he uses his social network profile as a tool to promote the brand.
This requires a person to understand the responsibility for the content he broadcasts because now his personal position can be linked to a professional one. Any publication, photo, or video must comply not only with the moral values and ethical rules of the company but also with generally accepted business norms. Even a hint of violence in an employee’s personal account can damage the company’s image and reputation, which means such moments should be carefully controlled. However, this does not mean that employees should be monitored around the clock, in this case, it is important to maintain a balance so as not to cross the line.
The optimal solution would be to use special programs, such as Google Alerts, Monitis, and UptimeRobot.
From the point of view of company employees, such attention to their social life can be perceived rather painfully. Many people believe that any self-expression is acceptable in a personal blog. Recently, however, most large companies before hiring evaluate not only the candidate’s professional skills but also monitor their social networks. In this way, the recruiter evaluates what values this person possesses and whether they threaten the reputation of the brand on the Internet.
It is a mistake to think that the lack of information about a place of work or a name will not connect a particular person to a company. If there is at least one identifier, such as a photo, it would not be difficult to match the user to a particular brand. In any case, all employee personal pages should undergo regular reputation audits, but it is important to communicate the purpose of such an exercise. Staff should understand the level of responsibility for brand image and be guided by a code of business ethics, even when not in the workplace.
