Simply stated, what you request of your employees may look similar, in some respects, to a public facing social media policy, however, it will also be very specific to your organization.  For example, you may want to consider the following information for the employee bucket.

Employee Bucket:

• Employee Access to Social Media:  Are any social networks “off limits” to employees or will they have open access to all social sites? Is there a formal process when a department or employee needs to have full access to a social media site?
• Employee Conduct: How do you want employees to use and collaborate on social media? This is where you may see “The Rules of Engagement” and the three “Rs” which stand for Representation, Responsibility and Respect. Is an employee’s participation strictly for work and how should they represent their personal views?  Is an employee able to check their personal Facebook page or Twitter conversations during the course of the workday?
• Content Use: What kind of content can and should be shared?  Will you provide any guidelines regarding how content is published, whether internally or externally with the public?
• Legal information:  Do you inform employees regarding privacy, defamation, intellectual property, etc? How do you educate employees on these laws and regulations without going too deeply into the details of each?  Will you require employees to use disclaimers for personal use of social media?
• Social Media Profile Management:  Who is the gatekeeper per department or for smaller organizations, the gatekeeper for the entire company?  Should an employee leave your company, who will have the information regarding the profiles set up by that person, including which social networks, user names and passwords? Who will go in and change the user name passwords when an employee leaves the company?
• Additional Policy Information: Is your social media policy is tied to a Code of Ethics or an employee communications handbook? If so, you must include references to additional resources for employees to review.

The Public Bucket:

• Participation Guidelines: Will you offer information about social media and how will you encourage public participation?
• Blogging and Comment Policies:  What do you want your public stakeholders to know about how you moderate your blogs?  What should they understand regarding the manner in which comments appear or maybe don’t appear?
• Legal Language: Will you have a passage that says the information posted on blogs and social networks is the copyright property of your organization for further use?  How will you address any behavior that is considered inappropriate social media conduct?  Should you discuss privacy, confidentiality and security?

You will definitely see areas of similarity between the information that you want to share with employees and the public regarding social media.  And, in some cases, maybe one policy does fit all.  But, you may also want to consider the differences between the internal/employee social media policy and your public policy, which highlights the way you want customers and other stakeholders to engage with you.  There are many considerations, far beyond what’s above.  This is just a starting point so that you are able to dig in deeper.

How is your social media policy development going and are you developing one policy for all groups or using the bucket approach?

The very first #PRstudChat took place on August 19^th 2009. With our one-year anniversary quickly approaching, we wanted to do something really special by inviting a guest that everyone would know; someone who has made an incredible contribution to learning and collaboration. We’re honored to have this extremely busy social media professional and Internet entrepreneur join us on August 25^th at 8:30 p.m.  Our special guest is Jimmy Wales (@jimmy_wales), founder of Wikipedia!!

I met Jimmy a couple of years ago when he interviewed with me for my book, PR 2.0 New Media, New Tools, New Audiences. I was so impressed with his contribution to communications and the story of Wikipedia.  Jimmy joins us to answer questions about social media, collaboration and how PR professionals can participate in Wikipedia (the right way).

We’ll have more information shortly on the details of the session and more about the questions we will be asking.  For now, please help us spread the word that Jimmy Wales will be our #PRStudChat special guest for a super special one-year anniversary celebration!

Here are a few of the statistics that stood out:

eMarketer published a study by Digital Brand Expressions (May 2010) where:

• Approximately 71% of US companies use the marketing department as the area responsible for the creation and maintenance of the social media communications plan.
• Approximately 21% of US companies use their corporate communications department as the area responsible for the creation and maintenance of the social media communications plan.
• Approximately 78% of US companies are using social media sites, however, about 52% are working without a game plan.
• According to US companies, approximately 45% prepare and distribute protocols and policies for ongoing communications, in their social media plans (including how to respond to negative comments).
• According to US companies, approximately 39% distribute guidelines for all employees regarding their general use of social media, for both professional and personal use.
• According to US companies, approximately 29% prepare and distribute social media policies/guidelines for the use of social media by different departments within the organization.

One of the most important messages conveyed from these numbers is that social media planning includes policy development and distributing guidelines to an organization’s employees (in some cases by department). Did you develop your social media policy as a part of your communications planning in 2010? If so, is your marketing or communications department spearheading the development?

I wake up nice and early during the week.  I immediately grab my blackberry (soon to be a Droid) to check my email.  I log onto to my computer to access my headlines delivered to my email inbox, which in include NYT, InformationWeek, PR Week, PRSA Issues & Trends, Daily Bulldog, PRNewser, PR Daily, etc.  A quick check of my RSS feeds tells me what I’ll be viewing over coffee, later in the a.m.

Getting ready for work, I flip between channels including The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN and Fox & Friends.  My morning ride to work is over an hour (on the way home too) so I’m hooked on National Public Radio.  As my day continues, I find myself online where I scour many different blogs and news sites depending on my projects.  I also look forward to perusing the magazines on my desk (which are always in a neat little pile to the far right).  In the pile sits Entrepreneur, Wired, PRSA Tactics, Adweek and CFO magazine.

The weekend has a similar routine, with the exception of reading the weekend paper over coffee with my husband, who also looks forward to holding a newspaper in his hands.  My routine continues during the day with TV, as I get ready for Sat. & Sun. festivities, I’ll put NPR when I go to the supermarket and I have my daily checks of email news subscriptions and RSS feeds.

I look forward and rely on this routine.  Here’s why I’m a creature of habit.  On Sunday, July 4^th, the Asbury Park Press was not delivered to our house!  My husband was annoyed; the universe did not feel aligned.  We were both upset and sat on our patio sipping coffee and eating breakfast with out the newspaper.  What I find the most interesting is that this situation didn’t make us grab our laptops (and we have wireless outside) for the morning news.  We didn’t run inside and log on to our computers.  Instead, we were disappointed, but continued our routine by turning on the TV when we were getting ready for the day.

What I’ve discovered about myself is that I’m a perfect blend of the hybrid consumer and so is my family. We’re hybrid in the sense that we combine traditional, digital and social media into our daily routines. I see this almost every day when I observe the kids as they watch TV, while their on Facebook with their friends and text other members of the family, who are in the very same house.  You can’t just find us online because we’re also enjoying other forms of media: watching TV, reading the newspaper, and flipping through articles in magazines.

Recently, I’ve been discussing the hybrid professional and how PR, Marketing, and Web must work together so that brands can better communicate and interact with consumers.  A good look at my own news and information consumption reveals that a hybrid consumer drives this hybrid movement.  I’ve said that social media pushes the integration of PR, marketing and Web, but if you step back, it’s really the consumer that is driving the change behind everything we do.  What do you think?

Recently, Joe participated on the PRSA T3PR New Era of Blogging panel in June and Valerie had the pleasure of moderating Joe’s roundtable discussion at the Bulldog Reporters Media Relations Summit this past Monday in NYC.  After seeing Joe in action and being fans/avid readers of PRNewser, we both felt he would be the perfect guest for #PRStudChat.  Joe will be answering questions related to blogger relations and also providing insight on how media is changing and affecting the PR industry.

A few of the questions during the session will include:

Q1:  How should PR pros shift their thinking to accommodate changes in the media?

Q2:  What is the difference between media relations & blogger relations?

Q3: What do new influencers expect from PR professionals?

Q4:  How do PR pros get your attention (good/bad examples)?

Q5:  Where do you go to verify/confirm tips and how can a PR pro help?

Q6: What will tomorrow’s media look like & what does that mean for PR?

We hope that you will join us on July 14^th to chat with Joe Ciarallo and to share insight on your experience with bloggers and new media.  As always, Valerie and I welcome your comments and encourage you to post any questions you have for Joe on our LinkedIn discussion group, prior to the 14^th.

If you want the PR scoop, then join us for the #PRStudChat session with Joe Ciarallo.  We’ll “see” you then.

It’s tremendously important to familiarize yourself with a few of the key differences between the various content management systems (CMS) because we’re listening and observing people and behaviors in web communities to build better relationships.  These platforms, including Posterous, WordPress, TypePad, Drupal, Joomla and Vignette (as identified and detailed in the chart) enhance or facilitate the communication between parties.  As PR professionals, we need to know which are the best ways for our brands to build communities and what types of platforms or technology will serve this purpose (to make an even greater experience for their stakeholders).

So, for example, when we are discussing two-way communication, sharing social objects and building community, should the brand be using Posterous? Or, a more advanced CMS such as Vignette.  The article outlines what might be the needs of the brand, what the CMS is good for and what it’s not so good for, some of the famous users, as well as the price.  Yes, we need to think about every step of communication and the technology that helps to make interaction and collaboration more successful.

For starters, here are a few key difference when it comes to CMS and what to use based on what you need:

• Posterous: Used for a blog, is free and easy to use.
• WordPress and Typepress: Used for blogs, homepage, uploading photos and videos.  WordPress is free but you may pay for design services if you want a customized site. Typepad has a monthly charge of $8.95.
• Drupal & Joomla:  Used for blogs, homepage, uploading photos, videos, ecommerce, ad servers and community features.  Drupal is free but it’s open source so according to the article there are many plug ins that you can use, but you may need to be a “ninja coder” for the install.  Joomla is also free but you will need assistance from experienced designers and programmers to build and maintain the platform.
• Vignette is everything mentioned above and you can practically add in the “kitchen sink.”  Vignette is for large businesses, with big budgets that want major customization on their websites and features such as reservations and online payments.

I hope that you will check out the Entrepreneur article and keep in mind the different platforms as you are strategizing for the best way to build a relationship or a community experience for your brands.

What platforms are you familiar with and what have you found to be helpful?