industry & research
‘ Like’ and share clear policy
It is critical that universities understand the dangers of social media and implement rules for its use. By Sarah Hedger
Social networking and social media play an important role in promoting awareness of university facilities. They are essential tools in engaging with students and the general public, allowing universities to market to a broader audience.
With an enhanced ability to reach out worldwide, however, comes an increased risk of employees using this global marketing tool to the detriment of the university and its public reputation.
It is, therefore, imperative that universities afford the damage potentially caused by social media channels the appropriate respect. This can be done by ensuring that protocols are in place for their use, and that strategies are implemented to prevent their misuse by employees.
At the same time, the importance of employees regulating what they do and say online cannot be underestimated, as any statement that has a negative impact on their employer could also have significant implications for them – including possible termination of their employment.
KEYBOARD REVOLT: TWITTER DISASTER UNLEASHED On January 31, 2013, British company HMV discovered the backlash an angry employee could cause on Twitter via the company’ s account.
“ Mass execution, of loyal employees who love the brand” was posted on the company’ s official HMV Twitter feed, along with comments such as“ There are over 60 of us being fired at once!” and“ Under contract, we’ ve been unable to say a word – or more importantly – tell the truth.” These tweets were posted by a disgruntled employee whose position the company had made redundant. The unflattering comments were deleted within minutes and the account was allegedly closed within half an hour. By that stage, however, some of HMV’ s thousands of Twitter followers had already taken screen shots of the tweets and disseminated them further.
ONLINE REBELLION: FACEBOOK COMMENTS GONE ROGUE The potential problems stemming from social media use not only arise in the workplace, but also can present themselves in the form of comments employees make in their personal time.
In the case of Stutsel v Linfox Australia Pty Ltd [ 2011 ], a truck driver was summarily dismissed for derogatory comments posted on his Facebook profile concerning two of his supervisors. Linfox did not have a social media policy in place to allow it to address the matter. The commissioner commented about this lack of policy, stating that:“[ I ] n the current electronic age, this is not sufficient and many large companies have detailed social media policies and have taken pains to acquaint their employees with those policies.”
Whilst the court found that Stutsel’ s comments were inappropriate, he was not found guilty of serious misconduct and there was no valid reason for his termination. Having a social media policy in place not only may have assisted in avoiding the issue from the employer’ s perspective but also may have emphasised the risks employees themselves take when resorting to the world wide web to express discontent with their employers.
SOCIAL MEDIA ENFORCEMENT: LET’ S GET SERIOUS Regardless of what approach employers take in response to a social media mishap, the damage is generally already done once unauthorised posts appear on the internet.
It is, therefore, highly recommended that a workplace policy defining what constitutes acceptable employee use of information technology is in place. The social media policy should regulate both personal use and the handling of official university social media accounts.
14 | campusreview. com. au