There is no doubt that organisations need to have  a Social Media Policy in place and here are some recent updates on that topic:

Fair Work Australia Weighs In

A decision handed down just before Christmas 2011, Commissioner Roberts of Fair Work Australia reinstated an employee of Linfox who had been dismissed for material which the employee had posted on Facebook. Commissioner Roberts noted that Linfox did not have a social media policy either at the time of the employee’s dismissal, or at the time of hearing. Instead, Linfox sought to rely on its induction training and handbook. The absence of a social media policy, Commissioner Roberts observed, was “not sufficient”.

Find out more: mondaq

The National Archives

The National Archives wants Govt organisations to understand when you use social media, you may be generating Commonwealth records.

They recommend that Social Media Policies also include advice on how to manage social media records.

They also recommend updating your agency’s records management policy to include the management of social media records. The content of the two policies must complement one another and be linked to ensure they are updated and maintained together.

Find out more: National Archives of Australia

Today via Twitter I came across an excellent publication entitled Ethical Framework for the Use of Social Media by Mental Health Professionals .  The article recently appeared in Tilt Magazine.

As one of my clients is in this health area I was particularly interested in having a read.

The article covers areas such as:

• Patient relationships
• Practitioner online behaviour
• Friends and Follow requests
• Expectation setting if working with clients on social networking sites

Recently the AMA also released its Social Media Guide for Practioners so it appears the health professions are gradually taking a look at this critical area.

In a recent study by Digital Brand Expressions, 52% of social marketers are operating “without a game plan,” similar to the 50% found in April 2010 by R2integrated this was discussed recently in an emarketer article.

The following image shows the activities that organisations are currently participating in indicating that many organisations are clearly at the beginning of their social media journey building the foundations for more sophisticated activities.

The study also showed that the creation/maintenance of social media communications plans are being created predominantly by marketing and corporate communications which is to be expected.

It would however be interesting to know how many other departments had a seat at the table when the social media plans were developed.  For example, developing a thorough social media policy alone would need input from HR, IT, marketing and others gaining that buy-in from the majority of departmental areas is critical if you are (a) going to get the strategy off the ground and (b) gain the ROI that you need.