Social media provides SMEs with many opportunities to communicate with customers, provide customer support, strengthen relationships and build brand awareness. These are valuable to any business, however, at the same time, social media also exposes business to risk. These risks can be loosely classified as follows:
Reputational Risk:
Whether it’s employee bad behaviour or damaging customer service, business needs to ask “how protected are the company’s brand and reputation?” There are plenty of examples which illustrate negative social media publicity.
Legal Risk:
From accidental disclosure of confidential information to defamation and false and misleading content from third parties, business needs to comply with laws and regulations.
Operational Risk:
It is essential that organisations know how exposed they are to disruptions to its operations which may occur from viruses or malware. Just as the Internet and email pose risks so too does social media.
Navigating these risks is fundamental to safeguarding business interests and relationships. These risks are no different to the offline world. They have now just progressed to social media and business needs to be alert and proactive.
One of the most effective ways to manage these risks is a Social Media Policy which is implemented together with employee training and education, which is ongoing. A policy must be tailored to each business to cater for diverse values, beliefs and different industries.
As well as minimising exposure to risk, a Social Media Policy also provides the opportunity to deliver guidelines to engage in social media. It can empower team members to responsibly use social media to obtain the organisation’s strategic goals and can be a positive engagement tool.
It is important that all SMEs are proactive and protect their business interests.
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