Early December always marks the start of the Christmas/New Year festive season with shopfests, family and friends, parties and a seemingly never ending stream of food and wine.
For business, however this festive period or Silly Season can be rife with the possibility of legal entanglements. Especially now, with an ever increasing social media usage and blurring line between work and home life thanks to smartphones, tablets and other technology.
So now is the perfect time to ask these two questions:
- How will you manage your risk of what staff may say online; and
- How will you manage your social media platforms over the Christmas holidays?
Staff Management
Thanks to technology we now have uninhibited access to platforms, channels and tools to express ourselves at will. Despite the possible risks, employees will continue to use social media. Consequently, as I’ve mentioned before it is important to have a workplace social media policy in place to not only protect your business, but also your employees.
During the Christmas/New Year period, remind staff of your social media policy and monitor social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. A comment which may seem funny or harmless posted by a late night reveller may have a detrimental impact on other staff, or in fact your business as a whole.
Social Media Management
When I ask many business owners how they plan to manage their social media channels over the holidays, I receive an all too common reply – “nothing, we’re just going to leave it and pick up when we get back from holidays ourselves”. In the digital marketing world, this is simply termed going black and my question to you is: “why would you consider this?”
Social media usage, Facebook and Twitter in particular, rockets during the Silly Season. This is unsurprising given the increasing number of smartphones and the popularity of sharing celebratory messages with friends. Use this to your advantage to push your message to an audience that’s more engaged than normal.
If however, you cannot manage your social media platforms internally or outsource over your holidays, my suggestion is don’t just leave them blank. Think of these sites as you would another communication device… the telephone! I’m sure you don’t leave your telephone message blank over the holidays.
No, you’ll leave a message on the telephone saying when you will be re-open the office, who to contact in an emergency and of course – Merry Christmas. Do the same on your social media sites. Your fans/followers & friends will appreciate this courtesy.
Until next time…..
