Re-post: Your Employee Is an Online Celebrity. Now What Do You Do?

Mixing social media and on-the-job duties can be a win-win. Or not.

I wanted to share an excellent article concerning an emerging issue in the workplace concerning employees with strong personal brands and potential conflicts with corporate needs and expectations. The original article is here:

Personally, I considered it an excellent thought-provoking article! It points out the lines of demarcation between the corporate and the personal needs. In chapter 25 of my book, Governance Documentation and Information Technology Security Policies Demystified, I guide you on Social Computing Guidelines that will get your company on the progressive fast track with this issue.

There are many pitfalls ahead for both the corporation and the individual if there are no clear understandings in place in advance. There is already some interesting cases that have been in court which is beginning to shape the social media landscape and is worth examining to help shape your social media policies.

A cursory search yielded the following:

  1. WY Rules and Regulations FAMS CCFS, Chapter 6, Section 9 on confidentiality and social media.
  2. Beswick v. North West Medical Center, Inc., 2011 WL 7005038, Circuit Court of Florida, 17th Judicial Circuit, Broward County on access to social media.
  3. Romano v. Steelcase Inc., Supreme Court, Suffolk County, 201030 Misc.3d 426907 N.Y.S.2d 650 on privacy in social media.
  4. Berkeley v. Eisen, District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District, 1997699 So.2d 78922 Fla. L. Weekly D2252 on social media discovery.
  5. Allstate Ins. Co. v. Langston, Supreme Court of Florida, 1995655 So.2d 9120 Fla. L. Weekly S217 on social media discovery.

Let me know if you have any questions about policy implications for your organization from my book or if you have comments in general on the topic.

Enjoy!