Advice from NASA on social media

Organizations large and small are grappling with employee use of social media in the workplace. One thing experts agree on is that a usage policy is absolutely necessary to protect both the organization and the employees. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which established a social media policy back in 2007, offers one illustration of how to develop a policy.

First, an organization needs to determine its business goals for social media and whether it has the resources needed to sustain those goals, says Jeanne Holm, chief knowledge architect at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. If, for example, an organization wants to have a prominent presence on Facebook, it will need to have the resources to keep its content updated, Holms says in a CIO article.

Once the policy goals are established, it is important to come up with rules that are broad enough to encompass future technologies, according to Holm. Today's popular networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, may not be the areas of greatest concern a few years from now. The policy should be extensive enough to provide a comfort level for employees unsure about participating in social networks, but not so limiting that existing users feel constrained.

"We didn't want the policy to be too harsh for those who were already using social media freely, but we wanted to make sure it wasn't too scant for those who wanted some guidance to feel comfortable using social media," Holms says.

Finally, after the policy is written, it is a good idea to gather feedback from employees so that they understand its purpose and intent.

For more:
- read this article at CIO

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