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Global broadcasting giant ABC has announced new social media guidelines, which ABC journalists and staff must abide by.

Speaking at the Media 140 conference on the future of journalism in the social networking age, ABC Managing Director Mark Scott outlined standards ABC journalists are expected to adhere to when using media platforms like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and You Tube.

The new Use of Social Media policy gives four standards which staff and contractors must follow when using both work and personal social media interaction:

1. Do not mix the professional and the personal in ways likely to bring the ABC into disrepute.
2. Do not undermine your effectiveness at work.
3. Do not imply ABC endorsement of your personal views.
4. Do not disclose confidential information obtained through work.
Mr Scott also told the Sydney conference that the ABC will add user-generated content to its online presence in the future and may launch a program to help communities generate their own media content.

Today, ClickWriters has redesigned and relaunched the website that you’re looking at! At the same time, we have now implemented an initial email-only contact system, to enable the key team to access a back-office system that allows them to work from anywhere in the world while keeping in touch with each other and key clients.

This is particularly handy as Ralphie Boye, one of ClickWriters founding fathers and PR guru, is now travelling around the world, while we now also boast writers in 10 different countries.

We have also streamlined our delivery systems so that we are able to upload work, images and communications to one single point, allowing administration staff to then bridge the gap between writer and client. This also enables us to be a lot more organised, ensuring that our 100% deadline delivery record remains intact, while we continue to grow in the future and spread around the globe.

All of our key clients have been consulted during this restructuring process, so that new clients will find the service easy to access and understand, while being automatically kept in touch with project workflow.

The website has also been built with a CMS system, allowing it to be updated by any of the team, wherever they are in the world, so watch this space to be kept informed of project, team and writer news.

A recent social media poll found that 54% of business completely prohibit their employees from accessing social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter at work. 

Here at ClickWriters, a division of Cre8ive Wisdom, we utilise social media for a living (so we can’t and wouldn’t prohibit employees from accessing social media websites), so we do understand the arguments that support both sides of this debate.

US-based business guru Warren Buffett famously pointed out the main reason against… He said “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it”. Putting your brand in the hands of every employee within the greatest open forum in history can be a huge risk, but having your brand perceived as a ‘Big Brother’ organisation or old-fashioned by preventing social media interaction can also be damaging.

It would seem that the safest route is to ’say no’ or to impose extremely strict social media policies on staff, that severely limit interactions and engagement.

We are helping our client organisations to see the benefits of embracing social media platforms and in trusting their staff to be responsible online, rather than enforcing very strict guidelines on people. However, brand-related guidelines and a straightforward external communications policy, linked to contracts of employment, are certainly routes that we are exploring and developing with clients at the moment.

By working to established and agreed guidelines on content, terms and ’social time online’, we are developing an open, self-regulatory approach, which is already having fantastic results with employees and employers alike.

To embrace social media in your organisation, call us on 0845 094 9948 or email info@cre8ivewisdom.com