Published November 9, 2011
During the 2011 Social Business Virtual Conference by AIIM, I had prepared a session on Governance within Facebook. Thank you to Jesse Wilkins, AIIM Director for Systems of Engagement for his support, as well as the many AIIM staff in the background
I want to repeat some of the points made during my presentation and I want to start the whole thing with a quote:
“@HannsKK common sense approach to FB Governance #sbcon11 by @ECMEmpress”
I retweeted the sentiment with the addition – “Common sense is HARD !”
As I started reading through the Privacy rules and Terms & Conditions of Facebook, I noticed that there are lots and lots of potential pitfalls for companies that want to get active on Facebook. Two examples of where things have gone wrong:
A number of employees identifiable as from a particular company, join a group against a controversial building project. Although in no way representing the company or reflecting on how the company looks at the project, the impression is that at least part of the workforce is against the project. As I noted in a previous blogpost – perception may end up being reality in the public eye.
Another case, this one is hypothetical. An employee clicks on a like or Recommend button on a website, this gets posted back to his Facebook profile… where he happens to also be the admin for the brand or company Fan page… and he publishes the story as the Company, thereby voicing approval.
For the second one, I do not have a link, but I am sure it has happened, and if the case is suitably embarrassing, it will find its way onto one of the many Facebook Update Fail pages, thereby further spreading the news.
Facebook, which really is meant as an example, but which is currently without comparison within social networking, has brought risk so much closer to the individual user. There are potentially hundreds of millions of readers, not just friends and family, but also competitors, managers, HR people, your granddad or grandma and your next employer, all there to read about it. Sharing a post, or liking a post, pulls it exponentially into a very large circle. Look at LinkedIn and the statistics it gives you. 800 contacts gives you tens of thousands 2nd degree contacts, and millions of third degree contacts, friends of friends or friends, so not that far away, certainly less than the 6 we are all said to be removed from each other.
But back to Governance and Facebook.
The first thing is to realise that Facebook is not like all the other channels. Its reach, diversity and penetration is much further and deeper than anything we have ever seen before. No other Social network has as many members.
Facebook is not like LinkedIn or Xing, both networks meant for business networking. It holds everything from the ridiculous to the mundane, from the trivial,to regular nuggets of real knowledge and liberally sprinkled with requests for cows, spanners, guns, money and support while expanding your virtual gaming empire.
Facebook is not exactly known for its great privacy controls. Yes, they are there, but many people are neither familiar with them, nor do they keep up with the regular changes as FB adapts to the desires of both users, developers and in some cases additional pressures from lawmakers and competitors.
All of these factors contribute to the need for a much more detailed, a wider, or potentially more problematic governance setting. The first question you have to ask yourself, is whether you will want to be on Facebook yourself as an organization or not. If the answer is no, fine, then do not expect your employees to make the same decision. Deal with that fact that a lot of them will be on there and give them some guidance about what to do there.
Things to think about are:
- Commenting
- Liking
- Joining Groups
- Starting Fan Pages
- Using Apps
Give guidance on each one of those. But also thinking about a wider implications of a presence on FB. Things to think about in this context are:
- What values do I want to transport as an organization on Facebook
- What policies and procedures do I put in place
- What processes are needed for publishing, commenting, Joining, etc.
- Who has responsibility and what new roles are needed
- How do I train people, when and on what
All of this of course combined with a communication policy that keeps the process transparent and understandable.
It is not a trivial exercise, but part of a larger corporate governance structure and it needs to tie in with that. I will be trying to go into more detail in the next post, but of course, if you have any questions, just contact me on…. Facebook, or Twitter. I am usually there. 
