Bart Lazar’s Social Media Guidelines Noted in Information Today
“The New Social Media Guidelines”

Bart Lazar’s social media guidelines were noted in the March 1, 2010 Information Today article, “The New Social Media Guidelines.” The article discussed how a growing number of employers are starting to institute companywide policies regulating the appropriate use of electronic communication technologies.

According to the article, 26% of the polled organizations last year reported firing employees for misusing the Internet and that 40% - 50% of organizations have not yet addressed their policy issues relevant to social media use. The article pointed out that social media is not going away anytime soon, and leaving its use to chance or assuming that employees will somehow understand what “being professional” means raises risks related to branding, security, and productivity.

The article included information from Bart’s social media guidelines that he uses when counseling his clients on what to cover in their social media policies. A sample of the topics included in the guidelines were: text messaging and mobile device communications, internal social networks, external social networks (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter), content posted about work, and protecting the rights of the company.