A social media policy is a set of standards relating to conduct on social media platforms. It consists of guidelines and principles that employees are obliged to adopt when participating on social media with the objective of protecting the interests of the business.

Employers have legitimate interests when it comes to monitoring their employee’s social media profiles. They monitor to protect reputational interests, intellectual property, trade secrets and to ensure productivity.

However, the use of social media introduces potential risks to business. These risks are far too many to mention and almost impossible to quantify, as most platforms enables users to post content which may business and its stakeholders. So much so that there has been a radical increase in lawsuits relating to damages both locally and internationally over the past 5 years.