Over time I've found myself doing more and more foundational work for organizations looking to dip their toes into social media. One of the key elements of this work, in my opinion, is creating a social media policy that fits well with the organization's goals, culture and risk tolerance.
But where to start?
As it happens, lots of organizations publish their social media guidelines online, ready for you to review and use yourself. Here are 57 great social media policy templates and resources to use when building your own.
| Source | Resource |
| American Express Open Forum | 3 Great Social Media Policies to Steal From (Kodak, Intel, IBM) |
| American Institute of Architects | Policy on Staff Use of Social Media |
| American Red Cross | Online Communications Guidelines |
| Australian Public Service Commission | Interim protocols for online media participation |
| BBC | Use of social networking, microblogs and other third party websites |
| BBC | Editorial Guidelines |
| British Telecom | Social Media Guidelines |
| Best Buy | Social Media Policy |
| Chartered Institute of Public Relations | Code of Conduct |
| Cisco | Internet Postings Policy |
| Coca Cola | Online Social Media Principles |
| Dell | Online Communications Policy |
| FedEx | Blog Policy |
| Feedster | Corporate Blogging Policy |
| Fellowship Church | Blogging Policy |
| Flickr | Community Guidelines |
| General Motors | Blogger Policy |
| Georgia Tech | Guidelines for Student Blogging |
| Harvard Law School | Corporate Blogging Policies and Guidelines |
| Hill & Knowlton | Pledge for Bloggers |
| HP | Blogging Code of Conduct |
| IBM | Social Computing Guidelines |
| Intel | Social Media Guidelines |
| International Olympic Committee | IOC Blogging Guidelines |
| Jaffe PR | Social Media Policy Procedures and Social Network Policy Procedures |
| Kaiser Permanente | Social Media Policy |
| Kodak | Social Media Tips |
| LiveWorld | Creating social media guidelines for your employees |
| Mayo Clinic | Participation Guidelines |
| Mayo Clinic | Comment Policy |
| Mayo Clinic | For Mayo Clinic Employees |
| Mosman Municipal Council | Twitter Guidelines |
| Opera | Employee Blogging Policies |
| Oracle | Social Media Participation Policy |
| Plaxo | Communication (Blogging) Policy |
| Porter Novelli | Blogging & Social Media Policy |
| Razorfish | Employee Social Influence Marketing Guidelines |
| Reuters | Social Media Guidelines |
| Robert Scoble | The Corporate Weblog Manifesto |
| U.S. Air Force | Blog Assessment |
| U.S. Air Force | New Media and the Air Force |
| U.S. Coast Guard | Social Media - The Way Ahead |
| U.K. Civil Service | Principles for Participation Online |
| Yahoo! | Employee Blog Guidelines |
| Source | Resource |
| Dave Fleet | Corporate Social Media Policies eBook |
| About.com | Blogging and Social Media Policy Sample |
| Business Week | A Twitter Code of Conduct |
| Doug Cornelius | Blogging/Social Internet Policy (for law firms) |
| Electronic Frontier Foundation | How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else) |
| Elizabeth Hannan | Corporate Social Media Policy Guidelines |
| Mashable | Should Your Company Have a Social Media Policy? |
| Nonprofit Technology Network | Tips for Writing Your First Social Media Policy |
| Shift Communications | Social Media Guidelines Template |
| Social Computing Journal | Enterprise Social Media Usage Policies and Guidelines |
| Social Media Governance | Policy Database |
| SocialFish | Social Media, Risk, and Policies for Associations |
| SocialFish | Drafting Social Media Guidelines |