I’ve just come across an excellent post titled the 10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy by Sharlyn Lauby (the president of Internal Talent Management), in Mashable’s Social Media Guide for Journalists section.

Sharon starts her post by claims that their are two extreme approaches to social media policy making.  The evolutionary way, or by having a clear policy from the outset.  She then lists 10 tips you should most definitely consider.

The list is:

1. Introduce the purpose of social media
2. Be responsible for what you write
3. Be authentic
4. Consider your audience
5. Exercise good judgement
6. Understand the concept of community
7. Respect copyrights and fair use
8. Remember to protect confidential & proprietary information
9. Bring value
10. Productivity matters

Sharon also includes a sample social media policy from the Headset Bros.

Mashable is a site that claims to be “the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news” – well worth a regular visit!

To reflection the influence that social networking sites have had on the English vocabulary in 2009 the Oxford English Dictionary has added, amongst many other words:

• Tweetup – to organise a gatherings through Twitter
• Hashtag – one or more words or phrases prefixed with a hash symbol (#) so that Twitter users can search tweets …
• Unfriend – to drop a contact from Facebook