In an effort to help ensure proper professionalism for this participation, we have provided this guideline for appropriate use of social and professional online networking.  Understand that you are “always representing SKT.” In today’s world of social networks and online collaboration it is unrealistic to think you can create a line between personal and professional profiles and commentary. 

Use your best judgment. Don’t make any statements that you are unwilling to stand behind and pay whatever personal or professional consequences result from the postings. If you're about to publish something that makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable, review the suggestions above and think about why that is. If you're still unsure, and it is related to SKT business, feel free to discuss it with your manager. Ultimately, however, you have sole responsibility for what you post to your blog or publish in any form of online social media.

Using online social networking.

Online social networks include sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn , and others.   While there are no official rules, these are good guidelines:

• Restrict Facebook and MySpace (and other social networking sites) as your personal network.  Don’t feel obligated to “friend” coworkers, vendors, suppliers or clients.
• Use LinkedIn as your professional network for adding work-related colleagues.
• Many social networking sites have setting to hide or restrict content within specific groups of contacts.  Understand what these settings do and don’t restrict and use them to increase your level of privacy.
• Consider hiding any personally identifiable information, connections, interests, statements or activities from the public by restricting that information to only your contacts.

Be thoughtful about how you present yourself in online social networks.The lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred in online social networks. By virtue of identifying yourself as SKT employee within a social network, you are now connected to your colleagues, managers and even SKT's clients. You should ensure that content associated with you is consistent with your work at SKT. If you have joined SKT recently, be sure to update your social profiles to reflect SKT's guidelines.

Protecting confidential and proprietary information.Social computing blurs many of the traditional boundaries between internal and external communications. Be thoughtful about what you publish—particularly on external platforms. You must make sure you do not disclose or use SKT confidential or proprietary information or that of any other person or company in any online social computing platform. For example, ask permission before posting someone's picture in a social network or publishing in a blog a conversation that was meant to be private.

Protect SKT's clients, business partners and suppliers. Clients, partners or suppliers should not be cited or obviously referenced without their approval. Externally, never identify a client, partner or supplier by name without permission and never discuss confidential details of a client engagement. Internal social computing platforms permit suppliers and business partners to participate so are sensitive to who will see your content. If a client hasn't given explicit permission for their name to be used, think carefully about the content you're going to publish on any internal social media and get the appropriate permission where necessary.

It is acceptable to discuss general details about kinds of projects and to use non-identifying statements such as referring to “a client” versus identifying them by name.  Generally speaking, information provided does not make it easy for someone to identify the client or violate any non-disclosure or intellectual property agreements that may be in place with the client. Furthermore, your blog or online social network is not the place to conduct confidential business with a client.

Respect your audience and your coworkers.Remember that SKT is an organization whose employees and clients reflect a diverse set of customs, values and points of view. Don't be afraid to be yourself, but do so respectfully. This includes not only the obvious (no ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, etc.) but also proper consideration of privacy and of topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory—such as politics and religion.  For example, if your blog is hosted on an SKT-owned property, avoid these topics and focus on subjects that are business-related. If your blog is self-hosted, use your best judgment and be sure to make it clear that the views and opinions expressed are yours alone and do not represent the official views of SKT.  Further, blogs, wikis, virtual worlds, social networks, or other tools hosted outside of SKT's protected Intranet environment should not be used for internal communications among fellow employees. It is fine to disagree, but please don't use your external blog or other online social media to air your differences in an inappropriate manner.
References and additional resources

The guidelines in this document have borrowed from IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines and other standard best practices documents and postings.  Some other examples can be found at:

• Yahoo’s Personal Blog Guidelines for staff
• Intel Social Media Guidelines
• Cisco’s Internet Postings Policy
• Harvard Law School Blogs Terms of Use 

We encourage you to develop your own guidelines for social networking within your organization.  If you have comments or questions, please leave them here or contact me directly.