PHOENIX, Ariz. — "Veronica" is complaining to more than 50 Twitter followers that her job at the credit union is "appalling" and "worthless."
Veronica's message, broadcast to the world via social networks like Twitter or Facebook, could quickly attract a hoard of negative comments about the CU. Veronica's tweet is, in fact, real, though the name was changed and synonyms were used for the purposes of this article.
Veronica's faux pas represents the type of very common risk that Arizona State CU here is trying to avoid with the social media policy it rolled out last month, although Veronica never worked at Arizona State CU here, and the $1.3-billion CU has never had to recover from a social media horror story.
"In the past, social media wasn't a big issue," explained Paul Stull, SVP at the CU. "Now, it's become part of the mainstream. For some of our associates, information that comes from social media is important in the course of their daily jobs." Beyond that, more and more employees are using social networking in their personal lives, he added.
"Letting associates wonder what to do in these situations is really unwise," said Stull. "An employee may not be clear about their employer's perspective if they decide to make references to their employment in social media. We needed to create some guidance around employees' personal use of social media and how it could impact their employment. We also clearly needed to have some input on how our reputation is managed."
Transparency is also critical, he said. "If an employee were to engage in a conversation about the credit union on a social media site, we would want them to identify themselves as an employee."
As a result, Arizona State CU built social media guidelines into its employee handbook. The guidelines draw upon the free social media policy template that the CU downloaded from Continuity Engine, a Monroe, Conn.-based company that helps automate policies, procedures and audit.
The three-page Continuity Engine policy template includes "straightforward, common-sense points" on how and when it's appropriate to use social media sites, at work or after hours, Stull said.
The template is a collaborative work-in-progress, subject to improvements suggested by its crowdsourced authors: financial institutions. Crowdsourcing, in this case, was an open call, broadcast to financial institutions over the Internet, for feedback on the policy.
"Usually everyone silos off and makes a separate effort to make policy," said Andy Greenawalt, CEO of Continuity Engine. "With a crowdsourced, free document, everyone benefits." A "few dozen" credit unions have downloaded the policy from the Continuity Engine site, he said.
One of those CUs is 1st Advantage FCU of Newport News, Va. "We're using the templates as the starting point for adding to our existing email and Internet-use policy," said Jim Craig, VP, marketing at the $502-million CU. "Once the review process is finished I plan to share our new-and-improved policy with the Continuity Engine community."
Until recently, the social media policy at most credit unions consisted of a single word: "no," said Greenawalt. "The proliferation of social media over the last year has created pressure to solve the problem when 'no' isn't a viable answer."
Credit unions that block social media sites may as well block pencils, paper and telephones, continued Stull. "And pull down the shade while you're at it." If those communications channels are blocked at work, they can still use them at home, he explained.
