1) Social media governance has become critical for businesses to manage risks from casual or inappropriate employee use of social media while still encouraging knowledge sharing. 2) Current research shows that organizations should guide rather than restrict employee social media use, but only 20% of companies have clear social media policies. 3) There is a sizable gap in understanding how social media governance policies might impact employee knowledge sharing behaviors and willingness to contribute to online communities.

1. Why has social media governance become a
critical business agenda?
Adapted from a research proposal submitted to the Australian School of Business, University
of New South Wales, Australia
Michael Ling
30 January 2013
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2. The Rationale
Terms of Reference
Web 2.0
 Web 2.0 is the technologies that allow contents to be generated
and published online by users (Hamel, 2012).
Social Media
 A group of Internet-based applications that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 (Kaplan,
2010).
Social Business
 The use of social media to drive strategic business outcomes
(Hinchcliffe & Kim, 2012).
Online Communities
 A network consists of employees, customers, suppliers and the
public who can interact and collaborate virtually around a topic, a
discipline or a body of knowledge using social media.
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3. The Rationale
Online communities evolution – Infancy
Organization boundary
Social CRM
Social HR
System
Social Product Social Workforce
Development Engagement
Social Media Social Business
Marketing Ecosystem
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4. The Rationale
Online communities evolution – Adolescence
Organization boundary
Social CRM
Social HR
System
Social Product Social Workforce
Development Engagement
Social Media Social Business
Marketing Ecosystem
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5. The Rationale
Online communities evolution – Adulthood
Organization boundary
Social CRM
Social HR
System
Social Product Social Workforce
Development Engagement
Social Media Social Business
Marketing Ecosystem
Online Communities
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6. The Rationale
A fast growing phenomenon
 93% of corporate Facebook pages
is updated weekly
 Web 2.0
 79% of corporate accounts
engages on Twitter
 Value creation  70% of corporate pages is
responding to comments on their
 Communities of walls
Practice  Average no. of corporate
Facebook page communities has
been increased by 275% since
2010
Fortune Global 100
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7. The Rationale
Online Communities – Key characteristics
 Social relationships
 Voluntary
 Self-organizing
 Emerging
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8. The Rationale
The employee perspective
Employees
Online Communities  Empowerment
 Social relationships
 Making conversations
 Voluntary
 Sharing knowledge
 Self-organizing
 Emerging  Socializing
Employees  Emotional
Customers
Social
Stakeholders Suppliers
communities
Partners
Public
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9. The Rationale
The organization perspective
Organization
Employees
Online Communities  Expect value creation
 Empowerment
 Social relationships
 Voluntary
 Conversations  Losing control
Self-organizing  Knowledge

Sharing  Mitigate risk exposure
 Emerging
 Socializing  Governance
Employees
 Emotional Social CRM
Social HR
System
Social Product Social Workforce
Customers Development Engagement
Social Social Media
Stakeholders Suppliers Social Business
communities Marketing Ecosystem
Partners
Public
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10. The Rationale
Why is social media governance critical?
 An age-old legal concept
Protecting the organization’s confidential data
Protecting employee’s privacy
A respectful workplace
Defamation, reputation and harassment
 Becoming a critical issue
Casualness and massive potential of lapses in judgement
Workplace legally required to be safe and harassment free.
Disrespectful or derogatory comments may hold employer liable.
Social media contextualize its significance
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11. The Rationale
Because it can help solve a business conundrum
Solving a business conundrum
 Governance is needed to  Value created in online
mitigate risk exposure in social communities through knowledge
media. sharing by employees is critical.
 Lacking knowledge to  Expect a return from its
understand employees’ investment in social business.
reaction to governance and the
impact on their knowledge
sharing behavior.
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12. The Rationale
Current knowledge on Social Media Governance
 Organizations should “guide employee use, rather than
developing extensive formal rules that restrict it” (KPMG, 2011).
 Only 20 percent of firms in Australasia has an overarching social
media policy (Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012).
 Social media governance consists of four aspects in an
organization (Fink & Zerfass, 2010; Verhoeven et al., 2011):-
 Social media guidelines;
 Tools for monitoring stakeholders’ communications;
 Training programs;
 KPIs that measure social web activities.
A paucity of research on social media governance
(Zerfass et al., 2011)
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13. The Rationale
There is a sizable knowledge gap
 Altruism (He & Wei, 2008; Kankanhalli et al., 2005)
 Collectivism (Hew & Hara, 2007)
 Confidentiality (Ardichvili et al., 2003; Jarvenpaa & Staples, 2000).
 Conformity (Gray, 2004).
 Knowledge-related factors (Ardichvili et al., 2003; Lichtenstein & Hunter, 2005)
 Personal cognition (Bock & Kim, 2002; Bock et al., 2005; Kankanhalli et al., 2005).
 Policies (Preece, 2001).
 Reputation feedback (Wasko & Faraj, 2005; Marett & Joshi, 2009)
 Reciprocity (He & Wei, 2008; Wasko & Faraj, 2005)
 Technologies (Sharratt & Usoro, 2003; Teigland & Wasko, 2004)
 Time (McDermott, 2001; Preece, 2000; Balafas et al., 2004)
 Trust (Mayer et al., 1995; Mishra, 1996; Wang & Ahmed, 2003)
None of the findings has looked into the effect of
Social Media Governance.
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14. The End
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