Social Media Policies of Walmart.
For this assignment I reviewed the social media policy of Walmart. At first I planned on finding more local example to review, but after looking at options I realized that like it or not Walmart is everywhere and almost everyone has interaction with them in some form. The social media policies for Walmart are listed clearly on their corporate site under policies, Social Media. The policy is divided into two parts, first is the general social media policy for customers and all users including employees, the second is the policy for employees of Walmart. In the first part Walmart covers policy for two forms of social media that it actively uses to engage with customers, Twitter and Facebook. The guidelines give a general definition of what they expect in the way of respectful and ethical postings. In addition they describe limitations and expectations regarding where and how customers may post on com[any sites and what rights the company retains regarding deletion of posts deemed inappropriate. The guidelines are fairly specific when they can be and general when covering areas of changing or adaptive technologies or policy’s.
The second part of the page on social media guidelines is specifically for employees. This portion of the site was very vague and covered only the most basic of policies in my opinion. This portion of their policy basically says unless you are one of Walmart’s employees specifically hired for social media posting then don’t talk to customers, don’t discuss anything we classify as confidential, and try to stay on employee only forums not public sites. Confidential is considered to be pretty much everything about the company that is not disclosed on its public website or through other media. The policy is pretty vague on the surface, but refers employees to other materials they are provided for more details. The basic lesson that comes across to me when I read it is just don’t talk about Walmart on social media.
While Walmart is entitled to manage its social media however it chooses, I get the feeling from reading their policy that an employee is taking a big risk by discussing Walmart on social media of any kind if the company decides it doesn’t like what is posted. Even the portions directed to customers are pretty firm in stating that Walmart is in charge and things they don’t like will be deleted. From a corporate perspective I can understand wanting to protect your Social Media identity, but from a consumers perspective the policy basically says to me that I don’t count for much.
Andrew Glasgow