Featuring staff on a business social media account is an effective way of creating engaging content that will increase conversions, but is it safe? Social Media Consents for staff will protect them and you.
But, you have a duty as an employer to keep them safe. When posting pictures of employers on social media, you must ensure you don’t breach staff member’s data and privacy rights. UK Data protection laws include photographs and videos and the information that could be revealed about a person in these forms of media. So, what is the best way to protect your staff and still have personal, engaging content for your business’s social media accounts?
In a recent poll we conducted, we asked business owners and employers which of these options they thought was the right approach to take.
Here are the options explained:
As a member of staff, they should be on the business’s social media.
Just because the company employs someone does not mean they should be in any form of media. I’m sure if the job was advertised as promoting something on a social media platform, then yes, there may be an element of being filmed for the successful candidate, but this would be something that was discussed before.
They have their own social media account, so they will want to feature on the business’s accounts.
If your employees have social media accounts, you may think they will be happy to be featured on any media at work. This isn’t always the case, and even if they regularly post pictures of themselves on social media, that does not mean they want to be featured in content at their place of employment. There could be safety reasons why they don’t make their jobs public or do not want the public to know they will be in a specific location at a particular time.
I have no time to ask, I just need to get some content!
Having no time to ask is a common issue, as running a business can leave you little time for your social media content. This could lead to spontaneous content creation, but this can create double the work. If you take lots of pictures and videos of staff without asking them, they could ask you not to post them on social media, which means you have lost all that content.
Although people have the right to withdraw their consent at any point, it is always better to know whether they feel comfortable being on a business’s social media accounts. But asking them before you shoot isn’t the best option either.
Asking the staff member before you take a picture or video.
While you have the camera poised in your hand, a quick ask may put them on the spot, and they may not feel comfortable refusing if everyone else is ready to go. Again, this could result in you losing all your content if they withdraw their consent at a later date.
The best practice we recommend is creating a media consent document.
A media consent document contains all the information about whether staff do or don’t want to be in pictures or videos. You can also ask questions like ‘Would you like to talk on camera?’, as some staff may be okay with being in a video but would not want to talk. This document would only need to be completed once to cover all content that would be produced in the future and would last as long as the employee worked for the company. Of course, they can still withdraw this consent at any time, but giving staff a way of expressing their wishes in confidence means they are less likely to change their mind.
Having a media consent document means you produce better content. You know which staff can be photographed and which will talk on video, making planning your content a lot easier.
As part of our social media consultancy services, we can advise you on creating a document for your staff. We can also produce the document for you. If you would like to talk to us about media consent documents, please contact us for more details.
