Coca-Cola sets out rules for social media engagement

Coca-Cola has published a guide to engaging with social media for its 92,400 employees worldwide, recognising that its brand reputation is now in the hands of more than just a handful of marketing executives and pr representatives.

There are three tiers of spokespeople in the brand’s ‘Online Social Media Principles’ document; unofficial, official and a shadowy referral unit, known only by an email address, online.relations@na.ko.com.

The official spokespeople will be certified through a Coca-Cola social media certification program before being turned loose to represent the company online.

Unofficial spokespeople, i.e., any employee knocking about on social media sites  are urged to remember that anything they say online may reflect on the company and to remain true to the company’s core values.

The number one message seems to be, if in doubt, don’t post it. Sensible stuff from Coca-Cola.

Here’s an interview with Adam Brown, Head of Social Media at Coca-Cola, originally from digital buzz blog, the full principles pdf is here