Social media policy Case Study: Cisco

Company profile

Cisco is a global technology company providing networks for the Internet, for business, government and home communications. It offers hardware, software and service offerings designed to increase productivity and strengthen competitive advantage. Founded in 1984 by a group of computer scientists from Stanford University, it now has over 65,000 employees worldwide.

The challenge

As a truly global company employing tens of thousands of people, it is important for Cisco to establish systems and processes which allow it to monitor activity on the growing plethora of social media sites. This can help both to assess the reputational impact of the many conversations taking place over the web, and also to ensure that staff are not damaging the brand in any way. The investment community is increasingly relying on social media networks to provide official – and unofficial – insights into publicly listed companies.

The solution

Cisco offers training and certification to employees who wish to speak in social networks on behalf of the company. Laura Graves, director of global investor relations and corporate communications at Cisco, says that it is important to assume that “everything that is internal could eventually become external”. She notes that this includes emails and anything posted to the website, which could be copied and then posted to an external site.

“Have a very, very strong code of conduct that your employees must sign as a condition of employment,” advises Graves, “that says that they realize they are responsible for their own reputation and for the reputation of our company. The code of conduct also addresses what you can and cannot post on social media.”

The results

Messages on social media sites and on industry message boards are inherently difficult to control, but Cisco has implemented measures to ensure that staff are educated on the impact of such sites and behave in a way which helps to prevent reputational damage – intentional or unintentional – to the company. Given that the market is actively using social media as a readily available source of information to make investment decisions, Cisco’s policies on social media allow it to remain aware of what is being said, and to maintain some sort of control over conversations that are generated internally.