How do I stop my self-promoting employee from using the work social media accounts for their own gain?

Dear Aunty B,

I’m one of the directors of a creative agency that produces a range of marketing material for clients—anything from television commercials to online advertising campaigns and custom content.

We use multiple social media accounts to share our clients’ campaigns as well as promote our services and this will often involve sharing links to posts on our own blog or articles our team may have contributed to industry publications.

As a general rule we try to share all our of content but the team member who I delegated the management of our social media accounts to has gradually taken to only sharing only their own content, or content that makes only their clients or campaigns look good. It took me a few months to notice but now when I check our Facebook page or Twitter account, all I see is posts about this one team member. They have even taken to retweeting their own personal accounts on an almost daily basis.

I don’t want to dampen their enthusiasm for social media—it’s an increasingly important part of what we do—but other team members are missing out on having their great work shared. I’m worried clients will get the impression this team member is ‘the face’ of our company but I also don’t have the time to check up on their social media posts each day.

What’s the best way to tackle the situation?

Kate,

Perth

Dear Kate,

In every business there will also be those who hog the limelight—social media just gives them one more way to do so.

It seems like your team member has seen an opportunity to get something for themselves and they’ve grabbed it with both hands. This kind if gumption is often rewarded in business and could be a powerful resource for your company if harnessed in the right way. Unfortunately for them, retweeting themselves from the company account is not the right way.

From what you’ve told me, it doesn’t appear that your company has a formal social media policy and I think this is your best bet in dealing with the situation.

Sit down with the other directors and senior staff and come up with a set of guidelines for how you would like your social media accounts to be run by all staff. It might include specific targets for what you would like shared each week or more general policies of staff not using the accounts to their own advantage.

Once you have a policy in place, and it is communicated well to all team members, you will be on your way to have a process to deal with any situations that get out of hand.

And hopefully this particular team member gets the subtle hint.

Be Smart,

Aunty B

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