I’m not a big fan of social media policies. You need guidelines for using social media in your organization, but policies are often legalistic and make it difficult to act with the speed required for effective social media communications.

I prefer to say: use common sense. But the old adage that common sense isn’t so common means this is often too informal a guideline.

How do you balance the need for a policy that will act as a solid guideline for your organization with the need to avoid legalism that restricts your ability to effectively engage? Use PolicyTool.

PolicyTool allows you to develop a social media policy that is written in plain language and easy to understand. It’s largely based on common sense, but it’s put in writing so everyone in your organization knows the expectations for organizational social media use.

PolicyTool is easy to use. Just answer a few simple questions and PolicyTool does the rest. The whole process takes about five minutes, though you should take some time to think about what is appropriate for your organization when answering the questions.

The organization I work for developed our policy using PolicyTool and it’s served us well for over three years. We review the policy regularly and, so far, have found no need to update it.

PolicyTool will give you a solid, easy-to-understand social media policy that allows you to act quickly and proactively on social media without embarrassing yourself or your organization. (And, if you do embarrass yourself, the policy will help you deal with the consequences in an ethical and responsible manner.)