Ethical Social Media Guide for LEGO
Ethical guides for social media are important as you do not want to post or promote your product incorrectly or have employees posting company secrets online. Creating an ethical guide for your business or industry is beneficial for the organization as it provides a guideline and expectations for employees to follow. Hootsuite recommends the use of a social media guideline as it provides employees with best practices. The ethical guide provides a list of what is appropriate and what is not appropriate to post on the business page. It can be used as the do’s and don’ts for social media content and captions.
LEGO is a brand that creates and shares excellent content. In LEGO’s social media posts and content, it is clear to see they use an ethical social media guide. I have created my own idea of the LEGO social media ethical guide by breaking it down into the types of content. It is easier to understand the ethical responsibilities for each content post type.
Ethical Do’s and Don’ts by Post Content
Products
When LEGO posts about new or existing products it is imperative to only include the LEGO pieces and minifigures that are a part of the set. Do not add other LEGO pieces to the visual content. If extra LEGO pieces are added this will mislead social media followers on what is included in the LEGO set and/or LEGO collection that is being posted.
If the product is in partnership with a movie, for example LEGO Star Wars, use the movie title in the hashtags and tag the brand. It Is key to remain transparent and to avoid misleading statements or information in a post. Axia PR recommends being transparent to your social media audience.
User Generated Content
When sharing user generated content tag the social media profile of the LEGO creator. Brand Driven Digital reminds us to, “Give credit where credit is due.” It is essential to give credit to the original content creator of the post when re-sharing the post on LEGO’s social media profiles.
Sponsor Partnerships
LEGO partners with multiple brands, movies, sport teams and more. When posting content with partners, in the caption copy be clear LEGO is in part of a partnership with that specific brand in the post. Tag them in the post and the caption. Use the hashtag of that brand. For example, if the brand partner is DC Comics use #DCComics in the post.
LEGO Foundation
LEGO Foundation partners with organizations around the world to build a better tomorrow. The LEGO Foundation posts include a graphic image with the copy about what the LEGO Foundation contributed and/or supported recently. In the post caption give a summary of the graphic with the key points to include. Keep the information truthful and accurate. Do not round up on the financial amount donated to an organization the LEGO Foundation assisted. It is important to be transparent and honest with the audience on all social media platforms.
Employees Confidentiality, Misrepresentation or Defamation on personal social media profiles
LEGO employees must adhere to LEGO’s confidentiality agreement. They must not post and/or leak new products, brand partnerships or company secrets. When employees post on social media they must be clear they do not speak or represent the LEGO company. Employees must not post anything leading to defamation of the LEGO company.
Final Thoughts
An ethical guide is essential for companies to create for their social media platforms. They can create the ethic guide by post types or for each social media platform. What is important is for the company to present a clear guideline with expectations for employees to follow.
