Good manners. That's the mantra when it comes to many companies' social-media policies. And although statistics show the existence of employers' policies lag behind, depending on the media niche, a social-media policy is a must.

"Many companies find social media to be very helpful in terms of customer service and relationship building, as well as advertising and promotion," says Nancy Flynn, executive director of Ohio-based ePolicy Institute. "I believe social media can be terrific communication tools. But their use - and misuse - must be managed with policies, just like any other form of electronic communication or good, old-fashioned written communication of any kind."

Todd Defren, a principal at SHIFT Communications, says employees must offer politeness, transparency, honesty and meaningful information to their blog posts, tweets, LinkedIn offerings and FaceBook walls.

There is a lot of online talk about Ford Motor Co.'s social-media rules of engagement. The good-manners mantra carries through as it encourages non-defensive apologies, warns against giving the perception that people are being spammed and stresses that "influencers" should be heard.

Dell Inc.'s policy takes transparency seriously, requiring employees, suppliers and other company representatives to provide contact information upon request.

Defren says just because employees are out there promoting the company and its products, the public relations and legal teams should be kept in the loop. Crisis topics should go to those departments, and mainstream media should be referred to the public relations group. Cisco Systems Inc. takes that a step further: When bloggers contact Cisco employees, the company wants the public relations department to know about it.

It goes without saying, but it's necessary to stress accuracy in postings.

Writes Dell: "Communications should be based on current, accurate, complete and relevant data."

If you want to have an agency develop your plan, it runs about $10,000 and takes about a month, Defren says. But "there is a ton of good, solid information (online) on how to engage or not engage in social media today. If you take the time, you can learn everything you need to know for free."

With the use of social media firmly in the sights of any public relations campaign that claims to be in the 21st century, employers are increasingly aware of potential litigation, security breaches and lost productivity due to employees' bad online decisions. But depending on the media niche, policies can lag.

Companies have addressed business-blog policy in force, with 67 percent having drawn up a policy, according to a 2009 survey conducted by ePolicy and American Management Association. In contrast, only 30 percent of U.S. companies reporting have a personal-blog policy in place about use during working hours; only 5 percent have Twitter policies for business-related tweets; and it's 6 percent for personal tweeting on company time. That compares to 10 percent of operations reporting the use of Twitter as a company tool.

The 2009 policy and procedure survey included 586 companies of all types and sizes.

Facebook, MySpace and YouTube have a stronger presence in company policy, with 61 percent of those polled sharing that they govern release of confidential information, including gossip and financial information. Meanwhile, 41 percent of companies have policies that govern company information for professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn.

It's up in the air what an employer can dictate in the digital world. The U.S. Supreme Court announced Dec. 14 that it will hear a case in the spring that will decide how much privacy city workers in Ontario, Calif., have when they send text messages from their employers' accounts.

Consider this, says Defren: "A Twitter handle is in the employee's name. So does the employer have the right to limit personal tweets?"

So what are the land mines when drawing up a social-media policy?

"When (employers) try to control how employees behave in social networks beyond the job," says Defren.

This article originally appeared in the Austin Business Journal.