Coca-Cola Adopts New Social Media Policies

January 12, 2010 By 28 Comments

Coca-Cola has updated their social media policies (or principles, as Coca-Cola is calling them).  Guess what? The policies are only 3 pages in length.  Yep, that’s it. 3 pages.  One of the largest brands in the world that sells into 200 countries with dozens of products and billions of dollars in revenue has figured out how to boil their social media policies down to only the nitty gritty.

The policy encompasses a total of 20 points that are broken out into 3 key areas:

  • 5 Core Values of the Company in the Online Social Media Community
  • 5 Expectations for Associates’ Personal Behavior in Online Social Media
  • 10 Expectations for Online Spokespeople

Adam Brown, the head of social media at Coca-Cola, explains the framework for these new guidelines in an interview with Andy Sernovitz.  If you can’t view this video, you can grab it over on YouTube.

YouTube Preview Image

If you want to read Coca-Cola’s new social media policy, you can either read it below or grab it over on Scribd.
Coca-Cola Company’s Online Social Media Principles

At New Marketing Labs I recently had someone from a small to medium company contact me and asked if we could review their social media policy. While we didn’t end up working with the company, their social media policy was 41 pages and 3 slide decks. I think my buddy C.C. Chapman summarized it the best after he tweeted out the link to Conrad Lisco’s post about Coca-Cola’s new policies:

For Coca-Cola, this new policy was updating an older set of guidelines that they had already in place.  But, over the course of 2010 we’ll continue to see more brands adopting social media policies.  What I found really interesting is how Adam talked about that it was a combination of several teams that came together to boil their social media policy into a 3 page document meant to serve as a set of 5 commitments from the company and 15 guidelines.

Has your company adopted a social media policy yet?  What are your thoughts on Coca-Cola’s new policies?

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Filed Under: Business, Social Media, Social Media Strategy, Videos Tagged With: , , , , ,
  • http://twitter.com/justinlevy justinlevy

    Would love to know your thoughts on Coca-Cola’s new social media policies http://bit.ly/7LUaCo

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/Vered Vered

    Interesting – RT @justinlevy Coca-Cola adopts new social media policy http://bit.ly/7LUaCo

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/LYF108 LYF108

    I love it! Agree w/ @cc_chapman too. RT @justinlevy What are your thoughts on Coca-Cola’s new social media policies http://bit.ly/7LUaCo

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/InfiniteSM InfiniteSM

    If Coke can keep their Social Media policies to 3 pages, so can YOU! http://om.ly/eAdh

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/cnmoody cnmoody

    @justinlevy Great post on Coca Cola’s social media policy. Clean and concise while being informative for all employees. http://bit.ly/5qWuWl

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/KyleJudkins KyleJudkins

    Justin Levy – Coca-Cola Adopts New Social Media Policies http://bit.ly/5M90tA

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/azquad6 azquad6

    Coke has a new social media policy. It’s forward thinking and open. http://bit.ly/4RBhH0

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/PekkaPuhakka PekkaPuhakka

    Coca-Cola Adopts New Social Media Policies: http://bit.ly/4RBhH0 – by Justin Levy @justinlevy / #Video #SocialMedia #Policy

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/Hallicious Hallicious

    This is #awesome! Go Coke! RT @justinlevy: Would love to know your thoughts on Coca-Cola’s new social media policies http://bit.ly/7LUaCo

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://ianmrountree.com Ian M Rountree

    Honestly, I rather like it. While it's filled with corporate over-exposition, every document is. I imagine if they dispensed with much of what they have to include to have legal clarity, the document would be less than two pages long. It seems to come down to “Be a good person, and if you're not representing the company officially, make sure people know that.”

    Does any social media policy need more? Clearly in the document, Coca-Cola is pointing at other programs (Social Media certification program) – but isn't including the tenets of those program in their umbrella document. This is a smart move, from the point of making sure the entire staff get behind the main document and commitments.

    CC's right. If one of the biggest distribution companies in the world can trim to 3 pages, no one has any excuse to be more complicated unless they're creating a social media division.

  • http://www.chris-moody.com Chris Moody

    That's a really clean social media policy.

    I think it is important to encourage and not prohibit other employees from diving into social media. By having some guidelines and core values to follow, it is easy to digest and understand.

    Really nice document!

  • http://twitter.com/kelvin8048 kelvin8048

    Coca-Cola Adopts New Social Media Policies http://bit.ly/50j8tO

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/jlevymedia jlevymedia

    Coca-Cola Adopts New Social Media Policies: Coca-Cola has updated their social media policies (or principles, a.. http://bit.ly/4zyWb6

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://www.hallicious.com Hallicious

    As a person who works in the world of social media for a Fortune 100 Company, I love it. :)

    KISS = The way to go…

  • http://friendfeed.com/jellsworth John Ellsworth

    Policy

    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  • http://twitter.com/knappmarketing knappmarketing

    Coca-Cola’s new SM policy: useful for CMO’s creating a policy or setting goals for their firm. http://bit.ly/4RBhH0

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/RSSirteubal RSSirteubal

    Coca-Cola Adopts New Social Media Policies | Justin Levy: Excellent social media policy with great ideas for a tra… http://bit.ly/8aa2NR

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://primecutsblog.com justinlevy

    I definitely agree Chris! It's important for companies to have
    guidelines in place but to also encourage employees to use social
    media tools. In my opinion, Coca-Cola has developed an excellent set
    of guidelines that will be used as a template for many others.

  • http://primecutsblog.com justinlevy

    Exactly. It usually can be boiled down to: Don't be stupid. :)

  • http://twitter.com/jlevymedia jlevymedia

    Coca-Cola Adopts New Social Media Policies http://bit.ly/7LUaCo

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/CasparSch CasparSch

    Coca-Cola 3 page Social Media Principles. If they can make it this simple, surely its not beyond the rest of us! http://bit.ly/4RBhH0

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/jeanniecw jeanniecw

    @metawerkz Coca-Cola did it right, in my humble opinion: http://bit.ly/4RBhH0

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/MarketingWrite MarketingWrite

    I missed Coca Cola’s new Social Media policy: it’s good and useful to know and consider http://ow.ly/YSso

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/Omaniblog Paul O'Mahony (Cork)

    This is very useful to me in Ireland. Here few companies have social media (SM) policies. I think this means that there will be a deluge of SM policy writing in the second half of 2010.
    With this example of Coke, and a few others I've collected, I'll be well placed to help the companies I work with to sort their values, and requirement out quickly – rather than take ages to agree clarity.

  • http://twitter.com/Omaniblog Paul O'Mahony (Cork)

    Chris, It's your use of the word “clean” that attracted me to comment. Thanks for that. I'll be using your word

  • http://primecutsblog.com justinlevy

    We'll definitely see more social media policies being written and
    implemented during 2010. It will be interesting to see if other large
    brands follow the lead of companies like Coke and keep them short and to the
    point or if they'll become long documents filled with lots of legalese.

  • Pingback: The Joint Chiefs of Staff 2010 Social Media Strategy — Exploring How Social Media Humanizes Business Justin Levy

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    Brilliant !