Are you confident that all of your employees know what they should and should not be doing with regard to social media? Are you concerned about what they might be saying as a representative of your company either officially or simply because their email domain or profile has a connection to your company name? Have you advised hiring managers about how they should--and shouldn't--use online information sources to do background checks on prospective (or existing) employees?

Should you have a social media policy? Chances are you should.

According to research by Weber Shandwick and exec search firm Spencer Stuart, more than 1/3 of corporate communication officers indicated that their companies had experienced a social-media-based reputation threat during the past 12 months; just as many were unprepared to address those threats.

Despite the risks, the Wave VI in the Social Media Index survey indicates that more than half of the nearly 3000 global IT, HR and financial professionals polled either don't have a social-media policy or are unsure if they do.

While some suggest that it is sufficient to simply address the issues/concerns related to social media in already existing policies (e.g. IT policies on the use of the Internet, corporate communications policies on representing the company, etc.), a separate policy specifically dealing with social media can make a lot of sense. Why? It draws attention to employees' online behaviors specifically and avoids any opportunity for misunderstanding.

As Warren Buffett has said, it can take 20 years to build a great reputation and only a few minutes to ruin it!

Learn more here.