Social Networking and Corporate Rules? How does that work?

Many businesses I talk with are worried about having their employees involved with social networking because of the concern over inappropriate content, or that they will say something detrimental to the company, or even the time they spend on the "social web" while at work.

I encourage businesses to have guidelines for social media use. Including blog posting, "tweeting", Facebook, MySpace, Digg - wherever people are interacting. Now, I'm not saying that companies should be able to censor their employees - but that employees should be aware of appropriate ways to mention who they work for and times that it isn't appropriate to represent their business lives.

The Mayo Clinic has an excellent set of guidelines for their employees, that encompasses personal and professional social networking.

I think this is a great place to start from to develop your organization's social media guidelines.

Anyone have any others to share?