Lounging in fluffy slippers while sipping on coffee and perusing the daily headlines I am suddenly interrupted by the loud vibrating on my blackberry. It’s the Twitterers tweeting I discover. Tweeting used to refer to the sparrows in the backyard signaling another angelic day on the planet. Not anymore. Tweeting has become the real-time activity of an emerging hyper-updating cult driven by a manic desire for connecting. They lust for more Facebook ‘friends’, for more Twitter ‘followers’ and more Linkedin connections. This online noise and distraction is all part of a real-time trend that is shaping social relationships, affecting corporate cultures and impacting product development.

The attractive new features like Twitter’s “lists” and Facebook’s “hiding” are most welcome as I find they help me filter and find refuge from those chronic hyper social media users wanting to send me ads, newsletters, invitations, blogs, videos and the likes.

However, as exhausting as it all can seem the continued growth of Social media as one of the most profound trends in our society today can not be ignored by anyone who wants to market or sell a product or service.

So why do more than 70% of businesses not have social media policies? Many have chosen to even ban social media activities. This is a terrible mistake not only because such bans don’t work but these companies are missing out in harnassing their internal collective conscious to improve customer service and the bottom line of the company.

A 2009 Social Media study done by Deloitte LLP, reported that over a third of social networkers never consider what management, coworkers or their clients would think before posting material online. No wonder 8 out of 10 businesses are concerned about the liabilities of social media.

There is no question social media is a different animal than traditional technology but companies need to design a social media policy that makes sense to them.

Here are 10 important elements to consider:

1. Overall Philosophy – this should be consistent with your corporate culture
2. Honesty and Respect – employees need to be encouraged to be open and transparent about their usage.
3. Confidential or Proprietary Information – employees need to have a clear understanding that sharing of company trade secrets has consequences
4. Online Identity – employees need to make is clear in their online identities as to whether they are representing the views of the company or not. Limits need to be defined
5. Focus on Job Performance – does social networking hurt or enhance job performance? Always focus on performance.
6. Avoid Conflicts of Interest – your policy needs to outline conflicts of interest areas and where to go for clarification
7. Disclaimers – employees need to make it clear by adding a disclaimer that the views expressed in their blog are theirs alone and do not represent the views of the company
8. Monitoring – your policy should indicate to what extent the company has the right to monitor social media usage and what are the associated disciplinary guidelines
9. Universal Application – your policy should be the same for all
10. Other Policies – you need to consider what other company policies should be included in your social media policy.

Social media is about communication, sharing and engagement. Involving employees in the creation of a social media policy could have far reaching benefits for your firm – including peace-of-mind.