Social Media Brand Policy for Franchisees and Employees

This is the Social Media Brand Policy for City Lifestyle, franchisees, and their staff, aka Publishers and freelance contractors. This is not a social media content plan.

Introduction

As the City Lifestyle franchise business expands, people will discuss, debate, and embrace City Lifestyle in numerous conversations. We now have the opportunity to actively participate in these online conversations, and realize the vital importance social media will play in our future efforts to engage our future franchisees, staff, and customers in building our brand.

We developed this Social Media Brand Policy to provide direction and guidance to our franchisees to participate in social media communications positively and constructively. Just as with traditional media, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to effectively manage the City Lifestyle reputation online and to selectively engage and participate in the online conversations that mention us.

City Lifestyle respects our franchisees' decision to use social media forums provided by City Lifestyle itself. However, if a franchisee identifies himself or herself in connection with City Lifestyle on a public website, other readers of the site may view the franchisee as a representative or spokesperson for City Lifestyle. To maintain the integrity of the brand and goodwill of City Lifestyle, we require that all franchisees comply with this policy when referring to City Lifestyle, our employees, customers, business contacts, and competitors.

This Social Media Brand Policy applies to employees and contractors of City Lifestyle and all franchisees who participate in social media. These guidelines will help contractors and franchisees make appropriate decisions about work-related content of their blogs, personal websites, and other interactive sites, postings on video or picture sharing sites, or in the comments made online or elsewhere on the Internet, and in responding to comments from posters either publicly or via email.

Compliance with Franchise Agreement

If you participate in any social media as a franchisee, you must comply with all relevant obligations under your Franchise Agreement regarding standards of conduct, content policies, and the proper use of company trademarks, standards, and logos. You bear full responsibility for the material that you post on the internet, and violations of this policy, whether intentional or unintentional, may constitute a default under the terms of your Franchise Agreement. We recommend that you train your employees about the proper use of social media and photo usage.

Social Media Guidelines

Not just promotional use. Social media sites can be powerful promotional tools but they should not be used exclusively for promotional purposes. Social media provides an opportunity for you to engage your audience in conversation on relevant information and education about the brand, as well as to solicit feedback on how to improve your guest experience. Asking customers about their experiences with open-ended questions that invite responses can be beneficial.
Be respectful. You must be respectful in all social media communications related to or referring to, its employees, the system, our customers, our business contacts, or our competitors. You must not post communication or material that is disparaging, obscene, profane, vulgar, bullying, threatening, or inappropriately inflammatory.
Be conscious when mixing your business and personal lives. Online, personal, and business lives are likely to intersect. Remember that customers, as well as vendors and colleagues, often have access to the online content that you post. Keep this in mind when publishing information online that can be seen by more than friends, family, and customers, and know that information originally intended for a small group can easily be forwarded to others.
Be truthful: When participating in social media always disclose your name and affiliations. It is never acceptable to use aliases or to be otherwise deceitful. Consistently state your relationship from the outset.
Don’t violate third-party rights. DO NOT claim authorship of something that is not yours. If you are using another party’s content, make certain that they are credited for the content in your post and that they approve of you utilizing such content. Do not use the copyrights, trademarks, publicity rights, or other rights of others without the necessary permissions of the rightsholder.
Image Rights: When using provided images, you must abide by the same rules for our print publications for photo rights usage. Assure you have the signed photo agreement for every image used that permits photo usage on social media forums.

This policy is intended to provide general guidelines concerning the use of social media and is not intended to cover every possible situation. City Lifestyle reserves the right to change, modify, or delete this policy at any time. If you have questions regarding the proper use of social media, please contact customer support.