Indian Institute of Materials Management Social Media Participation Guidelines

This document reflects the current guidelines as determined by Indian Institute of Materials Management. This document is subject to modifications and amendments from time to time as required.

SOCIAL MEDIA PARTICIPATION GUIDELINES

The following guidelines describe corporate, private and individual participation in social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, personal blogs, forums, YouTube, Flickr etc. for Indian Institute of Materials Management employees, stakeholders, and partner. If your job requires you to be a Indian Institute of Materials Management representative in social media channels and you have questions, or you want to establish social media channels on behalf of Indian Institute of Materials Management or its subsidiaries, contact the Indian Institute of Materials Management Social Media Group by sending a mail to socialmedia@iimm.org. For any other questions about social media at Indian Institute of Materials Management, please visit the Indian Institute of Materials Management portal and review its Social Policy.

These guidelines are intended to assist you in your use of social media tools as an individual. Please be aware that nothing in the use of these tools changes your responsibilities and obligations as an employee of Indian Institute of Materials Management. Indian Institute of Materials Management and its employees or representatives are required to act ethically, and it is every employee’s obligation to review and understand Indian Institute of Materials Management’s Code of Business Conduct, our communications policy, and their confidentiality obligations in other policies, such as the Security Policy.

Social media channels such as (micro) blogging, video and photo sharing, forums, virtual worlds, opinion markets and collaboration environments represent an opportunity to facilitate conversation with all of our constituents regarding the enterprise software industry and our place in it. Indian Institute of Materials Management provides these social media guidelines to help employees or representatives participate within social media channels safely, and with minimum personal liability.

These guidelines reflect the principles that Indian Institute of Materials Management employees or representatives should follow when engaging in online communication. They are intended to provide you with an understanding of both the proper and improper uses of social computing in an effort to make your conversations and interactions as rich as possible. At all times, Indian Institute of Materials Management employees or representatives must obey their local laws and adhere to local legal and ethical regulations.Nevertheless, as online communication is global in nature, other laws and regulations may also be applicable to your communication.

Any direct communication to analysts, the financial market and/or members of the media must be conducted only through Indian Institute of Materials Management Communications overseen by the Senior Management. The following set of guidelines only pertains to your personal statements in any online media. Please be aware that, although Indian Institute of Materials Management is providing you with these guidelines, the overall and final legal responsibility for any statement made by you will reside with you personally. Therefore, you should exercise caution and thoughtfulness to statements you make online.

Personal spaces on social media channels

You are free to set up any blog, space or other area within the given framework of the terms provided by the host of such spaces (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc). Please contact the Indian Institute of Materials Management Social Media Group whenever you intend to use “Indian Institute of Materials Management” as any part of the name or URL to avoid confusion with official Indian Institute of Materials Management communication. Any personal space should have a clear disclaimer that it is not an official space of Indian Institute of Materials Management.

The following template may be used for this purpose:

“This [Blog, Space …] is the personal [Blog, Space …] of [Name] and only contains my personal views, thoughts and opinions. It is not endorsed by Indian Institute of Materials Management nor does it constitute any official communication on behalf of Indian Institute of Materials Management.”

Management and Executives

This standard disclaimer does not by itself exempt Indian Institute of Materials Management managers and executives from a special responsibility when blogging or otherwise communicating online. By virtue of their position, managers and executives must consider whether personal thoughts they publish may be misunderstood as expressing Indian Institute of Materials Management positions, and a manager should assume that his or her team will read what is written. A public blog is not the appropriate medium for many types of communications, including, but not limited to: communicating Indian Institute of Materials Management policies/decisions to Indian Institute of Materials Management employees or representatives; negotiating with third parties; making disparaging remarks about any third party; or any other communications, etc.

Pointers

First person Commentary – When you contribute commentary about Indian Institute of Materials Management or Indian Institute of Materials Management-related matters to an external audience, it is vital that you make it clear that you are speaking only for yourself (i.e. use the first-person singular, such as “I…” and not “We at Indian Institute of Materials Management believe…”). Your point of view is personal, and it should not be treated as an official Indian Institute of Materials Management point of view. Make it simple. Make it clear.

Identify Yourself – The value of social computing is diminished when people hide behind a pseudonym or an anonymous post. Trust is hard enough to establish and maintain over the Internet, therefore, please identify yourself to provide additional authenticity to your online contributions.

The truth and nothing but – Post the truth and if you find you have made a mistake, issue a clarification or a withdrawal or whatever may suit the circumstance and make it abundantly clear that you have done so. Social computing is a tolerant neighbourhood – mistakes and errors will not make you a social outcast if you take responsibility.

Be Respectful – simply carry the professionalism norms and standards of Indian Institute of Materials Management onto the social media platforms.

Add Value – be informative and interesting. Contribute your thoughts, experiences, observations, and opinions regarding issues you know and care about, but make sure to check your facts and figures – if you don’t, someone else probably will.

Be Engaged and Be Informed – Read the contributions of others. Know what the current conversations are and what people are saying in order to see if, and how, you may be able to contribute a new perspective. Participation is the fuel of social computing.

Aim for Quality, not Quantity – Offer your contribution with context whenever you can. Provide links to other blogs, media articles or whatever sources you think are necessary. Make your content rich and interesting for others to read. Consider attaching documents when necessary (but not Indian Institute of Materials Management internal documents/communication, confidential or not). And in every case, keep the language simple and flowing. If you start a blog, encourage feedback and conversation – make sure your readers can add feedback to your blog and respond in a timely manner. A two-way communication exchange allows for a more meaningful conversation.

Don’t Pick Fights – When you see misrepresentations or patently false statements about Indian Institute of Materials Management by bloggers, the media, analysts or anyone else for that matter, you may certainly address these misrepresentations, even by joining someone else’s conversation. But stick to the facts and make sure the facts you rely on are publicly available.

Protect Your Privacy – Never disclose personal information.

Remember that you are still a Indian Institute of Materials Management employee – do not make false, misleading or detrimental statements about Indian Institute of Materials Management or Indian Institute of Materials Management products or service offerings.

How to Handle Media Inquiries – Your contributions to social computing and the online conversations around Indian Institute of Materials Management products, solutions, and practices will help advance dialogue, maybe solve some problems, create awareness and possibly attract attention of all kinds, including the media. If a member of the media contacts you, simply notify the Media Relations team in Global Communications via press@iimm.org. They will determine the best way to handle the inquiry.

Legal Considerations – You must respect copyrights and other intellectual property, fair use and financial disclosure laws, and Indian Institute of Materials Management deals in general. Remember the following – do NOT talk about: perceived product defects or deficits; revenue projections; future product launch details; acquisition targets yet to be defined, or disclose corporate topics, product roadmaps, customer wins, our relationship to customers or partners or any other material Indian Institute of Materials Management internal information. Do not post materials from Indian Institute of Materials Management partners or customers in your communication (whether marked as confidential or not) or otherwise make information public that you have received through interaction with customers or partners. Use your common sense, and when in doubt contact the Indian Institute of Materials Management Social Media Group.

Social Computing and Primary Roles and Responsibilities

Active contribution to social computing in its many forms can be time-consuming, so it is important that this does not interfere with your role at Indian Institute of Materials Management. If you find that your social computing activity interferes with your role at Indian Institute of Materials Management, please speak with your management to determine if your personal contributions can become part of the official Indian Institute of Materials Management communications in alignment and as part of your roles and responsibilities as defined in your job profile. If the management determines that it is not possible to incorporate your social computing activity into your role at Indian Institute of Materials Management, you should reduce your involvement in social computing and consider posting a statement that explains why you are reducing your online activity.

For any enquiries please email socialmedia@iimm.org