How to use this template
Replace every word in [brackets], starting with the owner: one person who answers questions and keeps the policy current. Delete what doesn't apply to you, and keep it short enough that people read it.
Share it before you ask anyone to post, not after a problem. Then remind people of it now and then: the FTC's staff guidance says a company should have a formal program to remind employees of its policy periodically (FTC).
This template is a starting point, not legal advice. Have it reviewed for your company, and for each country you employ people in, before you use it.
[Company] Social Media Policy
Template from postfox.ai. It's a starting point, not legal advice: have it reviewed for your company before you use it. Replace every word in [brackets].
Effective date: [date]. Owner: [name or role]. Applies to: everyone who works at [Company], including contractors and interns, on any social network. Most of us post on LinkedIn, so the examples are about LinkedIn.
1. Why we have this policy
We like it when people post about their work. It helps customers and future colleagues see who we are. This policy explains how to do it well: when to say you work here, what stays confidential, how AI drafts and approvals work, and what we will never ask of you.
2. Posting is your choice
- Nobody has to post, share, comment on or like anything about [Company]. Not posting has no effect on your reviews, pay or promotion.
- Your accounts are yours. We will never ask for your password or for access to your personal accounts.
- You can stop posting about work at any time, and delete anything you posted.
3. Speak for yourself
- On your own profile, you speak for yourself, not for [Company]. Only [role], or people they name, speak on behalf of [Company].
- If a journalist asks you to speak for [Company], send them to [role].
4. Say you work here when you post about our products
- When a post mentions or recommends [Company]'s products or services, say in the post itself that you work here, for example "I work for [Company]" or "#[Company]_Employee". A plain "#employee" isn't clear enough.
- Put it where people will see it: near the start of the post, not only in a comment, not lost among hashtags, and not only in your profile or job title.
- This also applies when you repost a [Company] post that promotes a product: add a few words such as "my company's new product".
- If [Company] gives you anything extra for posting, such as a gift or a bonus, say that too.
5. Be accurate
- When you post about our products, customers or competitors, only say what you know to be true: no numbers, results, features, prices or dates you can't back up.
- Don't recommend a product you haven't used, or say something about it you don't believe.
- If you get something wrong, correct it or delete it.
6. Posts drafted with AI tools
- You may use AI tools to draft posts, including tools [Company] provides, such as [tool].
- You are the author. Read every draft, change what doesn't sound like you, and remove anything that isn't true. A draft that invents a result, a quote or a customer story becomes your claim once you post it.
- Only paste [Company] information into AI tools [Company] has approved: [list]. Never paste customer data or confidential information into other tools.
7. Who approves what
- You approve your own posts. Nothing goes out on your account without your OK, and [Company] never posts on your behalf.
- Drafts and ideas from [Company] are suggestions. Edit them, rewrite them or say no.
- Ask [role] before you post about a customer by name, an unreleased product or feature, or financial results that aren't public.
- Posts on the [Company] LinkedIn Page are approved by [role].
8. Keep confidential information confidential
- Don't share unannounced products or plans, customer names or details without the customer's permission, financial results that aren't public, security details or passwords, or documents marked confidential.
- When in doubt about business information, ask [role] first.
- This section doesn't cover pay, benefits or working conditions. You are free to talk about those (see section 11).
9. Respect people
- Don't post harassment, threats or discrimination about colleagues, customers, partners or anyone else.
- Ask before you post a photo of a colleague or a customer.
10. Credit others' work
- Credit the people and sources you quote or share. Don't post photos, videos or text you don't have the right to use, or a customer's logo without their permission.
11. What this policy does not limit
- Nothing in this policy limits your right to talk about your wages, hours, benefits or other working conditions, with colleagues or with anyone else, on social media or elsewhere.
- Nothing in this policy limits your right to report concerns to a government agency, or any other right you have under the law.
- In the US, Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects employees who act together about their working conditions, including on social media. We won't read or apply this policy in a way that restricts that.
12. How we support this
- We remind everyone of this policy [every quarter], and we're glad to help with any post.
- Because we encourage people to post, [role] reads posts that mention our products and will ask you to fix a missing disclosure or an inaccurate claim. We don't review your other posts.
- If a post leads to a problem, such as a mistake or a heated thread, tell [role] right away. We'll help, not blame.
13. Questions and updates
Questions go to [role]. We review this policy every [12 months] and tell everyone what changed.
What this template covers that most don't
None of the templates we read in search results covers AI drafting, and most were written for companies that wanted fewer posts, not more. This one is for a team you'd like to see on LinkedIn. Four parts matter most.
Posts drafted with AI tools
Section 6 lets people use AI to draft, and makes the author responsible for every word that goes out. That matches what the FTC asks of endorsements in general: they must reflect the endorser's honest opinions and experience, so a draft that invents a result or a customer story becomes a false claim in the author's name.
Source: 16 CFR 255.1, the Endorsement Guides.
Each person approves their own post
Section 7 says nothing goes out on someone's account without their OK, and that company drafts are suggestions they can rewrite or decline. It keeps posting voluntary in practice, not only on paper, and it keeps the person whose name is on the post in charge of it.
Confidential information, with examples
Section 8 lists what stays private (unannounced products, customer details, financial results that aren't public, security details) instead of a vague "anything internal". It also says what the section doesn't cover: pay, benefits and working conditions.
Saying you work here
Section 4 follows the FTC's staff guidance for employees. If an employee mentions their company's products on social media, they should disclose the relationship, and listing the employer on their profile isn't enough. A bare "#employee" is unlikely to be understood, while "I work for XYZ" or "#XYZ_Employee" is clearer. A disclosure in the comments isn't clear and conspicuous, and one at the end of a long post or mixed in with hashtags is easy to miss (FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking, June 2023).
The Guides themselves include an employee example: the employee should disclose the relationship, and the employer should train its employees (16 CFR 255.5). Section 12 of the template covers the company's side: the FTC doesn't expect a company to monitor every employee post, but it should remind employees of its policy periodically, and a company that actively encourages posts is responsible for monitoring them, both for disclosures and for problematic claims (FTC FAQ). The FAQ is staff guidance, not a safe harbor.
What a US policy must not prohibit
Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects employees' right to engage in concerted activities for their mutual aid or protection, and it covers employees without a union too. The NLRB says using social media can be protected concerted activity: employees can address work-related issues and share information about pay, benefits and working conditions with coworkers on social media (NLRB: Social media). Its examples of concerted activity include talking with coworkers about wages, benefits and working conditions, openly talking about pay, and joining coworkers to raise problems with the employer, a government agency or the media (NLRB: Concerted activity).
An employer may not promulgate, maintain or enforce work rules that reasonably tend to inhibit employees from exercising those rights (NLRB: Interfering with employee rights). Clauses that would inhibit those rights, such as a ban on discussing pay, a confidentiality rule broad enough to cover wages, or a blanket ban on criticizing the company online that could reach complaints about working conditions, are what to avoid. The template has none, and its section 11 says so in plain words.
Most private-sector employees are covered. The NLRB lists who isn't, including government employees, independent contractors and supervisors (NLRB: Employee rights). Protection has limits too. Individual griping, with no link to group action, isn't concerted activity (NLRB: Social media), and employees can lose protection by saying or doing something egregiously offensive or knowingly and maliciously false (NLRB: Concerted activity).
The NLRB says these pages aren't legal authority, and nothing here is legal advice. Employment law differs by country and by state: have the policy reviewed.
Rolling it out at 10 to 50 people
- Name the owner and fill in the brackets. One hour is enough.
- Share it in a team meeting or by email, and say out loud that posting is optional.
- Put the disclosure line in every brief you send, so nobody has to remember it.
- Look at the posts that mention your products, kindly, and ask for a fix when a disclosure is missing.
- Remind everyone of the policy every quarter, and review it once a year.
Setting up the program itself? See what employee advocacy is, for a small team, with a plan for the first 30 days.
Real company policies worth reading
Six policies that organizations publish openly, each good at something specific. Read them at the source; each is its owner's own document.
Dell Technologies
One fixed hashtag for any post that discusses the company, #Iwork4Dell, and a clear explanation of why a disclosure only in a bio, buried among hashtags or behind a click isn't enough. It encourages everyone to share news while keeping official statements to trained spokespeople. It has no explicit carve-out for discussing working conditions.
Read it: Dell's Global Policy on Social Media (effective November 2023)
Intel
Work-related posts carry #IAmIntel, and the guidelines warn against mixing the disclosure into a group of hashtags or links. The scope stays narrow: personal interests unrelated to Intel need no disclosure. Confidential information is defined by Intel's own labels rather than a vague "anything internal".
Read it: Intel Social Media Guidelines
Best Buy
States outright that every employee has a material connection to disclose, gives ready-made wording and an employee hashtag, and rules out disclosures hidden in bios, behind links or below a "more" button. It also sets a monitoring routine: spot checks at least once a quarter, with a record of what was found and fixed.
Read it: Best Buy Influencer Guidelines (effective November 15, 2022)
Nordstrom
Concrete examples of what stays confidential, such as unannounced launches, internal sales results, strategy and pricing, and training before anyone posts from a company account. It also says the company pays for time spent on approved social media work, a point most policies skip.
Read it: Nordstrom Social Networking Guidelines (updated February 13, 2020)
GitLab
An explicit carve-out for discussing terms and conditions of employment, with wage information left out of its definition of confidential information, and anonymous workplace review sites left out of scope. Its advocacy page says sharing is voluntary. One caution: among its disclosure options is a mention in your profile, which the FTC says isn't enough on its own for posts about products.
Read it: GitLab's team member social media policy (updated February 9, 2026)
US General Services Administration
A precise definition of nonpublic information, a clean line between speaking in an official and a personal capacity, and a rule worth borrowing: messages the agency writes for others to post must name the agency as their source. As a federal agency, it falls outside the NLRA.
Read it: GSA Social Media Policy (Order OSC 2106.2A, March 20, 2023)
FAQ
What should an employee social media policy include?
Who it applies to, that posting is voluntary, when to disclose the employment relationship, what stays confidential, how AI drafts and approvals work, what the policy doesn't limit (pay and working conditions, in the US), who to ask, and how often it's reviewed.
Do employees have to say they work for us when they post about our products?
Under the FTC's guidance, yes: an employee who mentions the company's products should disclose the relationship in the post, and a job title on the profile isn't enough (FTC). "I work for [Company]" or "#[Company]_Employee" near the start of the post works.
Can a social media policy stop employees from discussing pay?
For most private-sector employees in the US, no. The NLRB says sharing information about pay, benefits and working conditions on social media can be protected concerted activity (NLRB: Social media), and work rules that reasonably tend to inhibit that are unlawful (NLRB: Interfering with employee rights).
Can employees use AI to write their LinkedIn posts?
Yes, if your policy allows it and the author stays responsible: they read the draft, make it sound like them, and remove anything untrue. They shouldn't paste confidential information into tools you haven't approved.
Can we require employees to post on LinkedIn?
This template doesn't, on purpose: posts people are made to write read that way, and nothing in it ties posting to reviews or pay. If you're considering a requirement, ask a lawyer first.
Is this template legal advice?
No. It's a starting point written for a 10 to 50 person company with people in the US. Have it reviewed for your company and for each country you employ people in.
Setting up a program? Read what employee advocacy is, for a small team, or compare tools in our buyer's guide. All templates.