Background Checking--Your Other Social Media Policy: The Key is to Approach This Background Source Carefully and with a Clear Set of Objectives (Social Media‪)‬

Have you developed your social media policy yet? There's no lack of advice, suggestions, products and blog posts on how to establish a program to leverage Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media platforms to enhance brand awareness, build customer loyalty and drive traffic to individual franchise locations. For franchisors, there's an additional benefit to creating a solid social media presence--all of that good buzz helps attract potential franchisee interest. But there's another, and some say darker, side of social media that members of the franchise industry also need to consider as they formulate their social media policy: the use of social media for background checks. Over the past few years, savvy businesses, including franchise organizations, have displayed a growing appreciation for social media's potential to engage with individual consumers. Software development companies have responded with a variety of products to enable targeted, and in some cases even localized and personalized, multi-platform content delivery, direct to interested consumers.