Auditing Social Media

The social media has emerged as a strong interactive platform and it has started to make a huge positive impact on the society. Almost everyone today has a Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter account. It is estimated that there are more than 3 billion active social media users. While Facebook and its peers dominate the social media landscape in many parts of the world, there are some platforms that remain specific to one market.

While social media is generally popular for personal use, it also is a potentially powerful marketing tool for organizations of every size and variety. With few exceptions, organizations have at least some degree of social media presence. Being a part of ever-expanding virtual community presents many benefits to an organization because it can create a more intimate relationship with the stakeholders and the clients alike.

Governance of social media

Many organizations do not focus on the social media strategy, social media governance, social media regulations and overall social media landscape. Most of the organizations have a reactive approach rather then proactive approach. Many organizations lack the requisite process to effectively handle the social media. This may be due to the fact that organizations do not have the experts with knowledge of social media sites and legal compliance requirements as well as social media governance, corporate strategy, and clearly defined. It is recommended that organization should begin with risk assessment that examines how the social media is used. It is generally observed that social media is usage is generally restricted to business rather than any operational insight. Such restricted view can lead to inconsistence policy, governance and oversight of social media. Internal auditors can play an important role in the following areas:

• Assess the organization’s social media capabilities.
• Determine the role social media has within the company’s business model.
• Recommend enterprise-wide policies, processes and guidelines.
• Define and establish social media fit-for-purpose structures.

A social media strategy should ideally monitor for and actively counter the negative content and have a crisis management plan in place in case the negative content goes viral.

Social Media Auditing

The focus of the social media auditing would mainly involve adding value. Social media auditing cannot be isolated from the business of the organization. Whatever observations/findings are presented, it has to be in the business context. It has to be related with the performance and strategic objectives of the organization.

Auditing social media requires understanding its usage at every level of the company as well as within every department. Internal auditors should consider incorporating the potential for unavoidable or unforeseen events into their risk assessments and how they could impact company objectives. One of the risk areas could be if the organization does not have a sufficient IT risk assessment procedure or there is non-adherence to the policy, it is a potential risk for the social media as well as the platform/basis to handle social media is IT.

Some of the important questions that the internal auditor should be asking while auditing the social media and adding value to the organization could be:

1. Are the appropriate stakeholders involved in developing the social media strategy?
2. Are insights from monitoring being used to keep the social media strategy up to date?
3. Is the social media strategy aligned with enterprise objectives and strategies?
4. Do company policies, processes, procedures, and structures support a social media strategy?
5. Is social media discussed at board and committee meetings?

Social Media Regulations

It is important for the internal auditors to be aware of laws and regulations relating to the social media and frequent changes made to such laws and regulations. Many of these laws, regulations, and regulatory bodies are focused on protecting individual rights as they relate to data collection, and protected speech.

Conclusion

In today’s world, social media presence is vital for any economy. Yet in many organizations, less importance is given to the social media strategy. Internal auditors can provide a pivotal role in guiding organization to have effective use of social media by identification of potential risk. Audits should look at everything from the objective of the organization to how those representing the company behave in a social media crisis.

Source: Auditing social media, adding value by improving governance by Tichaona Zororo published in Institute of Internal Auditors -Global