With roughly 74 percent of adults online, companies are starting to rein in the conversation as employees flock to social media outlets for personal expression.

And image isn’t the only thing to protect — confidentiality is huge, too.

Taco Bell has rats? (Not!) John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, secretly blogging about his company’s stock? It’s never too late to learn from others’ mistakes.

A social media policy gets everyone on the same page, so executives can ensure company standards are in place.

Here are a few components that should be included in your social media policy:

- Online employee code of conduct

- Employee blogging and social media sites disclosure policy

- Corporate blogging policy

- Corporate approval policy for online posts

- Corporate commenting policy

Social media policy management tools provide a neat checklist to get your policy off the ground.  Toolkit Cafe is one tool social media strategist Jason Falls recommends. It provides a set of rules for social media–including information about legal problems–to make sure everything runs smoothly.

How’s that for a safety net?

Photo via socialmediatoday.com