Aisha runs marketing at Watkins & Co — Sarah’s 45-person accountancy practice across three sites. She’s creative, driven and completely right that the firm needs a social media presence.
Six weeks ago she started a TikTok account for the business. Short videos, office culture, a few finance tips. It was actually pretty good.
There was just one problem. Nobody had approved it. Then it escalated.
Aisha filmed a team meeting for content. Two colleagues asked not to be included. She posted it anyway. One of them has now raised a formal objection. A client spotted the video, recognised their account details on a whiteboard in the background and called Sarah directly.
Aisha didn’t mean any harm. She was just doing her job the way her generation does it.
But Watkins & Co has no social media policy. No content approval process. No guidance on what can and can’t be filmed in the workplace. Nothing in any contract about it.
Which means Sarah has no ground to stand on — and a data protection issue she wasn’t expecting on a Tuesday afternoon.
✅ 3 THINGS EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS BEFORE SOMEONE POSTS ON YOUR BEHALF
1. A social media policy — who can post, what they can post, and what happens if they don’t follow the rules
2. Explicit consent from any employee filmed or photographed for business content — verbal agreement is not enough
3. A content approval process — one person, clear sign-off, no exceptions
Most businesses don’t have any of these until something goes wrong.
This is where People Vision HR comes in.
We draft clear, practical HR and workplace policies that actually get used — not thirty-page documents nobody reads. Social media, data handling, conduct, confidentiality — the policies that protect you before Aisha hits publish.
Before your next TikTok becomes a client complaint.