Sticky posts

Facebook can be a great way for businesses to reach out to customers and to generate leads. Ditto for Twitter.

But social media programs also can provide a forum for employees to grouse about their firms, violate non-compete agreements and personally act out in ways employers might find inappropriate.

So where do the lines get drawn? What control -- if any -- do businesses have over what their employees say and do online?

Pennsylvania attorneys said businesses do retain certain rights to act on employees' social media postings, even if they're made off the clock and from home.

The key to delineating and enforcing these rights is the establishment of internal policies, said Catherine Walters, a partner at Philadelphia-based law firm Saul Ewing.

"A lot of rights are either created or informed by policy statements," she said. "If you've got a well-crafted policy, it's easier to take the action you want to take. If you don't, or haven't informed (employees about the policy), it becomes more difficult because the issue of privacy is heightened."

Effective policies are specific and well-communicated to employees, she said.

"The key really becomes not so much trying to monitor and punish people for everything they do, but differentiating between what (businesses) can take action for and what (businesses) can't," Walters said.

But it's possible to be too specific, said Anne Zerbe, an attorney and shareholder with York-based CGA Law Firm.

"You can't predict every situation," she said. "The challenge is to draft your policies to be broad enough to allow reasonable business judgments."

Many businesses are modifying policies or creating guidelines to address social media, attorneys said.

Beyond policies, one factor that can influence employers' ability to act is how closely the employee in question has linked his or herself with their employer in the posting, said Kevin Gold, a partner with Harrisburg-based Rhoads & Sinon.

"If an employee (posts) on private time and it's not connected to employment, that's a harder case to discipline (the employee)," Gold said. "If they're doing it at work, or off-duty and connecting it to the employer, the employer has greater latitude."

Kim Smith, a partner with Lancaster-based Hartman, Underhill & Brubaker, said her experience has borne that out.

"I don't know of many companies taking hard disciplinary actions against postings that are not work-related," she said. "It may be more of a counseling approach, educating workers on what puts them in a poor light or the company in a poor light."

Private employers also generally have more leeway to discipline workers than do public entities, Gold said.