Communications consultant Alison Davis, who stresses that she’s not a lawyer, understands all the risks of Web 2.0 media—but still feels that many companies should embrace their advantages. She addressed listeners of a recent BLR® webinar on the topic.

What are Web 2.0 media? Davis, principal of New Jersey firm Davis & Co., describes these media as participative, noting that earlier Web services were one-way only, from creators to audience. By contrast, audiences interact with creators in such media as Wikipedia and create their own content on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and many other vehicles, such as personal blogs.

And, for any HR professionals out there who think these social media are used only by young people, think again. The Pew Research Center reported that although 70% of people aged 18 to 29 participate, the numbers for other ages are impressive. Some 43% of those aged 30 to 39, 29% of ages 40 to 49, and 16% of those aged 50-64 use social media. Young people adopted them first, but use in other age groups is growing fast.

Employers and employees differ on this topic. Consulting firm Avanade found that 60% of the 500 high-level executives surveyed said social media were not on their companies’ agendas. Their reasons were (1) they feared the lack of security, especially for proprietary information; (2) they were apathetic toward these media, seeing little advantage to them; and (3) they fear technologies they see as unproven.

As for employees, 74% acknowledge that it’s easy to damage an employer’s reputation through these media, while a surprising 53% say their own or others’ social networking pages are none of their employers’ business. And here’s a statistic that Davis finds “unnerving”: 24% of employees have no idea whether their employers have a policy on the use of social media. Worse, 49% say a policy wouldn’t change the way they behave online.

Playing catch-up? Davis offered this interesting policy example: For several years, ESPN had no policies in place regarding social media and treated its employees quite liberally in this regard. Some employees had personal blogs, while others were “tweeting.” But management slowly realized that when employees published their experiences of sporting events in these media, they were giving away for free the commentaries of its sportscasters that are ESPN’s major product—competing with their own employer.

So ESPN came up with a rather strict policy. It deals only with social media content regarding sports, but employees who wish to create such content must gain their supervisors’ permission, “assume at all times [they] are representing ESPN,” avoid tweeting comments that employees wouldn’t make on air or in their columns, and other restrictions. The organization adds that violations can lead to termination.

Davis urges organizations to create policies that prohibit employees from disparaging their employers in anything they may create for the Web, even when using their own time and computers. A second important feature of a good policy will deal with the organization’s proprietary information, cautioning employees against revealing it in their blogs or other interactive media. Other provisions of such a policy will depend heavily on what the company’s business and culture are.

Forbidding employees from participating in social media on their own time isn’t a realistic possibility. Trying to do so is likely to strain their belief in all their employers’ policies. A big advantage of promulgating a policy, Davis advises, is so that current employees will be familiar with the rules and remember them after they leave the company.

Terminations can be tricky. A major focus of Davis’s presentation was the potentially damaging media behaviors of employees who are fired or laid off. They can do their former employers considerable damage, especially if they feel their terminations were unfair in any way. She offered an example: A former reporter/editor for Gannett Co., essentially “outed” the company regarding its layoffs. Gannett, which owns a variety of newspapers nationwide, announced only locally each small group of layoffs affecting employees of a municipality’s newspaper. But the reporter created a blog in which he totaled them up, writing, “Gannett layoffs and other cuts rocket past 1,300; Virtually no severance pay; Employees stunned.”

How can you prevent such damaging content? Davis says there’s only one way: Offer each departing employee a severance package. In exchange for that package, he or she must sign an agreement not to disclose the details of the package or disparage the employer in any medium. If the ex-employee violates that agreement, the employer can withhold the unpaid portion of the package.

Be proactive, Davis advises. Company blogs can be great media for recruiting. Some smart firms use social media to send frequent updates to former employees, whom they call “alumni.” Others have employee-only e-newsletters, such as Best Buy’s “Blue Shirt Nation.” Finally, Davis urges HR to work with their organization’s communications or PR staff to decide who speaks for the employer and when/whether/how to respond to damaging content on the Web.

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