RightNow – On Demand CX Software

Rules For Engagement

Emerging platforms for online collaboration are fundamentally changing the way we work, offering new ways to engage with customers, colleagues, and the world at large. It's a new model for interaction and we believe social computing can help you to build stronger, more successful business relationships. And it's a way for you to take part in global conversations related to the work we are doing at RightNow and the things we care about.

RightNow fully respects the legal rights of our employees in all countries in which we operate. In general, what you do on your own time is your affair. However, activities in or outside of work that affect your job performance, the performance of others, or RightNow’s business interests are a proper focus for company policy. If you participate in social media, please follow these guiding principles:

• Stick to your area of expertise and provide unique, individual perspectives on what's going on at RightNow and in the world.
• Post meaningful, respectful comments—in other words, no SPAM and no remarks that are off-topic or offensive.
• Always pause and think before posting. That said, reply to comments in a timely manner, when a response is appropriate.
• Respect proprietary information, content, and confidentiality.
• When disagreeing with others' opinions, keep it appropriate and polite.
• Know and follow the RightNow Code of Ethics, Privacy Policy and Employee Forum Guidelines.

Your Responsibility

What you write is ultimately your responsibility and requires judgment. Participation in the social web on behalf of RightNow is not a right but an opportunity, so please treat it seriously and with respect. Anything you post is accessible to anyone with a web browser. It's OK to talk about your work and have a dialog with the community, but it's not OK to publish confidential or proprietary information. Please also follow the terms and conditions for any third-party sites.

RightNow has established accounts on several social websites. These sites include, but are not limited to, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Slideshare.net and Flickr. The management of these accounts, and the creation of new corporate accounts across the social web, is the responsibility of RightNow’s Social Web Committee. While you are encouraged to create your own individual accounts, please do not create RightNow-branded accounts which could be interpreted as representing the company.

Failure to abide by these guidelines and the RightNow’s Code of Ethics could put your participation and employment at RightNow at risk. If you want to participate on behalf of RightNow, contact social@rightnow.com for more information and to learn about training opportunities.

Be Transparent, But Don't Tell Secrets

As a publicly traded company, there are all sorts of laws about what we can and can't say business-wise. Talking about revenue, future product release dates, pricing decisions, roadmaps, unannounced financial results, our share price or similar matters is apt to get you, the company, or both, into serious legal trouble. Stay away from financial topics and predictions of future performance.

Make sure your efforts to be transparent don't violate RightNow’s privacy, confidentiality, and legal guidelines for external commercial speech. All statements must be true and not misleading, and all claims must be substantiated and approved. Please never comment on any of the following:

• Anything related to legal matters
• Financials
• Litigation
• Anything about competitors and their capabilities
• Product roadmap

Also be smart about protecting yourself, your privacy, and RightNow’s confidential information. What you publish is widely accessible and will be around for a long time, so consider the content carefully.

Protect RightNow’s Clients, Business Partners And Suppliers

Clients, partners or suppliers should not be cited or obviously referenced without their approval. Externally, never identify a client, partner or supplier by name without permission and never discuss confidential details of a client engagement.

Respect Your Audience And Your Coworkers

Remember that RightNow is a global organization whose employees and clients reflect a diverse set of customs, values and points of view. Don't be afraid to be yourself, but do so respectfully. This includes not only the obvious (no ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, etc.) but also proper consideration of privacy and of topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory—such as politics and religion. If your blog is hosted on a RightNow-owned or “sponsored” property (i.e. RightNowNews Twitter account), avoid these topics and focus on subjects that are business-related. If your blog is self-hosted, use your best judgment and be sure to make it clear that the views and opinions expressed are yours alone and do not represent the official views of RightNow.

Further, blogs, wikis, virtual worlds, social networks, or other tools hosted outside of RightNow’s protected Intranet environment should not be used for internal communications among fellow employees. It is fine for RightNow employees to disagree, but please don't use your external blog or other online social media to air your differences.

Write What You Know

Write in the first person and make sure you write and post about your areas of expertise, especially as related to RightNow and our technology. If you are writing about a topic that RightNow is involved with but you are not the subject matter expert, you should make this clear to your readers. Please respect brand, trademark, copyright, fair use, trade secrets (including our processes and methodologies), confidentiality, and financial disclosure laws.

You should never quote more than short excerpts of someone else's work. And it is good general blogging practice to link to others' work or mention an individual’s contribution in a re-tweet.

Be Transparent

If you are blogging about your work, please use your real name and identify that you work for RightNow, clearly stating your role with the company. If you have a vested interest in something you are discussing, be the first to point it out.

RightNow trusts and expects that employees exercise personal responsibility whenever they participate in social media. This includes not violating the trust of those with whom you are engaging. RightNow employees should not use social media for covert marketing or public relations. If and when members of RightNow’s Marketing, Sales, Support or other external facing functions are engaged in advocacy for the company through social media, they should identify themselves as employees of RightNow.

For individuals who are not participating in social media as part of an official function of their job, make it clear that what you say does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of RightNow.

At a minimum in your own blog, you should include the following standard disclaimer: "The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent RightNow’s positions, strategies or opinions."

As disclaimers may be impractical at times within a post (i.e. 140-character limitation on Twitter), include the fact that you work for RightNow in your online profiles.

Be Interesting, And Be Honest

As a business and as a corporate citizen, RightNow is making important contributions to the world, to the future of technology, and to public dialogue on a broad range of issues. Our business activities are increasingly focused on high-value innovation. Let's share with the world the exciting things we're learning and doing—and open up the channels to learn from others.

Expose your personality; almost all of the successful online voices write about themselves, about families or movies or books or games; or they post pictures. People like to know what kind of a person is writing what they're reading. Once again, balance is called for; a social media site is a public place and you should avoid embarrassing the company and community members.

The lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred in online social networks. By virtue of identifying yourself as a RightNow employee within a social network, you are now connected to your colleagues, managers and even RightNow customers. You should ensure that content associated with you is consistent with your work at RightNow.

Are You Adding Value?

There are millions of words out there. The best way to get yours read is to write things that people will value. Social communication from RightNow should help our customers, partners, and co-workers. It should be thought-provoking and build a sense of community. If it helps people improve knowledge or skills, build their businesses, do their jobs, solve problems, or understand RightNow better—then it's adding value.

Be A Leader

There can be a fine line between healthy debate and incendiary reaction. Do not denigrate our competitors or RightNow. Nor do you need to respond to every criticism or barb. Try to frame what you write to invite differing points of view without inflaming others. Some topics—like politics or religion—slide more easily into sensitive territory. So be careful and considerate. Once the words are out there, you can't really get them back. And once an inflammatory discussion gets going, it's hard to stop.

If you make a mistake, admit it. Be upfront and be quick with your correction. If you're posting to a blog, you may choose to modify an earlier post—just make it clear that you have done so.

Use Your Best Judgment

Remember that there are always consequences to what you publish. If you're about to publish something that makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable, review the suggestions above and think about why that is. If you're still unsure, and it is related to RightNow business, feel free to discuss it with your manager. Ultimately, however, you have sole responsibility for what you post to your blog or publish in any form of online social media.

Don't Forget Your Day Job

You should make sure that your online activities do not interfere with your job or work commitments.

RightNow would like to thank progressive companies such as Intel, Sun Microsystems and IBM for their work and influence in the development of internal social media policies and guidelines.