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"How much time do you spend on Facebook?"  A question, I think should be standard in any interviewing process.

If you were asked this in your next job interview, how would you respond? - "A tad, I guess. Not every day. Ummm, only after I’m done work. I mean, never at work. I mean, never on my work computer or it’."

This unfortunately would probably be the typical response. Personally I don’t think you should be worried your employees are wasting time or not actually working -- you should be asking because you want to hire people who take pleasure in using social media tools.

So if you heard that from a perspective employer, how would you answer? -- "Oh! Well yeah, I love Facebook."

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since I’ve been asked to comment on what’s important in drafting a new social media guideline by a few people as of late.

In today’s world, a social media policy is a must for any organization, given the downright freshness of the idea.  But many policies I’ve come across reflect too much on the overall relationship to social media -- instead of implementation in a new way to engage customers, supporters and stakeholders of the organization.  Social Media is a salvation in the form of an online conversation; the last thing you want is to waste or miss out in that conversation.

There are plenty of organizations out there just not being part of these conversations in order to keep their board members or lawyers happy.  Too many organizations approach social media as an exercise in risk management, creating policies that essentially deject its use.  Sure, these policies lessen the risks of privacy or liability breeches, productivity losses and reputation damage; but they also do little to encourage the use of social media to create value, to realize the opportunities for problem-solving, relationship-building, and increasing reputation.  Risk-oriented social media policies have the added effect of telling all employees -- especially the cautious late adopters of social media -- that social media is a dark and scary place in which known risks outweigh all the possible benefits.

Organizations that take on this type of risk-management approach bound the contributions of forward-thinking, web-savvy employees who are already making successful use of social media tools. So if you need to create a social media policy, think of it as a way to facilitate effective use rather than simply preventing problems. Here's what I think a policy should communicate:

• We want our employees to use social media. Make it clear that your organization (no matter what industry), your key team members (like marketing, sales and customer service) and your CEO/Executive director or program managers are supportive of employee social media use. Senior level managers need to lead by example, so that employees know what effective social media use looks like.

• We should follow best practices. It’s an evolving technology, so best practices are ever changing. You need to define these best practices for your brand, culture and audience. Organizations should offer employees training; how-to guides and web sites that will help them understand the most important principles in your policy.

• We expect you to differentiate between personal, professional and corporate social media. Value your employees' need to use social media for personal communication and expression, and ask them to exercise common sense around how their personal activities or comments online could reflect that of your organization. Encourage employees to focus on developing their own professional networks and knowledge online, since this only makes them more effective and valuable to you. Also, be clear about who is responsible to represent your organizational brand in social media (it could be your whole organization!), and when and how it's appropriate for other employees to speak out on your behalf or embed themselves into conversations happening within those channels.

• Make it apparent that you share risk management responsibility. Stressing all the things that employees shouldn't do puts the load of responsibility on the employee.  Particularly with the current state of the economy, many employees will assume that the safest course of action is just not to use it.  Let employees know that you'll help them manage the risks of engagement by offering constructive guidelines, real-time advice when asked, and any assistance resolving issues not leaving them high and dry.

• Reward the effective use of social media. Be clear that making smart use of social media is part of the road to career advancement. Recognize, thank, and reward where possible, employees who have been leaders in implementation.  Encourage employees to build social media into their typical workday, and provide a strategy on how much time is suitable in different roles or departments. Reward results -- like great customer feedback or usable insights -- rather than just the amount of activity.

You'll know you've hit a home-run with a good policy when you see your employees' social media activity increase --because they now have an understanding and direction for their online activity.  You'll know that you've gotten it horribly wrong if all those bloggers, tweeters and Facebookers swiftly stop.

A great way to help you get started in creating your social media policy, take a look at this policy generator tool from rtraction.

So be forewarned, if after all this, you still think that the risk of something bad happening from letting an employee tweet overshadow any potential benefit of social media, understand: You're scaring away young talent, who will squirm nervously through an interview and then choose to work where social media's value is recognized.

Now with that, let’s start to increase your funding, your revenue, building your brand and strengthen team relationships by creating compelling online communities and a stellar social web presence.