This week has been a big week for social media as the world’s most popular social network announced that it reached 500 million users. Salesforce.com is just as excited about it as anybody.

"Facebook’s stunning growth is pushing the entire IT industry to think social," the company’s Chief Marketing Officer tells WebProNews. "At salesforce.com, Facebook inspired us to bring technologies like profiles, groups and real-time feeds to the enterprise with Salesforce Chatter, leading enterprise collaboration into the modern age."

Salesforce.com has also posted its own social media policy to the public domain so other companies might be able to us it to formulate a policy and training program of their own.

"With the rise of Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter, virtually every employee is engaged in some form of social media," the company says. "And regardless of the activity, the line between your personal identity and your professional identity is blurring, especially when you publish something in the public domain. "

Salesforce’s policy encourages employee participation, but also setting clear rules about what is "in bounds" and what is "out of bounds". The policy includes five basic rules: 

1. Don’t share company or financial secrets
2. Be honest and transparent
3. Be respectful
4. Don’t make forward looking statements
5. Don’t register channels without consent

There are more details outlined within each of these, as well as other tips for posting online in a slideshow presentation featured here.

What do you think of Salesforce’s social media policy? Good guidelines? Share your thoughts.