PRH recruits agency to help staff manage social media and online abuse

Penguin Random House has recruited an agency, Born Social, to support employees in navigating social media and dealing with online abuse. 

The global social media agency is helping the publisher develop new internal social guidance and resources to help "better support and protect our colleagues and authors when navigating social media", said Penguin Random House (PRH). 

Its guidelines aim to equip the company’s social media teams with practical tools for managing online abuse, as well as guidance on how to support authors dealing with issues including trolling and online hate. 

It is hoped the guidelines will be developed early next year and shared internally with teams, PRH told The Bookseller. It forms part of a wider piece of work which PRH is exploring on how to safeguard staff and better support authors’ wellbeing. 

Jess Colman, PRH communications director, said: “While social media provides us with more opportunity to connect our authors with readers around the world, it also presents us with many challenges. We want to equip our colleagues and authors to better navigate the issues and complexities of social media and are working with an agency, Born Social, to help us develop more support and guidance to do so.” 

Born Social is based in central London and has previously worked with companies such as Nandos and Tinder.