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Facebook: Most companies are using it wrong

by September 15, 2009 6 Comments

More companies are blocking employees’ access to social networking sites. Should you jump on the bandwagon?

Experts say there’s there’s a better way to handle social media than banning it altogether.

A recent report looked at the way companies are responding to an increase in the use of those sites.

The good news: Executives appear to recognize both the risks and the rewards of using social media in the workplace. More than 80% said they perceive social networking as a potential corporate security risk, according to the recent report “Social Media: Embracing the Opportunities, Averting the Risks,” published by Russel Herder and Ethos Business Law.

The most common fears: The sites are bad for employee productivity (cited by 51% of respondents) and could lead to a damaged company reputation (49%).

However, most execs also believe social networking can help organizations by:

  • enhancing relationships with customers and clients (81%)
  • building the company’s brand (81%)
  • helping recruit new employees (69%)
  • providing new avenues for customer service (64%), and
  • boosting employee morale (46%).

The bad news: Even while acknowledging the good and the bad that Facebook, Twitter and other sites have to offer, most companies are turning to two parallel extremes. On one hand, two-thirds of companies have no policy governing social media use. And on the other, 40% of employers use filters to completely block access to the sites.

The best solution is somewhere in between. Experts say a policy, rather than an outright ban or a complete free-for-all, is the way to go — as long as the policy contains all the right elements. For example:

  1. Include your company’s overall social media philosophy. What are you goals? What are you trying to avoid?
  2. Emphasize honesty and respect. For example, if a sales rep is using Twitter to promote a product, he should say he works for the company.
  3. Reinforce the company’s confidentiality policies. Most organizations already have policies on divulging proprietary information, but remind employees that applies to what they write online, too.
  4. Keep work and personal identities separate. For example, decide whether you want to prohibit employees from naming the company on their personal pages.
  5. Focus on job performance. Many companies worry that social networking is a productivity killer. But experts recommend tackling performance problems as they arise and focusing on results, not causes.
  6. Avoid conflicts of interest. Identity potential conflicts and how they should be addressed.
  7. Require a disclaimer when employees talk about work-related matters. For example, an employee’s blog could read, “The views expressed on this blog are mine and do not represent the views of my employer.”
  8. Decide to what extent you’ll monitor social networking use and tell employees what you’ll be watching.
  9. Apply the policy uniformly, not just to, say, the marketing department.
  10. Integrate the policy with your company’s other policies (anti-harassment, discrimination, ethics, code of conduct, etc.).
Categories: Employment Law, Management
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  • http://www.FurnitureBarnShowroom.com Richard Getz

    Interesting post. We just go onto Facebook ourselves and some of these questions have come to the top.

    4-7) I do not see how a company can enforce this on a privet blog.

    I would like more feedback as to how this is working for people in the real word. Do people find that social networking is increasing company awareness?

    For myself, I can say i like the SN aspect of a company. I am vacationing in San Diego next week and contacted Knott’s on their Facebook to see what was going on that week. But I am a techie, so I would think it is cool. How about others? What do you think, or have found through experience?

    Richard

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Castle-DE/Furniture-Barn/145096406480

  • gavinz_dad

    I reconnected with a high school classmate after 16 years. Turns out, she’s a CFO of a hospital now. I signed her as a client and we have a new $630,000 client because of Facebook. My boss loves social networking!
    Also, LinkedIn has been a huge boon for publicity. Not to mention, again, I’ve been able to reconnect with old friends, fraternity brothers and former colleagues. All professionals who represent potential clients now.
    I think it has huge potential, if used correctly.

  • Yalan McCowski

    One thing completely overlooked here are the network security vulnerabilities these sites often pose. Facebook and MySpace are the targets of relentless attack by hackers, and have been compromised on several occasions serving up spyware and viruses through their websites to infect browsing users. These sites take a risk by trying to keep their websites flashy with embedded objects among other things which are constantly being exploited every day. For many IT managers, it’s simply not worth the risk allowing employee’s to visit such a minefield of disaster.

  • Bob

    Facebook and myspace are social toilets and should be blocked by all but the Marketing folks who might be using it to sell products or services.

    Sites such as LinkedIn cater to professionals, and are less likely to allow casual / NSFW content.

    In addition, people present themselves differently in different circumstances. Facebook and Myspace are for presenting yourself personally, while LinkedIn and Plaxo are for presenting yourself professionally — these two facets may be totally different.

    As a final nail in the coffin, “facebook apps” are the new attack vector for malware, spyware, and social engineering attacks — the last thing you need is for this to be happening INSIDE your network perimeter.

  • Karen Lynn

    What do you think about an employee, who is a candidate for a job in the HR department, posts information regarding the stages of the selection process, when the 2nd interview is held, when they are notified of their selection, and the fact that they finally got the job they were waiting for, and the salary increase? Is this a sign of poor judgement for a potential HR professional?

  • Susan A

    I’m in the procees of launching two new Facebook sites for my employer: a “Fan Page” (anyone can join) which will be administered by the Marketing Department and a “Group Page” (requires approval to join) for our employees. Only the adminsitrators can post to these pages.

    HR will administer the group page, which will be used as an additional general communication tool. Links to our health plan provider list, 401(k) Plan and CDC’s Pandemic Preparedness site are currently included. We’ll be posting announcements of general interest to the employees (birthdays, new business, benefit enrollments, awards, promotions, etc.) and photos of company events.

    In our manufacturing environment the majority of our people do not have internet access while on the job, so they would visit the page from home. I honestly don’t see a down side.