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Facebook: Most companies are using it wrong

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September 15, 2009
2 minute read
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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.).

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