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The comment by Twitter Watchdog – Tim Carron on September 3, 2009, who found some info on companies blocking social media access by employees has caused a stir. Some of the ones listed include Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Censure has been happening in the public sector and public schools (not colleges and universities) for a while. The reaction of employees to this action and the actual action by corporate execs perhaps shows a lack of planning and strategy creation by those businesses.
Social Media Sites – Blocked more than online shopping
Tim mentions that,
“ScanSafe saw a 20 percent increase in the number of customers blocking social networking sites in the last six months and according to their data, 76 percent of companies are choosing to block social networking and it is now a more popular category to block than online shopping (52 percent), weapons (75 percent), alcohol (64 percent), sports (51percent) and Webmail (58 percent). “
Further in the article, which was published on Networkworld.com, Spencer Parker stated,
“in recent months, employers are obviously wising up to the dangers and negative impact on productivity linked to certain sites and more and more customers have chosen to block social networking, online banking and webmail.”
Get Your Social Media Strategy in Place
In my opinion, if you approach use of social media tools as components of a social media strategy – and that strategy is targeted to achieve business goals – you as a business owner will know the reasons why any department or employee should be on a social media site. With a action plan around programs you will also have measurement in place to track the success. C-Level management won’t have to wonder what everyone is doing, they can see reports, quarterly monitoring, audits and results such as increased sales and reduce customer support.
Should you block social media sites or create a social media plan instead?
The key is strategy, action plans, resource allocation and a budget that are defined to achieve your business goal. Along with that creation of guidelines for posting, resource designation for problem escalation and internal knowledge resources so those designated “social media team members” know how and why they move forward in the conversation.
This will make executives comfortable in participating in social media and where necessary, stop others from using their work time to converse on personal issues. Social media is about people and people talking, we should just want them to do it with guidance.
To shut every social media site down by blocking, is like cutting your nose off to spite your face.
What’s your take on this?
Related posts:
- Profile Names on Social Media Sites | Tips and Techniques
- Citrix/Webex Social Media Assessment by Social Media Academy Alumni
- Global Social Media Consultancy Forms-Social Business Consulting Group
- Want a social media education? Five reasons you should!
- Madison Social Media Breakfast|Profiles and Copyright
