Social Media At Work - A Dangerous Topic

Should businesses allow social media at work



This has always been a touchy subject, so lets try and tackle this topic once and for all.

I remember working in companies in my past and the standard approach was always no social media at work . In fact it used to be no personal email either. As I got older in my working career, the approach by companies has gotten even funnier. One of the more recent companies I worked with put a Facebook page together then asked all of their employees to visit the page, but restricted all social media sites so the employees couldn’t see their own business identity online. Naturally employees don’t like to take work home with them, so none of the employees every really looked at the page. Wouldn’t it be smarter to try and control a situation that is already going to happen anyway? With the advancement of most smart phone you can guarantee that most employees are spending a large portion of their workday on social sites anyway, but unfortunately if the are on their phones, then they probably aren’t on the work phones and their in lies the problem. We all know that businesses love to give busy work to their employees to keep them busy. We also know how easy it is to look busy without producing a single legitimate piece of work for an entire day. So my thoughts are, why not embrace this twisted view of how an office should run.

The concept is pretty simple, allow your company to use social media at work, but on the company’s behalf. When your customers know they can speak with someone in real time, no emails, no waiting music, no phone options to push, just ask a question and get an answer, they will have more trusting your brand. You will be seen as the business “that gets it” instead of just like everyone else. Make sure to be very clear on your social media strategy for all employees. Nowadays the wrong thing said online can become an international PR nightmare for even the smallest company. So all you need to do is sit down and have an honest conversation with your team, and come up with your own social media strategy at work. Make sure to cover the pros and cons, what should and shouldn’t be posted, and who will be involved. In no time at all you will have an engaged audience that is willing to spread the good word about your company, and all you have to do is say yes to social media in your business.