Image by Mixy Lorenzo
When it comes to social media, IT security groups have two concerns (and rightly so):
- People disclosing confidential information.
- People inadvertently downloading viruses (you see this a lot with shortened links on Twitter).
Organizations can handle this issue one of two ways:
- Block all social media sites.
- Educate and coach employees on what’s ok to share and how to your computers safe when using this new technology. If you’re like Zappos, you can take it a step further and teach employees how to use these sites to learn, grow and develop
Which of these would you choose, and why?
PS: Organizations are actually worried about a third thing when it comes to social media – people wasting time. Guess what? The people who are going to fritter away hours on Facebook would have spent that time gabbing away at the water cooler – not filling out your TPS reports.
Why deprive everyone else of a great tool for sharing knowledge, learning and developing professionally?
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Great post Chris, you make some excellent points. The three concerns you mention are spot on with what I have seen and experienced as well. They aren’t limited to any specific sector or industry; these are concerns across the board.
I haven’t really thought much about the virus issue you mention until now. I see that being a huge issue in the future, especially with all of the recent Twitter hacking that has been making everyone squirm. For a while it was all the spammer “follows” and now it is all the hacking. Hopefully they will work that out soon otherwise I see this continuing to be a barrier for companies to capitalize on this resource.
No one has ever really been able to articulate a valid or justified answer to completely blocking social media sites in my opinion. “Just because” is not a good enough answer. Most companies that say that are just lazy and do not want to take the time to train. Have you seen anything worth mentioning for valid blocking of these sites besides just being worried and having trust issues?
I’ve read some things recently from you regarding policy implementation and the argument that we are all adults, why won’t our employers trust us. I tend to agree with all of that. Regardless of where you work I believe there is a general mistrust of employees. Yes, it may be valid in some cases, but not all. Can’t we deal with these issues on a case by case basis or are there actually too many of these cases out there? Hmm.
The idea of educating your employees is key with the social media movement. Why not teach your employees best practices. Hold workshops and training sessions. I like the ideas but do you think that most companies are willing to do this and do is effectively? There is a big difference between capable to do this (which most should be) and willing to do this. I am not sure how to answer that one. There are some great examples of companies out there that have done this, like Zappos. Unfortunately, most companies are not like Zappos…although they could be if they really understood the value of social media.
So, I choose 2. Educate and coach. I work in the public sector so I am dealing with all three of the concerns you mention. However, social media applications are not blocked. No training is provided. Actually, social media is rarely discussed. When I bring it up in staff meetings or to colleagues it turns into panic mode. Supervisors are aware that employees visit these sites regularly. Supervisors visit them also. Management doesn’t seem to understand any of it so no communication or training is offered. I can’t imagine what will happen if something negative does in fact happen like the example where the student was sued by a school for comments she made. Imagine if it was an employee.
Stephen,
Thanks for such a robust and thoughtful response! I really appreciate that you’re asking me some questions and continuing the dialogue…
Have you seen anything worth mentioning for valid blocking of these sites besides just being worried and having trust issues?
I haven’t seen a single argument for blocking social media sites that couldn’t also be said about about email or people generally loafing around at work. “People could share confidential information.” Guess what, they could send it in an email, too. “People will waste time.” Yep, they do that now.
If you want to really change behavior, you can just block things and police people. You need to educate and give compelling reasons to do something differently.
Regardless of where you work I believe there is a general mistrust of employees. Yes, it may be valid in some cases, but not all. Can’t we deal with these issues on a case by case basis or are there actually too many of these cases out there? Hmm.
I think there’s a cyclical effect here. People behave how you treat them. So if you treat people like they can’t be trusted, they’ll start to do untrustworthy things to test their boundaries and rebel against your authority. But if you treat people like you trust them, they may surprise you with how far they’ll go for you.
To your point, yes, there are some untrustworthy employees. Fire them – it’s that simple. And then figure out how you’re hiring people like that in the first place, and fix it.
The idea of educating your employees is key with the social media movement. Why not teach your employees best practices. Hold workshops and training sessions. I like the ideas but do you think that most companies are willing to do this and do is effectively?
I don’t, which is a big reason why I wrote this post. You and I both understand the huge potential of social media, but we also know that when you’re new to the social media space, it’s a bit overwhelming, and the work-related applications aren’t always obvious.
So I don’t think most companies are currently willing to providing training, or have the ability to do so effectively. But they need to if they want to keep pace in the next ten years.