Social Media Off-Line
This is Social Media Week and the great and powerful of cyber-engagement are gathered in several of the world’s major capitals to discuss and debate the ins and outs of the changing social media landscape. Interesting that people at the cutting edge of new media feel the need for physical interaction but, thankfully, the steady stream of tweets and video has kept the rest of us informed.
In our business, it’s crucial that we’re all familiar with and connected to social media. Both business and personal usage is valuable in keeping us ahead of the curve and enabling us to provide informed advice and shape effective digital strategies.
But, while we spend a good proportion of each day on-line, we know that levels of internet and social media interaction, across industry sectors, varies dramatically. There is scant UK research on the subject available in the public domain but discussions with clients and business colleagues help us paint a picture of extremes in knowledge, understanding and usage across the business community, with heavy manufacturing and engineering at the very low usage end of the scale and public relations and marketing at the high end.
One of the questions that businesses across the spectrum face in common though, is whether to allow their employees to have access to the internet for personal use during working hours. Here the jury remains out.
Research from Trend Micro shows that workplace social media usage is on the increase and currently stands at around 24%. Other surveys suggest that employees who take breaks to socialise on the internet are more productive than their colleagues who don’t. For some employers there seems little difference between allowing staff to catch 5 minutes chatting by the coffee machine and letting them spend 5 minutes on Facebook. However, problems will surely arise and productivity drop if they are doing both concurrently throughout the day.
Some businesses are bullish in their policy of blocking employees’ access to social networks and even to personal email. But, research conducted mid-2010 showed that, even with permission to do so, nearly two thirds of employees do not check their personal social networks while at work and, of those who do, 47% access them for half an hour or less each day. But even half an hour in an 8 hour working day will seem like a lot of ‘wasted time’ to some employers if it’s purely for personal purposes.
The Decoding Social Media @ Work report surprisingly shows that only 31% of 15-34 year olds believe companies should allow employees to use social media at work. It appears that this may not be because they’re concerned about wasting company time, more that they want to preserve their own privacy and are uncomfortable about employers finding them using social media sites or viewing their social media activity. This is more the case for women than men.
From our perspective, rather than banning the use of social media at work, we see that there are advantages to be had in strategically channelling its use for valuable business networking, allowing employers to connect with and learn from other businesses and professionals. It can also be harnessed to create ambassadors from our employees, for valuable word of mouth. Guidelines for personal and professional internet use can be developed and built into employees’ contracts to facilitate this.
So, what’s the thinking on the use of social media at work from this week’s big event in London? The Social Media Week’s website is down today so we’ll have to check in again another time… just as well they opted for an off-line get-together.