Your business can reap the benefits of social media in the workplace, which include ease of communication, collaboration, and customer engagement. One way to decide whether there is a place for social media in the workplace is to understand the differences between the major networks, then consider how social media and employees might benefit your business. After you understand what might work, you can develop an effective social media employee policy.
With clear guidelines and expectations, you can stop potential problems with social media in the workplace before they start. Involving your team will create buy-in and help to ensure a policy that protects the interests of all involved.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn has long been a popular type of social media in the workplace. For the most part, people use LinkedIn to share work, knowledge and network with others. Most content shared on LinkedIn is work appropriate because the primary purpose of the platform is to facilitate networking amongst professionals.
Pros• Strengthens your team by encouraging them to network and make connections
• Connections can lead to fresh ideas
• Your team’s networks might be good places to recruit new talent
• Allows you to connect with your team without getting personal | Cons• Not the best network to engage customers
• Encouraging your team to grow their network could result in them being recruited by another organization
• Networking on LinkedIn is not all it is cracked up to be |
Twitter
Twitter is an interesting entity that brings fame and fortune to some, and utter disaster to others. It should be carefully considered as you draft your social media employee policy. Tweets are fully searchable and Twitter has a long memory. All tweets essentially become public record, for better or for worse.
Twitter is irresistible to some workplaces because it is an excellent way to get publicity and quickly communicate, both of which are lucrative benefits of social media in the workplace. Businesses that successfully engage customers through Twitter tend to experience more repeat business, loyalty and free publicity when customers tweet about you, which can lead to your content going viral.
Pros• Nimble, easy to use interface
• Can connect to MMS messaging on your phone
• Easy to be responsive
• Great for connecting with customers | Cons• Inappropriate tweets backfire – sometimes immediately and with disastrous results
• Could lead to employees revealing personal information to customers
• Exceptional publicity tool
• Can be time-consuming, especially if you get a lot of mentions |
Facebook
As far as the social media in the workplace is concerned, Facebook presents an equal amount of opportunities and risks. Through Facebook, you might be able to learn about your team’s values, beliefs and interests, which might help forge deep connections to add value to the team dynamic. One of the problems with all social media in the workplace, especially Facebook, is that it is easy to reveal personal information accidentally such as faith or family status.
Pros• Facilitates deeper connections than other social networks
• Can help provide context to understand your team and peers
• Is a powerful way to connect with clients and customers | Cons• It is too easy to reveal personal information
• Has a way of creating divisions due to differing political/religious/philosophical views
• Its engaging interface can be terribly distracting |
Google+
Though it has been around for years, Google+ is still in many ways the “new kid on the block.” It was a little later to the game than Facebook and Twitter, and for a while had an uninspiring interface. In the last couple of years, Google+ has adapted and brought the best traits of Facebook and Twitter together.
One of the most advantageous points about Google+ social media in the workplace is that it offers exceptional controls to manage post visibility. In addition, it is SEO optimized. Everything shared is immediately elevated on Google’s algorithms. Built-in perks like Google hangouts, Google Places, make it a network to consider as you draft a social media policy for employees.
Pros• Less populated than other networks – think of it as the West circa 1910
• Easy to manage post visibility
• Fewer changes than Facebook
• SEO Optimized | Cons• There are not a lot of people there
• Difficult to connect with customers because the population is a bit sparse |
Is it okay to require access to social profiles?
Another question that comes up as you consider the benefits of social media in the workplace is whether you should have access to your team’s profiles. There have been numerous news stories involving social media and employees, so some employers demand full access to applicants' and team members' profiles with the intent of protecting the company.
When hiring, it might seem prudent to find out who you are hiring, but demanding access to social media profiles is risky and of course, there are better ways to assess character. No defined legal precedent exists to say that you can or cannot demand such access, but it opens the door to learning protected information about the employee or applicant, such as ethnicity or religion. You will also come off as nosy, which does not help to forge strong relationships.
Should Social Media belong in your Workplace?
Working with your team to draft a clear social media employee policy is the best way to reduce problems with social media in the workplace. If your team uses smart phones, it is a safe bet some are using social media in the workplace while on the clock. Owners and managers have to decide whether to use the behavior to their advantage, discourage it or ignore it. Keep in mind that connecting with your team is not enough to stop them, because they can always filter you out of their posts.
Social media in the workplace might be appropriate if you have a remote team or can set it up so that there is little risk of crossing ethical boundaries. For the remote team, the benefits of social media in the workplace include forging strong bonds. However, discretion and filtering content is still necessary.
Another approach to managing social media and employees is to set up a group or page for your team so that they can share information without the risk of exposing their personal lives. Facebook and Google+ make it easy to administer private or public groups.
Ultimately, each business has to make the call for itself. If the policy requires/allows the team to maintain separate work and personal identities, your business can enjoy the many benefits of social media in the workplace. Creating a clear social media policy for employees to define acceptable practices and consequences for failure to adhere will help to create a harmonious, connected and productive workplace.
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