Comments on: Are You Letting Your Employees Out on the Green in Social Media?

By: Manchester Chris

Manchester Chris — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:03:19 +0000

I let all my guys constantly talk online (particularly on aim and trillion) as it puts a whole host of related developers and like minded individuals as a kind of outsourced workforce that can troubleshoot live when we hit any snags

We get more done, emplyess are happy as they are connected to the outside world, so to speak and we create a bigger community of probelm solvers in the long run

We also have music on which helps (and its chosen on a random basis by spotify so no one is to blame for a crummy song)

By: Ruud Questions: Brian Wallace | Search Engine People | Toronto

Ruud Questions: Brian Wallace | Search Engine People | Toronto — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:33:51 +0000

[...] are plenty of freelance consultants such as that friend’s daughter – as long as they are professional (read: don’t put up drunken pics on Facebook for HR to get mad about), things could go [...]

By: Jeff Flowers

Jeff Flowers — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:55:44 +0000

FTA – “If you trust them enough to run your business, they should be able to have a social media outlet. And if you are proactive and support it as part of your business culture, then viola! – you now have a social media team in house”

I couldn’t agree more! Let your employee’s run wild, you never know what they might be able to accomplish… and how it could benefit the company.

By: Robot Exclusion Enforcement : What a To Do

Robot Exclusion Enforcement : What a To Do — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:35:52 +0000

[...] you don’t sc…scare me. I come back with b… brother bot, spends 20% time indexing pages on [...]

By: Social Media Marketing Posts July

Social Media Marketing Posts July — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:54:23 +0000

[...] Are You Letting Your Employees Out on the Green in Social Media? [...]

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:14:13 +0000

Brian: If you rephrase your question to not identify whether businesses should allow employees to use social media at the workplace but whether businesses want to increase collaboration and productivity by enabling employees to network both in-house and around the world with like-minded professionals, then you’re talking.

Traditional firms and social media don’t mix well other than Facebook applications and LinkedIn groups. But if you don’t view it as social media but quote-unquote professional networking or a wiki-centric collaborative approach, who’s going to say no?

Stated differently, if a company allows its employees to keep in touch with friends and family on cellphones and/or by email, then why not accept the roundness of the Web and embrace the new Web 2.0 technologies? The key is I.T. departments should not take the lead; marketing and HR should.

By: Stephen Cronin

Stephen Cronin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:09:40 +0000

Great Article.

I head up the web team for a government agency and we’re looking at how we can utilize social media at present. There are a lot of doubters out there, but I’m firmly convinced it can be a great thing. I think we’ll have to build our own though, rather than using public sites…

By: billso

billso — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:52:51 +0000

Great article. As I note in my article – see the link – IBM has Beehive, its in-house social media system, to keep employees connected in ad hoc teams. Give IBM time and they will sell this as a value-added service to Global Services customers.

By: Let Staff Use The Internet To Download Porn | Hobo

Let Staff Use The Internet To Download Porn | Hobo — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:25:14 +0000

[...] and Social Media expert, posted an article on Collective Thoughts which I am subscribed to about letting staff loose on the social networks, during work time. Corporations and draconian IT departments out there often block many or all social media sites [...]

By: Brian Wallace

Brian Wallace — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:30:55 +0000

@Hobo
Nicely put Shaun. Social media could be seen as a creative distraction, collective knowledge source, and recruiting. People need to keep an open mind.

By: Hobo

Hobo — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:27:15 +0000

How ironic – we had a social media day today – got everybody, even the secretary (OK my mum) on Bebo, Last FM, Stumbleupon, Digg etc encouraging them to participate.

“Does it make sense to turn off social media on your employees? Perhaps its a trust factor. My opinion: if you trust them enough to run your business, they should be able to have a social media outlet.”

Exactly. And it’s not always about bottom line. I want my team to understand social media – and you do that by joining in and forgetting about the work for a while and get some networking done.

By: Brian Wallace

Brian Wallace — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:51:14 +0000

@Pierre
as long as we can still blog about it, there is hope. The more we write things of good quality and they get put in front of the business community, the more that they have to be addressed. Think of anything you see in the likes of NYT, BusinessWeek, CNN, etc. Social media is still an immature field, give it time – life will continue to teach you well

@Steve
blocking social media is very short sighted, considering the number of people that have handhelds that can still hit the net. And yes, distrust may exist, but companies just need to get their policies and procedures in place. Will definitely listen to your podcast, thanks for the link

By: Steve Nimmons

Steve Nimmons — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:04:07 +0000

Harnessing Enterprise 2.0 and getting some of the interaction behind the firewall neutralises some of the potential dangers. Staff should simply be trained about 'risky' activity (e.g. avoiding social engineers). Social media 'blocking' is a very short sighted answer that I would steer companies away from. Is it not an indictment that we hire and trust people to work for us, and then worry about how they will use social media. Um, if you don't trust them that much, you need new hiring policies. Appraisals and targets are there for preventing people wasting business time (by and large), and people tend to like having a job and are not that reckless to do anything that would damage their future. Nervousness has led to a 'nanny state', but also don't be taken in too readily by the absolute libertines as they need to be challenged as well. Extended thoughts in this podcast

By: Pierre Far

Pierre Far — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:39:57 +0000

I fear that companies that limit access have the wrong mentality to begin with and your post will fall on deaf ears. Those companies that don’t limit access don’t need your post to tell them why it’s important.

Cynical? Yes. But life has taught me well.

Pierre