Recently on linkedin, I asked folks, “How Much Say Should a Company Have in Regulating Internal Social Media Usage?” I received many responses and I have shared some of them below. But think about that question for a moment. How should a company regulate internal social media usage? If a company finds out that someone is spending a lot of time on twitter, is it wise to reprimand the person, OR, to make him the social media ambassador for the company? Should a company just block all sites like wordpress, youtube, twitter, etc? or would this just make matters worse? The questions can go on and on and on. Here are a few of the responses…
Consultant – Internet Marketing
“Bottom line – unless you are using Social Media in your job, it is considered using company resources (and time) for personal usage and should not be allowed.”
Director, Multi-Channel Market Development at Circuit City
“My general sense is that people are getting a bit stupid with what they write on-line, much like people got with email. If you would not feel comfortable having the same “discussion” with a reporter and/or your CEO, then you probably should not write about it on-line in a way that ties back to your employer.”
Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“In my opinion employees should not be wasting time on social media during work hours.”
Expert Communications Consultant with Multicultural Vision
“What is needed is not a social networking patrol but some guidelines in how to do it safely and effectively — I am amazed at the stuff some people put in “What are you working on?” — and some encouragement for good practices. Most companies also need to learn what social networking is about. I have met people who think it is a game; probably the same people who banned Internet because it was “a game”. I bet they said the same thing about the telephone, too.”
Internet marketing and place branding consultant, columnist, speaker, owner Scope Comm
“Companies should make an editorial policy about what employees are allowed to do and what they are not. If used wisely, the employees use of social media can actually boost your brand awareness and your business.”
Search Engine Marketing Director at NetPlus Marketing, Inc
“Employers have the right to monitor what you do at work. For better or worse that is just the way it is. I think more enlightened companies will realize that no matter how mechanized they might want the workplace to be, people are not machines and need to create policies that recognize that. If the work gets done and the use of the net does not get in the way then there has got to be some slack in there. Morale and performance might even pick up if people don’t feel they have to watch their back all the time.”
As you can see there are a quite a lot of varying responses to this question. This is a hot topic amongst social media users and corporations. The full linkedin thread can be found here. So what do you think? How much say should a company have in regulating internal social media usage?
Thanks for reading, I’m looking forward to reading your responses!
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