Article
Social Media in the Workplace
I consider myself lucky. After college, I have never had to work in an environment that blocks social networking sites. Ask some of my friends who work for big corporations or mid-sized firms and they are not as fortunate. According to SocialTimes, “only 48.3 percent of companies allow all employees access to social networking sites while at work for non business use, 26.7 percent of companies offer access to social networking sites for a select group of employees, and a quarter of all companies ban social networks for personal use entirely.” It’s obvious that the use of social media sites is essential for what we do here at Honkfish but it makes you wonder, do other companies benefit or hurt themselves by blocking social networking sites?
It’s understandable for companies, especially large ones, to want to protect their brand image. I do believe, however, that blocking everything is the “easy way out”. There’s a better approach out there but it requires more work on the organization’s part. If implemented correctly, developing a comprehensive approach and educating employees about social media can actually help your company! Don’t believe me? Take a look at the way @dellcares or @DeltaAssist handle customer service. It doesn’t stop there, either. Sales departments can utilize social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter to find leads and reach out to potential consumers. Marketing departments can utilize social media to keep the conversation going in the right direction online and handle brand sentiment (shameless plug – if you need help doing this call us 
). Overall, anyone in the company can use social networking to increase brand awareness. Worried about negative comments from employers? I’m not going to lie, it happens. Disgruntled employees can pull stunts, but it’s going to happen anyway. They will complain about your company on social media sites if they’re unhappy; the best you can do is have a social media policy in place that educates everyone on how to help the company instead of hurt it.
