Blocking Social Networks at Work - A Dying Practice?

 

(Once again I've enriched a post with a Rob Cottingham cartoon since no one captures the social web zeitgeist better. I don't think he'll mind.)

I hope the title of this post is true. But based on my experience with some organizations over the past six months there are fewer offering this "benefit" than I thought would be the case given where we are in the social web's six or seven year history.

The resistance is still coming from senior management teams and human resource departments (a) concerned about the impact on productivity (b) afraid that organizational intellectual property will be compromised.

Others can desconstruct the problems with these quarrels. Instead, let me suggest five arguments in favour of making Rob's cartoon redundant:

1. The signal sent by blocking Facebook, other social networks and micro-blogging platforms like Twitter is that you think your employees are children . . . if not idiots. That feeling is likely to be a greater draw down on productivity than a few minutes checking a social network feed.
2. With smart phones and mobile apps employees can simply duck their hands below their desks and check Facebook and Twitter anyway.
3. As Rob says in a post accompanying the cartoon above blocking these platforms may mean missing an opportunity for "companies and organizations (to create platforms - my addition) for productive, collaborative work."
4. The social web isn't going away. Many businesses are trying to find a way to make it relevant for them. By shutting off desktop access to the social web you are slamming the door on creative business scenarios or better customer service strategies.
5. You will delay learning what kind of specialized content might make users of the social web pay attention to your products and services, because your employees won't help you find out.

Senior managers can be stubborn, especially when backed by IT departments mumbling about non-business driven server overload. So don't bet these ideas will tip the scales among the hold outs . . . though it's worth a try.  

Comments

[Meegs]

From inside the firewall (but with a workaround & mobile phone in my holster) I am truly enjoying this post.

[Rob Cottingham]

Re. "no one captures the social web zeitgeist better", you've had me grinning all day. Thanks for that!

And here's a nomination for reason #6: These social networks - or something very much like them - are communications channels your organization will badly want to use... if not today, then very soon. Wouldn't you like your employees to be well-versed in the skills, culture and practices that can make them most effective there?

[Boyd Neil]

Rob . . . one would think so.

[Ashutosh Ranjan]

Thanks for sharing nice information about social networks. I really very much inspired with this post. Is it possible to update status from my asus phone. Social networking is growing day by day in human life.

[Daneal Charney]

Yes...overuse of Facebook is a performance issue not something that should become a policy. In companies who have a more liberal social media policy or not one at all, you can witness the incredible benefits ...from a sales and marketing perspective ...to knowledge sharing and internal collaberation.