Workplace Social Media Use: A few words of advice

Daytime tweeting. Workplace like-fests. The in-between meetings Tumblr check. Cross-office Yammer backchannels.

These are just a few of the symptoms of Workplace Social Media Use (WSMU), a rampant, habit-forming challenge sweeping the world’s workforce via laptops, desktops, and mobile devices. While all WSMU is not a negative, it’s become a major topic of discussion that goes beyond a company’s social media policies, and is generally unaffected or slowed by IT precautions.

If you’re a business leader or manager, you should note that while many corporations have attempted to curb WSMU by instituting harsh guidelines, appropriate WSMU can be beneficial from both an employee satisfaction perspective and from a “walk the walk” business angle. Keep the following in mind:

• Just because you blocked Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and every other “fun” social media site doesn’t mean your employees aren’t visiting them on their smartphones;
• As there’s a good chance you’re participating in social media channels yourself, set a good example for how you’d like your employees and colleagues to behave in these spaces; and
• Being viewed as participatory in social media – especially for those in communications and marketing – is a smart characteristic to make available to current and future clients, as well as prospective employees

If you’re an employee who is currently engaged in or thinking about participating in WSMU, understand that what you’re doing – especially if done using workplace equipment – will be monitored and likely considered as a topic during your performance reviews. Given that reality, here are some “dos and don’ts” when it comes to WSMU:

• DO be aware of any specific guidelines or restrictions your company or industry has on social media usage;
• DO think about what you are communicating and how it could impact  your business, clients, co-workers, or other related organizations;
• DO identify yourself as an employee of the business, whenever appropriate;
• DON’T think that someone won’t find out you’ve been playing FarmVille or watching cat hugging videos while at work; and
• DON’T think that surfing on your personal laptop or tablet means that nobody knows what you’re doing if you’re still using the company WiFi to do it.

And finally, a public service announcement…

Remember, we’re all responsible for creating positive WSMU. By doing your part to promote – not demote – these activities, we can make social media work for our businesses, on all of our terms.

 ~Tom Biro, Vice President, Seattle