Should Your Team Use Social Media at Work?

It seems odd that we might even consider this debate around using social media, I mean who isn’t on social media?! Well lots of people – and some people are choosing to limit their time on popular sites like Facebook and Instagram because it has consumed too much of their mind space. That being said, there’s a good chance that you at least occasionally check out at least one social network. Statistics show that about three-quarters of Canadians use at least one type of social network, with YouTube and Facebook being the most popular.

Social Media in the Workplace

Of course, there are potential downsides to social media. It has been reported that time spent on Facebook, for example, could be costing trillions of dollars in lost productivity. Organizations frequently worry about their team members spending company time socializing online and that this time should instead be spent more efficiently towards business goals.

There are also recent issues regarding that amount of personal information stored on social media networks. For example, Facebook’s recent privacy concerns have caused some to reconsider how much they share and post. Privacy concerns do not just affect individuals, but organizations as well. There have been numerous cases of employees sharing sensitive company information – either on purpose or inadvertently – through social media. This can be damaging to an organization.

All of these concerns have resulted in some organizations monitoring the social media usage of their teams and, in some cases, banning social media in the workplace entirely.

Effective Use of Social Media at Work

There are lots of way that team and organizations can leverage social media to enhance performance. For example:Instant messaging and social tools can improve collaboration, problem solving, and research

• Public-facing social media pages can improve customer service
• Private social media groups (ones that are restricted to your organization) can be a great place for project management, knowledge sharing, brainstorming, and team building activities
• Social media can help remote team members feel closer to their colleagues and make working in virtual teams easier

It’s also important to recognize that employees will find a way to use social media in the workplace even if it’s banned or forbidden. While company-owned computers can block access to social networks, it’s very easy for someone to jump onto Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter from their private phone whenever they want. In many cases, the only result of banning social media will be frustrated employees who will end up looking for alternate ways to stay connected with their digital life. In fact, sometimes a ban on social media use will actually increase the amount of time employees spend on their phones. A ban can also discourage younger employees from considering your organization as an employment option, which can hurt recruiting efforts.

That being said, there are certainly productivity and privacy concerns when it comes to social media. However, instead of an outright ban, most organizations we work with look to develop policies for appropriate social media usage and ensure that all team members are aware of the policies and consequences if they don’t follow them.

Creating a Social Media Policy for your Organization

What is covered by an organization’s social media policy will depend on your organization. However, most social media policies include:

What information is off limits

• Don’t assume that your team will know what is fair game to share online and what should be kept private. If your organization does not want the details of upcoming products, organizational meetings, or photos of your company headquarters appearing on social networks, explicitly mention this in your policy.

What can hurt your brand

• Even seemingly innocent posts by team members can negatively affect your brand. For instance, someone posting “This was a boring day at work” or “Just got off a painful phone call with a client” on their personal social media can paint a negative picture of your brand. Make sure that all team members know how their social media postings, even their personal ones, can affect the organization.
• It’s also important for team members to know that it’s important to make it clear when they are stating their personal opinion as opposed to the organization’s stance on something. This is particularly important given the current political climate and hotly debated social topics.

How social media will be monitored

• Leaders may not need to focus on actively monitoring the social media accounts of each individual in the organization, but team members should be aware that leaders take information posted on social media seriously.

The consequences for not following the policy

• Make sure team members know that there are consequences for those who ignore the social media policy – and that there could also be consequences for the organization as well. Remind team members that they are responsible for what they post online and what they share publicly can and does have impact.

Remember that your organization’s social media policy will likely need to include guides for both personal and organizational social media account use. Your organization’s accounts may be managed by more than one person, and perhaps more than one department, so you’ll want to be sure to have policies in place that spell out what can and cannot be posted.

Develop your social media policy with input from all levels of your organization. A team approach will result in a more practical policy and one that everyone will be more likely to buy into.