TECH TALK: What’s your social media situation at work?

To allow social media at work or not?

The threat of employees wasting hours NOT working and socializing on Facebook and Twitter instead has always been a concern.

What about one of them opening up a nasty link thanks to a hacked Facebook message sender and allowing a virus into the workplace?

Big concerns for most companies! Here are 5five things to consider if you’re considering allowing social media access for your staff.

1.  Does it help with their job?  Can employees get leads for sales or be able to use social media for research or ideas that can actually help their tasks and overall job performance.

2. Are you worried some employees will waste away the day on social media?  If you notice some employees are not performing to your expectations within the first week or so – make sure they know that from the get-go.  Implement a trial period.  Let employees know they risk losing all social media privileges if they abuse it.  Don’t just say it – put it in writing and have everyone sign off on it as some companies currently do. Another great new feature is that you can actually put time restrictions on websites.  For example – only allow social media during the lunch hour.  Matrix Connectivity Solutions is a local IT provider that can help you set that up.

3.  Can you make it part of their job?  Can your staff all use social media to pitch in and update the company’s profile online?  Perhaps you have a blogger or tweet expert on staff.

4.  Inappropriate comments or pictures.  Monitor and set guidelines for what employees who represent your company can post on their social media or ask them to have restrictions.  Example: an employee of a car service company posted a picture of himself drinking from a large Crown Royal bottle while at a tailgate party.  He was called into the office and asked to delete the picture and was actually thankful for the advice.  That was his first and last warning. He and the rest of the staff were also connected to their bosses on social media – a good rule to have, although some employees may not like that.  Those are usually the ones that have something to hide. (Just kidding. Kinda.) Another tip is to ask employees to put restrictions on who can see their pages.  Eg., teachers, public service workers, etc.

5. Virus protection.  The biggest “what if” of them all.  It takes one employee to open the link they got via Twitter that reads, “Can’t believe this picture of you online.”  Who wouldn’t want to open that?  Scams like this can be avoided IF you have the right virus protection and monitoring system in place.

You may have to spend more to be more secure but that is a decision best made after calling the experts at a firm like Matrix IT.

Kuljeet Kaila  is a local media personality & social media expert for local, tech giants, Matrix and Logiix.

Tags: boss, debated topic, hot topic, information for workplace, permission, rules, social media at work, tips, workplace issues