“Change is not death. Fear of change is death.” — Hugh MacLeod

Cartoon by Hugh MacLeod

I’ve heard a lot of talk recently about companies banning social media in the workplace and recently I came across this article on Socialnomics.

“The USA Today reported on October 22, 2009 in their Snapshot®* that 54% of companies completely block Facebook, whereas another 35% apply some form of limits.  That leaves only 11% that don’t put any limitations on Facebook use in the work force.”

You can probably guess how I feel about this.

IT’S STUPID.

Why don’t they just disconnect the phone lines while they’re at it? Because, you know, someone might use the phone to make a personal call.

They should probably also rip out all the fax machines and ban email because someone might send a personal message.

According to this article on Wired.com, “…54 percent of U.S. companies say they’ve banned workers from using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace, while on the job. The study, released today, also found that 19 percent of companies allow social networking use only for business purposes, while 16 percent allow limited personal use.”

Why do these companies feel it is necessary to ban or limit the use of social media? Some of the reasons cited are:

• lost productivity due to employees engaging in personal and leisure activities online
• fear that employees will share confidential or disparaging information
• security issues (spread of viruses, etc.)

What I want to know is, how can companies learn how to best utilize social media in order to further build their brand and connect with customers if they aren’t allowing their employees to use the tools?

NEWSFLASH.

Social media isn’t going anywhere people. It’s here to stay, and every day it becomes more and more integrated with our lives and regular, daily activities; the way we communicate, obtain and share information, build brands, and sell product.

In Small Business Trends Lisa Barone writes, “Something that also caught my eye was the division between using social media for business use vs using it for personal use. Because they’re pretty much the same thing. The goal behind social media is to make your business personal. And if you don’t understand that, you’re going about it the wrong way.

This sentiment was also noted in a post by Heidi Miller where she shows how social media isn’t about the companies. It’s about the people behind them. Comcast isn’t on Twitter. Frank Eliason is. All the Dell representatives you meet have actual names and faces. We get the tidbits of their lives right along with the company agenda. That’s what people fall in love with. It’s the people behind these companies that make them interesting and make customers engaged and want to do business with them. By trying to separate business from personal, you lose a lot of that sentiment. You take the heart out of it.

I think in the next few years, we’re going to see social media being more and more accepted into the workplace. Truth is, there’s no greater customer relations tool out there.”

And, what about this little factoid?

“People who do surf the Internet for fun at work – within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office – are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t,” Dr Brent Coker, from the Department of Management and Marketing at The University of Melbourne.  More from this Australian Social Media study can be found here.”

GASP.

When you let go of the reigns and allow your employees a little breathing room, they are actually more productive?

Does your company ban or put limits on the use of social media? And, if so, how do you get around it? Do you access it on your personal phone or computer, or do you abide strictly by the rules?