Social media in the workplace

In ethical, psychological, and aesthetic matters, to give a clear reason for
one's judgement is universally recognised as a mark of rare genius –
William James in The Principles of Psychology in 1890
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA

“Neither a wise man nor a brave
man lies down on the tracks of
history to wait for the train of the
future to run over him.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
34th President of the United States of America
October 1952

Wait!
Copyright Inspecht Pty Ltd

Is it all hype?
Are we here??

75% of Australian
MySpace makes
Facebook has 5.3 Adults use Social
$2.17 per member per
million Australian tools at least once a
year
Adults users month (Forrester)
133 million blogs
44% of businesses feel
records have being
Enterprise 2.0 is critical
indexed by Technorati
for their success. (AIIM
since 2002
Market Intelligence
Report)
Every minute, fifteen
22.4 million mobile hours of video is
phone subscribers in uploaded to YouTube
Australia
Twitter’s Massive: 2,756,071 articles in
the English Wikipedia
1067% Growth in 4
months
LinkedIn 2008
revenue about $100
> 324,000,000 references
Gen Y is 14% workforce today,
million
of web 2.0 in Google
will be 42% in 11 years!

Benefits of Social Media
• Enhanced communication - inside & outside
• Cost effective connections with customers
• Engage & empower your employees
• Reduced employee turnover
• Increase in knowledge retention
• Higher levels of productivity
• People are talking about your organisation or
industry, even if you are not online

Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes are only different –
Lord Chesterfield 1773
WORKPLACE ISSUES

Workplace Issues
• There are lots of them
• You need to understand them
• Similar to issues that exist today
• It is just the technology is different

• Extension of workplace
• Content appropriateness
• Friending & unfriending
• Discrimination
• Bullying
• Confidentiality
• End User Licence Agreement
• Security issues
• Productivity
• Reputations
• Official messages

MANAGING SOCIAL MEDIA

Current Approaches
• Forbid it?
• Tolerate it?
– Don’t prohibit it but don’t encourage use
• Utilise only for marketing?
– Then it needs to be treated as official a company
communication
• Encourage it?
– Make it clear that personal content is personal
and company is company

Social Media Governance
• Provide rights for the participants and define
their equitable treatment
• Protect the interests of all stakeholders,
external and internal
• Define roles and responsibilities for
implementation and operation
• Define integrity and ethical behaviours of
participants
• Cover disclosure and transparency

Social Media Policy Formula

Social Media Policy

Social Media Policy Contents
• Use of company tools
• The Time Balance
• Speaking on behalf of the corporation
– How are they identified?
– Is it remunerated?
– Official role or just making a comment?
• Responsibility

Social Media Policy Contents
• Implication of non conformance
• Highlight existing HR policies
• Highlight existing duties of your employees
• Clearly set out consequences of non-
compliance
• Highlight best practices

Social Media Best Practice
1. Be factual
2. Speak in the first person
3. Don’t post when angry or
in a hurry
4. Treat others with respect
5. Add value to the business
6. Avoid sarcasm & fights
7. Quickly acknowledge
mistakes and make right

Policy implementation
• Comprehensive communications
• Lunch sessions
• Induction program
• Manager training
• Publically display your policy
• Adjust as required
• Be open

BRAND MANAGEMENT

Reputation management
• The process of tracking your actions and
others’ opinions about those actions
• Reporting on those actions and opinions
• Creating a feedback loop
• Steps
– Create Watch lists
– Monitor Engagement
– Respond

Employer Branding
• Remember today content is controlled by the
public
• Content remains in search engines for a very
long time, if not forever
• How your organisation interacts with online
has a direct impact on your brand
• Social media can influence candidates’ view
towards your organisation

Summary
1. Social media is not bad
2. Social media has lots of benefits
3. You need a policy, but it must match your
culture
4. Social media is there even if you ignore it