29 October 2008

Learning to love Facebook could reap big rewards for companies

The rise of social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo has been well documented. That they are having an effect on the workplace is undeniable but are businesses making the most of this new and popular technology?

Influential think tank Demos has published a report called Network Citizens, which suggests that there is a wide spectrum of thought on the matter from company to company.

Demos argues that companies who try to block the use of such networks could be damaging themselves in the long term by limiting the way their staff communicate. One of the main advantages that a company could be missing out on is a simple method of encouraging employees to build relationships with colleagues. This advice comes with the caveat that businesses should be strict on employees who abuse access.

The report talks of a wider group of networks than simply the most popular social networking sites and includes company intranet sites and messenger services like Skype. The research found that work specific sites, like LinkedIn, or custom internal systems are more often used for work-related matters but that there are large benefits awaiting companies who use social networking to their advantage.

Managers often have an instinctive reaction to limit access to social networks as they fear their staff will be less productive as a result of using them. However, with proper guidelines communicated effectively to employees, this doesn't necessarily have to be the case. Indeed the use of these networks can bring excellent benefits, such as building closer links with ex-employees and potential customers.

Peter Bradwell from Demos says that encouraging social networking could also boost productivity, innovation and create a more democratic environment. According to the BBC, he said: "In today's difficult business environment, the instinctive reaction can be to batten down the hatches and return to the traditional command-and-control techniques that enable managers to closely monitor and measure productivity.

"Allowing workers to have more freedom and flexibility might seem counter-intuitive, but it appears to create businesses more capable of maintaining stability."

As social media develops and matures, people are realising the real value of the technology. Once the domain of people who play the numbers game - i.e. making as many connections as possible - users are now realising that the quality of those connections is more important when attempting to use the network effectively. This is a trend that will continue in the future as social networks become less of a novelty and more the useful tool they were designed to be. As this happens, forward thinking guidelines are likely to be put into place in larger organisations and paranoia about social networks could ease off.

If you aren't convinced by this, you only need to look as far back as email 10 years ago for an example. Bosses were often overprotective about email access until people got bored of sending and receiving rubbish jokes. These days, email is so normal and everyone is aware of the straightforward guidelines governing usage that it's now rarely an issue.

The Demos report points out that in a world where reputation is everything, businesses have been quick to realise the potential of social networks for communicating with the public and an increasing number of brands are getting involved. Yet, internally, many of the same companies have not yet developed a proper social media strategy and have ignored the vast legion of potential benefits to their business profile.

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