By Tim Ferguson, 8 August 2008 12:35
NEWS
Companies shouldn't ban staff from using social applications such as Facebook and MySpace because of concerns about how they might be used.
Instead businesses should view employee participation as part of the "social experience" and develop policies to make sure they're used responsibly.
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A is for ADSL
B is for BT
C is for Cable & Wireless
D is for Dial-up
E is for Education
F is for Fibre
G is for Goonhilly
H is for HSDPA
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J is for Janet
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N is for Next generation
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R is for Remote working
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V is for VoIP
W is for WiMax
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Y is for YouTube
Z is for Zombies
That's according to analyst Gartner, which says businesses should be able to identify both opportunities and risks if they can understand the characteristics of social communities.
These "social applications" also include open source communities, professional networks - such as LinkedIn - and internal employee networks.
Gartner analyst, Anthony Bradley, said companies need to understand the trust models and reasons for user participation when making the policies around social apps.
Potential areas of concern for businesses include copyright infringement, inappropriate use of brands and general misbehaviour.
To counter these, Gartner advises that employees should be made aware that if their profiles identify their employer, their postings could have an impact on the company's reputation.
Gartner also suggests it's important not to focus on restrictions and controls as this would lose sight of what social networks are about.
Gartner analyst, Nikos Drakos, said an appropriate balance between freedom and control is "crucial to community growth and maintenance, and must be tuned continuously".
Drakos added that policies should be carefully vetted by the company's public relations, marketing and legal departments.
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. John Rutter
Are they serious?
Have Gartner actually looked at how frivolous and non-work-related the vast (99.9999%) of activity on Facebook would be?
Some 'social networking' is definitely a good thing for both companies and employees, but I find it hard to believe that this group of analysts (collective noun, anyone?) are telling companies to go ahead and let their staff use any and all such sites.
2. Cassandra
I agree with John on the Frivolity of Facebook content - But there is a need for the use and access of Blogs as these offer opportunities for on-line collaboration and networks of interest.
3. Dave Rees
I've just been reading an article about how insecure these sites are. How can Gartner possibly justify recommending them!!!!!
4. bharatgoyal
I think Gartner analyst here only wants to maintain a social support for the employee in his workplace. Just as he said, certainly there are pros and cons. He must have analysed things on emotional grounds. If a 5 min peek at personal email makes an employee works for next 50 minutes in peace then i would also push organisations to boost up safety measures that allow people to indulge socially in office too.
This can decrease attrition, increase employee satisfaction and productivity.
Just hope employees are disciplined enough or let targets be stringent enough to not let employees rave much on social sites.
5. Bryan Balfe
Social Networks such as Facebook and MySpace are exactly that - Social!
LinkedIn and Plaxo on the other hand are business tools.
I fundamentally disagree with the Gartner analysis here, as it even contradicts itself.
My two cents....