Social Media and Employee Protocol

Ever wonder how competitors are policing employees’ engagement of social networking sites? According to a survey by Robert Half Technologies, 54% of companies surveyed completely prohibit employees from visiting social networking sites.

• Prohibited completely        54%
• Permitted for business purposes only  19%
• Permitted for limited personal use  16%
• Permitted for any type of personal use 10%
• Don’t know/no answer 1%

Important Tips from Robert Half Technologies:

• Know what’s allowed. Make sure you understand and adhere to your company’s social networking policy.
• Use caution. Be familiar with each site’s privacy settings to ensure personal details or photos you post can be viewed only by people you choose.
• Keep it professional. Use social networking sites while at work to make connections with others in your field or follow industry news — not to catch up with family or friends.
• Stay positive. Avoid complaining about your manager and coworkers. Once you’ve hit submit or send, you can’t always take back your words — and there’s a chance they could be read by the very people you’re criticizing.
• Polish your image. Tweet or blog about a topic related to your profession. You’ll build a reputation as a subject matter expert, which could help you advance in your career.
• Monitor yourself. Even if your employer has a liberal policy about social networking, limit the time you spend checking your Facebook page or reading other people’s tweets to avoid a productivity drain.

Depending on the industry, there are huge advantages in having your staff listening or providing content on social networking websites. For most, it can be very distracting. How many of you social networking maniacs have gotten caught up in Facebook or on Twitter with the best of intentions only to realize you just wasted 3 hours?

Of course, I’ve never done that:)