Perspective: Can social networking co-exist with the workplace?

With Facebook and MySpace.com participation growing by leaps and bounds, social-networking sites are making their way into the workplace too.

Is that a good thing? Not necessarily if you ask the employers who regularly block employee access to such sites.

Indeed, a recent analysis of data submitted by thousands of Barracuda Networks' Web Filter customers finds that about half the businesses using these filters are setting up blocks to MySpace, Facebook, and other such sites. Barracuda also reported that 21 percent of the businesses it surveyed actively monitor their employees' Internet activities.

At first blush that may sound like a corporate version of Big Brother, but employers do have legitimate reasons to worry.

Their chief concern is the potential damage from viruses or spyware, according to Barracuda. They cited the potential drain on employee productivity as a close second. What's more, employers will tell you that bandwidth issues and potential liability exposure are also convincing reasons to restrict certain Internet access by employees.

Nevertheless, businesses may learn eventually that the types of powerful communication tools now available for personal purposes on social-networking sites can be leveraged for perfectly appropriate and advantageous business uses. In fact, a number of business professionals already are communicating with one another on LinkedIn.com, a business-oriented social-networking site.

The challenge for employers is to find a way to defend against intrusions while fostering employee productivity. They want to limit potential liability even while offering the use of the most robust communication tools possible.

Hence the dilemma.

But this dilemma, over time, likely will be resolved. Once upon a time, businesses to some extent were very worried about any sort of Web access for employees. They feared that the hired help would spend the day surfing inappropriate sites, shopping online, and otherwise wasting company time--not to mention potentially leaking proprietary company information.

However, it is a fact of business life that companies that deploy the best and most effective means of communication will succeed. Thus, over time, companies have developed business equipment and computer policies. These policies specifically delineate for employees how they should--and should not--use the company's computers, networks, and e-mail. Employees are also asked to sign documents agreeing to follow such policies.

There have been problems, of course. Not every employee who has signed such an agreement has acted in concert with the company's Internet policies. Still, there is no question that companies that have embraced the Internet have benefited over those that have ignored the changes overtaking the business world.

Social-networking sites truly do provide robust features that provide a richer means of online communications. Rather than ban employees from using the medium, managers should think ahead how to turn it to their advantage. Careful thought should be given when considering the use of any networking features that could be detrimental to an enterprise. From there, policies can be crafted on a company-by-company basis to guide employees and gain their buy-in.

Yes, legal counsel likely should be consulted along the way too. While this imposes some costs on the front end, the profitable proof will be in the pudding. Any company built to last will recognize this is an investment in its future.

Biography
Eric J. Sinrod is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris. His focus includes information technology and intellectual-property disputes. To receive his weekly columns, send an e-mail to [e-mail] with "Subscribe" in the subject line. This column is prepared and published for informational purposes only, and it should not be construed as legal advice. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author's law firm or its individual partners.

More Perspectives

[thedreaming]

Internet Access in the workplace

Internet access at work is restricted but still usable. Pretty much anything fun is filtered out so no youtube, myspace, facebook, etc.

You can still get your job done and have a little fun bidding on things on ebay!

PS. I have no problem reaching cnet from work! 8)

[kaobert]

Telephones were feared as well!

Social networking can and will exist within the workplace. It is just a matter of employers in our society overcoming a fear of the unknown by accepting and learning how to use new tools in appropriate ways. It is true that social networking grew out of college campuses and was first accepted by students, but it is no longer 'just for kids' anymore and is moving into the workplace. As the CEO of an Ohio public relations firm, I encourage all employees to use and learn social networking sites because we believe they are becoming valuable avenues for our clients to build relationships and protect reputations. Having said that, our team knows that they aren't being paid to chat online with their friends all day, but rather to explore how groups, causes and applications can be used to help clients. This is no different than understanding that a telephone is a business tool which can also be abused if one spends all day on personal calls. Those who learn to appropriately use new tools will soon be well ahead of the game than other organizations that fear and don't understand them. My two cents!

[oregonnerd]

judgments and set theory as applies to economics and social networking

The truly fascinating thing to me about the Internet is the amount of intellectual content intuitively available through pattern analysis--that, and the kinds of social agencies that are making decisions which at one time were deemed moral. An economic system is ideally generic in valuation, which means that it's variable, and a source of information which can be valued by criteria once applicable only to "truth". Social functions have mutated quite interestingly and on the whole quite consistently.
--Glenn

[clinecorp]

All data is not equal.

Helpful to this story would be what sort of organizations the Internet data was derived from. There are certain industries like many of the trades that may not benefit from social networking so it becomes a distraction.

However, service organizations that thrive on threads of relationships need to consider the cost of shutting down such potential prematurely.

I did the same thing by shutting out Myspace for a couple years as my wife found many of her old friends.

Well, that eventually changed for me both personally and professionally.

More here:
http://www.enthusiastinc.com/blog/linkedin-or-lockedout/

[basraw]

I thought myspace topped out a few years ago?

It's not growing anymore or did that change?

[Stan_Timek]

Social Networking works inside business

My company sells a software product that has a social networking component built into it. The overall purpose of the program is to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing within an organization.

Our clients are benefiting from the efficiencies social networking brings to their employees. This isn't something that's unique to us either, we've seem other SN software deployed in corporate America that has been beneficial to their users.

Social Networking may have started in the public space but it is now making money in the world of business.