Social Networking and Business

I was "off-the-grid" and on-the-beach last week, so I'm still getting caught up after a great vacation on Cape Cod.  As I get back into the groove of blogging on the most current of topics and items in the news, I thought it would be appropriate to first make a note of an item that was buried in my inbox from last week.  It's worth calling out because it fits perfectly with the focus of this blog.  And since last week was a big vacation week for so many people, some of you may have missed this anyway.

Last week, InfoWorld published its "commandments" for business social networking.  There are several key takeaways for me, as it relates to my own use of social networks as well as how I would advise clients to use them:

1. The article touches on the tussle going inside companies between the new generation of professionals that expect to be able to use Facebook and Twitter at work, and IT departments that block them because they have the wrong impression of how they can be used.  Based upon how my own network uses Facebook and Twitter, there's growing evidence for me that people are figuring out how to balance how they present their personal lives in a way that can help them professionally.
2. There were some great questions posed in the article about considerations not only in how to use social networks for personal and professional purposes, but also who to "friend" or "follow."  Many of these were aligned with my own views, but there were some others that gave me additional perspective, such as "What happens if your workplace concludes that your network is its asset?"
3. Employers put employees at a disadvantage by blocking access to social networks.  Despite the fact that I lead our social media practice, I'm not afraid to say that I don't know everything about social media since it is so new.  So much of what I've learned, and am learning about every day, come from tweets from my network, RSS feeds from some very smart social media experts and FriendFeed conversations with others in my network.  Access to outside knowledge and expertise that comes through social networking only helps me and our clients.
4. There is a forthcoming book called "Relationship Economics."  As an economics major, this intrigued me and led me to the blog of the author, David Nour.  The article quotes David, who says that "any involvement in social networking needs to be consistent and congruent with your company's focus and reputation."

Now, to continue cleaning out my inbox and catching up with my tweets.  I heard Apple shipped a new product last week...

Comments

[Travis Van]

Speaking of tweets, people need to understand that tweets are searchable (http://search.twitter.com/) and that their "casual comments" are permanent footprints. When I do a twitter search on some of my old PR colleagues, I see this flood of (often silly and unprofessional) comments about their daily work happenings. The tweets, of course, are silly because the platform itself is casual / irreverant. But my point is that when you look at the aggregates of someone's tweets (via the search, which is getting increasingly sophisticated via their Summize acquisition) it can make the person who tweeted them look sort of whimsical and ditsy. Not to mention be a poor reflection on the client(s) they may be mentioning in passing. Twitter apparently gives a lot of value / amusement to a lot of people (myself not included; I tried it out early days and found zero utility). But people need to get that while they are lured into casually talking about anything top-of-mind, those comments don't just get buried ... they get archived and are search-able. Organizations should possibly be spending less time blocking people from using these types of services, and spend more time outlining the types of behaviors within those services that they view as acceptable / not-acceptable. Because right now a lot of PR folks are just yammering away willy-nilly about their clients, what they think about x- reporter or y- analyst ... and some of this stuff that's said off-the-cuff could be potentially damaging to both employee and employer if there are is no expectation of quality control on that content.

[Ted Weismann]

Travis - Good comment. Thanks. I agree that the nature of tweets when used in a professional capacity should be thought about carefully. I, for one, don't feel the need to answer Twitter's prompt, "What are you doing?" literally, as so many people do.

[David Nour]

I'm actually trying to add value with my tweet postings - interesting articles, engaging websites, unique perspectives. We'll see if it pays off in creating any kind of an intelligent dialogue. I can tell you that asking engaging questions have not worked - maybe it's the people I'm following, or those who are following me. What does that say about you, anyway?

David Nour
Author, Relationship Economics (Wiley, 2008)