How to Control Social Media at Work
Social Media has started becoming a part of life for many people. What started off as cool website like Myspace, where kids would hang out and leave each other rude notes, has now multiplied into a bunch of sites. Besides Myspace, there is Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, FriendFeed, and many more. They all have a different focus. They all have different effects. They all eat up time.
In my work as a computer tech, I often get asked if I can block some of the social media websites. Bosses will often walk in on an employee who is checking out a profile rather than doing work. This is understandably irritating to business owners. Being that I’m a hired gun, I block the sites as requested. Yet, I find myself ambivalent on the matter.
On the one hand, I do see that business owners want their employees to focus on getting work done. Anybody wants to get the greatest return on their investment. It is good business sense. An employee spending time doing things other than what is in their job description is a misused resource.
On the other hand, I often see it as a missed opportunity. With the proper training, you can have that employee on their Myspace or Facebook account promoting your business and even bringing in new clients. It’s just like parenting, if you make it a job, then it stops being fun. As a matter of fact, a resourceful boss would join the same sites and add their employees as friends to monitor their use of social media during business hours.
I figure one of two things would happen. The employee might cease visiting the social media sites during business hours if he or she knows the boss is watching; or, the employee might take the ball and run with it. In the first instance, this would save wasted company time. In the second instance, it could bring in more business for the company. Either way the business wins. Of course, we could always fall back on the computer tech by asking him to block the sites.
Thank you for reading Contempo Magazine blog with Shaine Mata who writes about politics, technology, and social media for McAllen, the Rio Grande Valley, Texas and America. He is a co-founder of Advantj Media Consortium
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