We’ve already shared some stats around companies that choose to  block access to these sites. For example, Robert Half Technology found that 54% of CIOs said their firms do not allow employees to visit social networking sites for any reason while at work.

The naysayers will point out that giving employees access will hurt productivity,  expose sensitive information,  hurt the brand’s reputation or  cause compliance issues. The reality is that these are all just excuses. There are always risks with any decision and in this case businesses have to make their own assessment and then take steps to mitigate that risk.

My request is that you keep an open mind before jumping to a conclusion. To help you along let’s review reasons you WOULD want to open access to social networking sites:

1. They offer a great channel to recruit new talent
2. It is a unique way to build your brand in the eyes of customers and prospects
3. Go where customers are – let them communicate with you on their terms
4. Drive new sales and upgrades
5. Find new prospects
6. Drive traffic to your site
7. Reduce your customer service costs
8. Improve productivity (yes you read this right – look for proof below)
9. Collaborate with partners, customers and employees
10. Increase your reach by tapping the collective networks of your employees. In other words grow your enterprise social graph

But don’t take my word for it. Let’s look at some other research that points to the benefits of opening access.

• According to Dr Brent Coker from the Department of Management and Marketing at University of Melbourne in Australia, workers who engage in “Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing” are 9% more productive than those who don’t.
• An Accenture survey of Millennial preferences found that they prefer to communicate via instant messaging, text messaging, Facebook and RSS feeds. One Millennial MBA, points out that, “I need to access my Facebook in order to do my job.”
• The Cerner Corporation has found tremendous benefits from opening access to social networks. Here is how one Cerner associate puts it “Cerner supports the notion that “work time” and “personal time” have blurred in the uber-connected world. We used Twitter to gather real-time feedback during our corporate town hall in October. It was amazing to see a meeting of 5,000 associates be steered by the crowd, channeled via social media.”

Is there a social media silver bullet? No. But are you missing out on a great opportunity if you don’t engage and don’t enable your employees? Absolutely.

As many companies start to embrace social networking a common first step is to create a Facebook “Fan page” (54% percent of the companies studied have at least one Facebook Fan page according to the Burson-Marsteller study) or a LinkedIn company profile, or even a Twitter handle where the company will post news about the company, special promotions, and so forth. This is a fantastic start! But it is only a start.

Leading computer manufacturer, Dell is a perfect example of fully embracing this initial phase of social network marketing. Dell has several Facebook and Twitter pages, each with a specific goal.  For example, the @DellOutlet Twitter account sends Followers updates around the latest “deals” for Dell Outlet products. Dell has similar Facebook Fan Pages.

In June 2009, Dell reported it had driven $2 Million in sales directly from the aforementioned Twitter account, @DellOutlet. A great achievement for sure, but now think about the reach and impact of activating all of Dell’s employees. They have more connections, reach a wider set of the population and all have unique interests but at least one shared interest – they want Dell to succeed.

Companies that activate their employees will experience a big competitive advantage in the market.  Keep in mind activating is not just about turning on access. It is also about defining a strategy, a policy, educating your employees and then giving them the tools they need to be successful.

Here are a few examples of companies taking steps to activate their employees to drive their business:

• Online retailer Zappos has an employee leaderboard that shows who’s on Twitter and how many followers they have.
• PETCO, the pet retailing chain, used its already passionate and engaged employees use of social networking to build an in-house strategy.
• Telstra, the Australian telecom giant has mandatory Social Media training for all of its employees (Telstra has 40,000 employees!). In the training they stress “responsibility, respect and representation”.
• Best Buy’s Twelpforce is a collective force of Best Buy blue shirts offering technology advice whenever and wherever you need it.
  

Yes, companies are driving revenue through their Fan Pages and Twitter accounts but it is a mere sliver compared to the total impact activated employees are driving on social networks.

Companies in highly regulated industries (such as those regulated by FINRA, SEC, FDA, and so forth) that have blocked access to social networking due to compliance concerns are missing out on a tremendous opportunity.

There are 400 million people on Facebook alone, and that number is rising. Social networking is a channel that must be embraced to maintain a competitive advantage. Whether you are concerned about brand protection or regulatory concerns, implementing a solution to “unlock” social networking for your employees will pay off immensely.

If you were looking for more we’d encourage you to take our Social Networking Risk and Opportunity Assessment. After answering the questions we will provide a detailed analysis for you, generate a specific set of actions and help you prioritize your next steps in engaging with social networks.

Image courtesy of Jason Griffey

Social networking offers an efficient, cost effective, and viral solution for recruiting top-talent. Traditionally, recruiting costs add up fast with associated advertising, agency search firm fees, recruiters…just to name a few.

The Jobvite study offered some great insight into the effectiveness of Social Recruiting:

• 72 percent plan to invest more in recruiting through social networks
• 80 percent of companies are planning to use social networks to find or attract candidates
• 66 percent have successfully hired a candidate identified or introduced through an online social network

The study went on to say, “Among those using or planning to use social network sites for recruiting, LinkedIn use grew from 80 percent in 2008 to 95 percent of respondents in 2009, Facebook use grew from 36 percent in 2008 to 59 percent in 2009 and Twitter, ranked third with 42 percent of recruiters using the tool to source candidates.”

Investing in social networking has enormous benefits and recruiting is just one of them. So tell us, are you using social networks for your recruiting efforts today?

State DOT Social Media Usage:
- 91% use Twitter
- 45% have an active Facebook page
- 64% have a YouTube channel
- 33% offer podcasts
- 45% participate as a member of LinkedIn

The study points out that state DOTs find social media a more efficient way to reach the public with time sensitive traffic and travel information. Survey respondents found Twitter, RSS Feeds, Podcasts and Facebook to be the most effective in reaching their audience.

The Texas Department of Transportation has been one of the DOTs paving the way with social media.  Scanning their Twitter feed (@TxDOT) you can see everything from general news to time sensitive data such as road closures. For example, here is a post they made after the terrible incident with the plane crash in North Austin:

Posted on Twitter:
A small plane crashed into the Echelon Building on Mopac and US 183 around 10 am today. Emergency crews are on the scene. Expect delays. 10:56 AM Feb 18th

One area the report did not focus on was the ability for customers to connect and communicate with their DOT. Most of us would not think to send an email or call our state DOT but commenting on a Facebook status update, retweeting a post or asking a question over this media is very powerful. Here is a great example from TxDOT’s Facebook page.

The other area not touched on is the requirement to comply with public information laws. There is a lot of discussion as to whether or not social media falls under the guidelines of public information. Most compliance officials say it does, as long as the information created is used to conduct of state business. In fact, Wisconsin Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen recently issued an opinion in which he states that electronic communications made by elected officials are public records, even when they are posted on social networking sites. Van Hollen states that the Wisconsin Public Records laws applies whenever the content is connected to the official’s purpose or function.

If you are a government or state agency engaging in social media I would encourage you to investigate this issue more closely. At a minimum start taking advantage of tools available to automate the capture and archival of your social media content.

Junta42

“The creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases. In contrast to traditional marketing methods that aim to increase sales or awareness through interruption techniques, content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action.” – Wikipedia

The report highlights a number of compelling takeaways:
- 6 in 10 marketing professionals plan to increase content marketing spending in 2010
- Small companies are spending more than 2x the amount on content marketing as compared with larger companies
- Content marketing is now 33% of the total marketing budget

While large and small companies alike have seen the benefits of content marketing, it is clear that small companies stand to gain the most. Part of the reason stems from the fact that content marketing is not only more engaging but it is also more cost effective to produce.  So when you see that small companies (<100 employees) are spending 40% of their total marketing budget on content marketing, keep in mind that what they get out of this investment may in fact be larger than where they are spending the other 60% of their budget.

There are over 15 major categories of content products ranging from social media to newsletters to podcasts. Not surprisingly Social Media was the number one ranked product to use as part of your total marketing strategy. While the report didn’t focus on overlap it is also important to realize that successful marketers are combining many of these content types to get the most bang for the buck.

You can see the full report here: 2010 Content Marketing Spending Survey

I won’t analyze every prediction but rather focus on the ones that really caught my eye and will probably surprise most of our readers.

Prediction #1
“By 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users.”

Today MySpace is the 4^th largest email provider beating out both Yahoo and Gmail. And Facebook recently announced a full-fledged email service, which will instantly make it the largest email provider in the world once launched.

“The rigid distinction between e-mail and social networks will erode. E-mail will take on many social attributes, such as contact brokering while social networks will develop richer e-mail capabilities,” said Matt Cain, research vice president at Gartner

My complaint with all the great social tools at my disposal is that they all live on different sites. Will there ever be one site to rule them all? I doubt it. But some are going to get very close. Facebook is going to have all of my friends, my live feeds, my photos, my chat client and soon email.

What will all this mean for your business? If you haven’t embraced social networking you need to start immediately. Otherwise you risk missing out on future sales, productivity improvements and valuable connections that can help drive your business forward.

Prediction #2
“By 2012, over 50 percent of enterprises will use activity streams that include microblogging, but stand-alone enterprise microblogging will have less than 5 percent penetration.”

The growth of Twitter has caused many vendors and enterprises to take notice. As more and more people consume information in 140 character bytes there is a natural desire to bring this capability in house. However, the idea that “Twitter-like” functionality will see the same success is a little mis-guided. A key part of Twitter’s success is the size of their network. With a small, enterprise focused network and the fact that the service will be purely business focused it will be challenging to get employees to adopt the replica vs. just using what they know and love, Twitter.

Prediction #3
“Through 2012, over 70 percent of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail.”

Just as social software is causing the enterprise to reinvent how they work it is also disrupting the way IT departments operate. Business users are testing, using and adopting solutions with or without the help of IT.  The most successful IT groups will be those that partner with the business to better understand their needs and find ways to deliver solutions on their timelines. With so much of today’s software just a few mouse clicks away, all hosted in the cloud and managed off site there is almost no barrier to the business making their own decisions on what is best for them and their business process.

What do you think? Are you surprised by these predictions?

Some of the questions answered in the interview are:

- What is Social Middleware?
- How does it enable or help the Open Government directive?
- Is this something that empowers agencies to adopt Social Networks?
- Is this something that makes these tools more useful?

For answers to these questions and more click the play button below or listen to the interview on the Federal News Radio 1500 site.

Interview description
“As state and local governments move forward using Twitter and Facebook, questions are looming as to how to best use these new social media tools to reach private citizens. Social middleware is being used to help ward off the potential IT risks and compliance issues associated with using social media tools.”

The average user spends 55 minutes each day on Facebook and has an average of 133 friends. They write 25 comments and join 2 fan pages each month. On top of that Facebook users share 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news, blog posts, notes, etc) each week.

All of this adds up to a great opportunity for anyone looking to grow awareness, engagement, word-of-mouth, traffic and sales.

Graphic courtesy of Mashable.

The challenges are very real in these highly regulated environments. Kip Gregory sums it up well “Who could blame any firm operating in a regulated industry for taking a cautious approach in the face of all that? Especially in financial services, which is at its core an industry built around the management of risk. The question is: How do you, as a competitor in this business, choose to respond to a clearly shifting landscape?”

Of course the latest move by FINRA helps ease some of the concerns of these financial firms. With the release of Notice 10-06 they address some of the big questions firms are asking. In addition to this Notice you can also download the Companion Guide to FINRA Social Networking Compliance. And if you are still hungry for more information be sure to check out the play-by-play summary of the February 3^rd FINRA webinar on this topic.

The article then moves on to discuss the “techno-solutions” to solving the social networking compliance problem. They highlight our Risk Manager solution for it’s ability to turn on or off any part of a social network that could cause a compliance issue. In addition, there is discussion around our ability to moderate content before it hits the social sphere as well as providing full capabilities to do a post-review after the fact.

I don’t want to give the entire article away so let me just leave you with a few final thoughts:
- Social networks are here to stay and the firms that find ways of adopting them first will have a big advantage. In fact the article points out that “100 percent of the 48 firms surveyed thought social media was here to stay and 84 percent thought it would have a lasting impact on financial services.”
- You do have to create a social media policy (don’t skip this step) – here is a good place to start (first paragraph)
- Look for ways to institutionalize your policy through social networking compliance solutions.
- Plan for change – the sites change, compliance issues change and the way advisors use these tools will change.

Read the full Research Magazine article here

“75% of companies did not have policies for employee use of social media in place and are opting to “wait and see”.”
Come on folks it’s time to get in the game. Social media is here to stay and if you haven’t started thinking through the strategies of how it can impact your business you are going to be left behind. Earlier this week one of the world’s most successful, AND most conservative, companies sent representative to Socialware and over 50 different companies to better understand strategies around social networking and to bring back ideas to the CEO and the rest of senior management on how to adopt these tools for their company. If they can do it, you definitely can.

“19% of Asia-Pacific employers claimed social networking was a good method for promoting collaboration and communication”
Now we are talking. Collaboration and communication is just one way companies can benefit from the use of social networking sites. You could dedicate an entire blog to this topic. In fact, there are over 42 million results on Google around the topic.

“31% of Australian employers cite social networking as helpful in building their brand.”
Quick, you need to reach 400 million people, what do you do? Superbowl ad maybe? Only if you can afford those cute talking babies from E-Trade. If not you better start looking at social media. Facebook grew by 50 million users in the last 5 months to reach a grand total of 400 million. Throw in Twitter and LinkedIn and that’s another 100 million at least. The point is there is no better way to start a conversation with the people that will care about your brand than on these sites. Find the way that works for you and then go say hello.

“Do not block them. If you’re blocking them, then your younger employees, especially those of Gen Y age, are going to either disengage and fold their arms or just get out their iPhones and BlackBerries and access them on there.”
We’ve all been here before. What happens when you forbid somebody to do something? They want to do it even more. Now with that said I’m not suggesting you open the floodgates. There are very good business reasons why you might not want employees viewing Facebook videos or photos at work. All of that activity can clog the network and rob core business applications from the bandwidth they need. So here is an alternative. Define your social media policy, turn on access, lock down parts of these sites that are off limits and then explain to your employees why. Now you’ve given them access to parts of the site that are the most valuable to your business and you’re protecting the company at the same time.

“Ultimately, businesses have an opportunity to use social media in a way that helps employees feel truly connected to the business.”
This is a good way to sum it up. Social media is here to stay. It is having a measurable impact on businesses. You can manage it on your terms. And it will increase, not decrease productivity (I have a blog post coming on that topic next).

Tweet me when you get started.