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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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South Carolina’s social media policy is wrong. Here’s why.

South Carolina’s social media policy is wrong. Here’s why.

South Carolina bans social media use on state devicesI would have missed the news out of South Carolina if not for a podcast. I learned that the state has a new policy forbidding employees from using social media on official devices from Tom Webster and Mark Schaefer, who talked about it on their Marketing Companion show. (It’s a terrific show. Listen to it.)

I disagree with Tom and Mark’s conclusion, though. The policy is just fine, they said. After all, those who need to use social media for work can do so (with permission), and the rule applies only to state-owned devices; employees are free to use their own devices on their own time, even at lunch.

Sounds reasonable, right? “What you do on your lunch break…on your phone, no one is trying to curb that conduct,” said Holly Pisarik, chairwoman of the task force that crafted a revised employee code of conduct. “The rule is really just meant to set the parameters for using state resources and non-state resources.” What could be wrong with that?

Nothing, if it were 2005.

In 2015, we are navigating our way into the era of social business, in which networks of people create value for organizations and their stakeholders. Social software is becoming as common and efficient a set of workplace tools as email. (Some of us have been around long enough to remember when email was new, and the same misperceptions about its place in the enterprise hampered its adoption. Today, it’s hard to move companies from inefficient email to more useful social software.)

No longer is social media just about media. It’s about collaboration, problem-solving, information discovery. The McKinsey Global Institute has found that employees who use social software improve productivity by as much as 25%, mostly because of the time saved solving problems, answering questions, and finding information. With citizens concerned about government waste, the amount of time spent searching for information an employee needs to complete a task represents an opportunity for institutions willing to grab it.

State employees on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and other networks could, for example…

  • Promote state initiatives to their networks, especially if the state embraced employees as ambassadors for the state and advocates for its initiatives (The Edelman Trust Barometer reinforces annually the notion that internal subject matter experts and front-line employees are the most credible spokespersons for organizations, even governments)
  • Respond to posts questioning state activities about which they are qualified to talk, or direct them to resources that can answer their questions, when those issues arise within their communities
  • Forward posts and updates they see that could lead to solutions to citizen problems; if one of your friends posts about a pothole nobody has repaired, sending that to the road maintenance department could lead to action along with a satisfied citizen who offers an unsolicited third-party testimonial to the efficiency of the state
  • Build networks of other state workers who can be a resource to one another (I’m reminded of retired hospital CEO Paul Levy’s response to the idea of blocking social media: ” limiting people’s access to social media in the workplace will mainly inhibit the growth of community and discourage useful information sharing. It also creates a generational gap, in that Facebook, in particular, is often the medium of choice for people of a certain age. I often get many useful suggestions from staff in their 20’s and 30’s who tend not to use email.” That response was published in 2009!)

And that’s just off the top of my head. We haven’t even touched on the fact that banning employees from using social media sends a message of mistrust, which is an engagement killer, or that employees talking openly (and prudently) about their work can raise confidence in the state and demonstrate a commitment to transparency.

Banning the use of social media isn’t the answer. Requiring permission for those who have a valid use of social media is misguided; in today’s work environment, every employee has a legitimate work-related use of social media. In fact, the Society for New Communication Reserach found in a study a few years back that virtually all knowledge and information workers visit social networks daily in order to do their jobs.

It’s also worth considering that, according to Altimeter Group research, the one of the most common characteristics of organizations experiencing social media-initiated crises is employees who are untrained. South Carolina would be far better served training its employees in the appropriate use of these channels than restricting their use of them.

Tom and Mark are right: These are the state’s computers and phones and they can make any rules they like. Even ones that hamper employees’ ability to engage and communicate in the social business era. It’s their decision to make. It’s just not the right one

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