Rejoice! Employee use of social networks has tripled!

Palo Alto Networks is out with its annual numbers on employee work time spent on social networks. The company’s conclusions are based on analyzing raw data from 1,600-plus companies for a seven-month period last year. Their press release on the study confirms something we already suspected: “explosive growth in global social networking and browser-based file sharing on corporate networks, with a 300 percent increase in active social networking. (e.g., posting, applications) compared with activity during the same period in the latter half of 2010.”

The press release quotes the company’s CMO, René Bonvanie, saying “Whether or not… Read More »

Less is more? Sometimes less is just less

Concerns that social media has reached a saturation point is leading to calls to scale back social media efforts. Writing last month in the Hospital Impact blog, Jean Riggle cited Forrester CEO George Colony’s argument that “social networking consumes more time than going to church, communicating by phone, email and snail mail, and exercising” to suggest hospitals trim back their efforts.

Excessive status updating can descend into a noise, Riggle argues, asserting that less can be more. She points to an Adage article in which Michael Scissons suggests the 22% decline in engagement on the Facebook walls of leading brands can be… Read More »

My common-sense approach to managing the glut of social channels

A lot of hype accompanied the launch of Unthink. Most major news outlets carried the story of a decently-funded social network launching with the intention of being the iconoclast on the block, the one network that ensured your data was always your own. Unthink not only put Facebook in its sights, but Google+, too.

I asked around and found few people who have bothered signing up. Heather Vana told me she signed up, tried to find some easy-to-follow written instructions, couldn’t, and left. Then there’s Jason Hodgert who, when I asked if this was one social network too many, replied, “One???”

A report published today notes that 100,000… Read More »

Gallup study: Exploding social media myths or blinding flashes of the obvious?

The research company Gallup claims that a recent study debunks three social media myths. When Gallup, a trusted name in reserach, announces “groundbreaking new insights into how people interact with social media and into its effectiveness as a marketing tool,” you’re inclined to pay attention.

But while the results are interesting, I wouldn’t make any decisions about how to use social media based on them, particularly since the “myths” Gallup claims its research refutes aren’t myths at all. All of Gallup’s conclusions are givens that we have accepted as fact since the dawn of social media.

Non-myth #1

The first of these non-myths is… Read More »

PR and communications implications of Google+ (and other observations)

Google+ has been dominating the online conversation cycle with discussions analyzing the pros and cons, debating Google+‘s chances of unseating Facebook at the social network, explaining how to use it (there’s already a list of tutorials, and speculating about its future.

It even occupied about half of yesterday’s episode of FIR.

For those unclear on Google+, it’s the new social network Google has cobbled together from a variety of the technologies it has developed over the last several years. That’s not a criticism; Google has done a masterful job of weaving these technologies into a well-integrated network that bears some… Read More »

Another study distorts the cost of employee social networking

Shame on CBS Radio News.

On its June 23 6 p.m. (EDT) top-of-the-hour newscast, CBS reported on the results of a study that indicate Facebook and other social networking sites are costing companies lost worker productivity.

I dashed home to find the source of the report. What I found was a month-old study that focused on all manner of workplace distractions. In fact, email processing and switching windows to complete tasks both ranked higher as sources of distraction (33%) than social media activities (20%).

Yet CBS didn’t bother to point this out, which undoubtedly led hundreds of business leaders to contact their IT departments to… Read More »

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