DMN3 Blog

2010 is expected to be a record setting year for social media marketing. Do you really understand the other side of social media? If not, you could be in for a rude awakening…

When it comes to online behaviors, your employees’ private and personal lives are now intertwined. The biggest evidence of that is the profile information, thoughts and files uploaded to social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. While no one doubts the benefits of these sites to their users, for businesses they are a double-edged sword. Here’s why…

Think about the following data and your workforce ¹

• 55% of employees visit social networking sites at least once a week
• 74% of employees say it’s easy to damage a company’s reputation on social media
• 15% of employees would comment online if their employer did something with which they didn’t agree
• 53% of employee respondents say their social networking pages are none of their employers’ business
• 27% don’t consider the ethical consequences of posting comments, photos, videos, etc. online
• 37% don’t consider what their boss or colleagues would think
• 34% don’t consider what their clients would think
• 49% said a company policy would not change how they behave online

A national fast-food chain had to respond to a video, spreading rapidly online (viral), showing an employee picking his nose and placing the result in the food he's preparing. You may remember this happened to Domino’s Pizza last April.

If that’s not enough, there are also potential IT consequences for your organization. Consider this…²

• 66% of IT system administrators think that their employees’ activity on social networking sites could endanger security at their company
• One quarter of all businesses have been the victim of spam, phishing or malware attacks via sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace

Organizations should be moving to address these risks. Most organizations that do have policies in place regarding social media sites have them to address worker productivity issues.

Does your organization have programs in place to monitor and mitigate the potential reputational and security risks related to social networking? If not, you are putting your organization at risk. If you don’t believe me, just ask Domino’s Pizza!

¹ Deloitte LLP’s 2009 Ethics and Workplace Survey

² Sophos online poll, 709 respondents, February 2009. http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2009/04/social-networking.html