Social Media In The Work Place
Banning Social Media In The Work Place Is Just Stupid!
As a President of a company with a growing staff, the topic does come up where we have had to look at the impact of Social Media in our work environment. The fear that many have is that it will cut into productivity or that something may be said that could be damaging to the brand. Real concerns, to be sure.
I did think about how I wanted to deal with it within the Blenz organization. The answer really came pretty quickly when I took a long hard look at the kind of place where I would want to work. I really like the team I get to work with every day – you build a natural trust when you see them put in the effort day in and day out, so why not trust them with how they spend their time?
I imagined having a “meeting with myself” where I would try and inform me that we are going through some amazing and complicated technical feat that would be required block all major social media platforms from our network. How does that make me feel? Clearly, it sucks.
So, the real answer was to let them do whatever they were going to do, but do it for the company. We at Blenz are real proponents of social media as a way to build real and genuine connections with our customer. We are active on Twitter, Facebook, Dot Tel ( .tel ), Foursquare, Youtube, Flickr, and Myspace, and we have a blog, and the list continues to grow. And Wow!, has that activity been a boost to our brand! Heck, I am having a blast, and as President, I get to connect directly with people. It does not get better than that.
Keep in mind that our world is changing, and how we interact with each other is changing also. Every member of my team has a smartphone, so if for any reason they cannot do it on the computer, they are going to connect on their phones. Just watch your own family or the young folks within our world. Trying to stem that tide is, well, just a real waste of your time.
Speaking for myself, I want to challange people to think and grow. Give them total access to information; engage with them in the conversation; and ask yourself if you want to be told how to think. I know where I stand on that one!
George Moen proudly describes himself as a Serial Entrepreneur. With more than 30 years of experience in food and franchising, he specializes in transitioning small businesses into big business success stories.