November 16, 2009
Facebook and Twitter cost UK business £1.4bn a year
We’ve talked plenty about how to effectively use Facebook and Twitter to effectively market your website. There’s no doubt that as a website owner these social networks offer a fantastic channel to reach out to new website visitors.
But what has been nagging at the back of every business owners’ mind is how much employees using social networking websites are costing them every day.
A survey from IT service provider Morse has tried to answer this question, by polling 1,460 workers on their use of social media during work hours.
The survey found that a whopping 57% of people spend 40 minutes every week on Facebook and Twitter whilst at work. Whilst we website builders want them to be using their social networks to market the company website, in actual fact its all for personal use. The estimated productivity lost from this has been put at £1.4bn a year.
And what are companies doing to plug this leak? The answer is ‘not a lot’. More than 75% of UK businesses have not issued guidelines on social media use.
Quite apart from the work time lost, unregulated use of social media by employees is also a potential brand accident waiting to happen. We’ve all ready about big company employees ridiculing ‘problem’ customers on Facebook, not realising that others could listen in to their conversation.
“Social media can be good for business, helping to extend ties with customers and employees, but organisations don’t seem to understand that it’s not being used predominantly for business but for personal use. This is a massive productivity black hole,” said Philip Wicks, a Morse consultant.
“Companies need to reinforce a corporate usage policy to ensure that people use their PCs responsibly and predominantly for business purposes.”
Do you think that this is another example of corporate Britain trying to stamp on the personal activities of employees? Have you any experience of social media indiscretions when discussing company issues? Leave us a comment below.
If I was an employer, I would have my systems set up so that FB and Twitter were off-limits to employees. No doubt about it.
In the current climate, people who are employed to do a job of work should not have the time or opportunity to update their personal accounts.
As it is, I work for myself and I try to limit the amount of time that I use either platform for social networking - for business and pleasure.
AX
Comment by Alison Cross — November 16, 2009 @ 5:14 pm
I sometimes look across the office here and see that FB is open on some screens. I *try* to make a judgement about whether that person puts in the extra time at other times!
There’s also some quid pro quo in the sense that they do enthuse about WebEden to their networks. Not sure what the Return on Investment is there tho’!
Ken
Comment by admin — November 17, 2009 @ 9:49 am
Interesting topic, hot one and I think will be debated (at least should be) in a very public way for the next 12 - 18 months. It seems to me the way things are being presented is quite black or white. On one hand, pro-social networking people build up the promo benefits. On the other, anti-social networking groups want it off limits as the stats show it to be a productivity drain. Didn’t email suffer the same debate 15 or so years ago?!
Working for a technology company, we’re seeing a big shift in the way IT can be delivered. It’s not all about promotion. Social networking can be used to interact with colleagues and form stronger connections. Take the T-Mobile example, where Facebook helped its graduate intake form social bonds prior to starting with the company, meaning they hit the ground running when they actually met up on day one the programme. Less time was spent getting to know each other as they already had shared social experiences, so things moved more quickly to the business of the graduate programme, and moved in a way that was more effective given their pre-formed social connections.
My point here really is that working is partly about (or at least should be in all but a few cases) interacting with people. And social networking not only assists with this, it can extend the reach. This can help offer more flexible working, can afford cost savings and a whole manner of other benefits.
Also, companies have to think to the future. Gen Y use social networks, not email. Email is comfortable to us Gen X’s and beyond, but really, given the change of technology, is hugely outdated and ineffective for what we use it for. And not as comfortable to Gen Y as twitter, Facebook, etc. If a bright spark has a job offer at a company that embraces social networking and one from a company that doesn’t where do you think they’ll end up? To my mind, if you want to attract the talent in the future, you need to prepare now.
Of course there will be people that abuse the system. They key is policy and implementation of proper use of social networking tools that is driven from the top and engrained within the company culture.
In my opinion, companies that make it off limits will ultimately suffer in terms of remaining competitive in the future, likewise will those that just let social networking use run riot with no guidelines. But that’s just my opinion. Always happy to debate!
Comment by Sheldon W — November 17, 2009 @ 10:04 am
Sheldon - of course it’s not black and white, you’re absolutely right. If your company is IT then it will probably be savvy enough to have clear guidelines about what is permitted (chat with colleagues for example) and what is not.
I am exceptionally keen on using social networking for business purposes and as long as the employees WERE using it for business purposes, 40 minutes a week is ok.
However, if people are using social networking for, for example, playing scrabble, sending hugs (ie of a personal nature) during business time - in much the same way as someone might pop their feet on a desk and start reading a newspaper - then that is a misuse of company resources.
Reading a trade magazine during company time? That would be acceptable, as long as more highly-prioritised work items were languishing in the in-tray.
I absolutely applaud companies who have a Twitter presence and attempt to soothe disgruntled punters via public tweets or promote their goods and services - it is a great way forward into new territory.
The key is, I think, to recognise that social networking is here to stay. Then discuss with staff what is/is not acceptable during company hours and build it into a constantly evolving social networking policy.
Ali x
Comment by Alison Cross — November 17, 2009 @ 10:58 am
oops - a Homer Simpson moment for me! That should have been ‘highly prioritised items NOT languishing in the in tray’ *doh*
AX
Comment by Alison Cross — November 17, 2009 @ 11:00 am
I think they’re the key points - social networking is here to stay and the right communication, leadership and policy for a particular business could (indeed should) lead to more agile, more effective and more competitive business practices.
And we haven’t even started on Google Wave yet!
Comment by Sheldon W — November 17, 2009 @ 12:22 pm
If only WebEden had even a fraction of the time spent writing blogs / twitters / etc and attended to users queries and log in issues, I might not feel so frustrated. Despite paying for my website, I am unable to amend or use it properly. Does anyone else also have these issues?
Comment by Wanda — November 24, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
Hi Wanda,
So sorry your experience is so poor. I don’t work in tech support but can you share your problem with me and I will look into it?
My email is ken@webeden.net
Ken
Comment by admin — November 25, 2009 @ 9:29 am