IT Governance Blog on IT governance, risk management, compliance and information security.

You are one of two people when it comes to social media in the work place; either you think it is the greatest thing since sliced bread, or you see it as the bane of your life.

If you feel the latter, then you are lacking an effective and fair governance structure around social media in the work place. A social media policy can help you develop, implement, monitor and improve social media activities across your organisation.

So what are the benefits of having such a policy?

1. You will attract a wider selection of people to work for you. Research from Hyphen indicates that almost half of those under 25 would not join a company with strict social media policies (Source: Support World Magazine).
2. It’s a great way to talk to your customers. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook allow you to connect with your customers in real-time and to quickly share information such as products and services. It gives you the chance to gather “real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and influential people”. Source: Twitter
3. Promotes your brand. With over 845 million monthly active users (Dec 2011) on Facebook, and 100 million active users on Twitter, social media gives you the chance to build a strong following, promoting your brand and making yourselves known.
4. Reach out to a wider audience. Social media is now another channel to reach people. Either through friend recommendations (likes, retweets) or by joining the same group such as on Linkedin, social media is an unconventional approach to uniting company and customer.
5. Employees know their boundaries. A social media policy will ensure that employees know the rules surrounding this medium. Clear guidelines will make sure that both parties (management and staff) are aware of boundaries. Questions such as: how much time can they spend on it, what can they talk about and who they can talk to will all be answered.

This is a fair way of dealing with social media in the work place, but in a positive and productive manner.

Let’s face it, social media is one of the busiest and influential channels out there at the moment and you’d be a fool to ignore it.  Take a fair and reasonable approach towards social media with the Social Media Governance Toolkit. This useful tool will help you create a social media strategy, whilst managing the risks and monitoring the outcomes.

Dealing effectively with social media requires a joined-up approach that is aligned with the objectives and risk appetite of the business – a governance approach.

Trial the Social Media Governance Toolkit today >>

Labour MP Tom Watson suffered an embarrassing spate of affairs on Twitter yesterday afternoon, when his intern logged in as him and made an offensive comment.

The intern quickly apologised but the damage was already done. Tom came back from his meeting to find an explosion of retweets from his intern’s ‘offensive’ tweet. Tom made an apology on behalf of her, saying “I sincerely apologise for the recent tweet. A lesson learned for a young intern. She’s also very sorry. I will deal with the matter offline.”

This quickly led to ‘Tom Watson’ and ‘#SavetheIntern’ trending nationwide in the UK. This just goes to show that a few words written by the wrong person can go a LONG way.

No real harm was done, but ask yourself this question: Has this damaged Tom’s reputation?

It may have not damaged his reputation, but it has certainly dented it. He may have gained a few extra followers after the incident happened, but his credibility has certainly gone downhill. People won’t recognise him as an MP, but as the one who had an embarrassing spate of affairs on Twitter.

Many individuals and companies use Twitter to promote themselves or their brand. It’s an easy way to talk to people/customers, to gain followers and increase your persona and credibility. However, social media in the wrong hands can have a disastrous effect (as seen above). Words can be taken out of context and all credibility can be lost within a few minutes. On Twitter especially, news travels like wildfire with people finding out stories in real time, meaning that you have no power at all to take back what you last said or reverse the context.

There should be policies in place within your organisation that create an effective governance structure around your social media activities. The Social Media Governance Toolkit contains a comprehensive suite of documents and templates that will help you develop, implement, monitor and improve social media activities across your organisation. Uniquely, this social media governance toolkit also links to the best practice information security controls contained in ISO/IEC 27001 so you can be sure that all best practices by your employees will be followed.

Find out more about the Social Media Governance Toolkit >>

“Organisations that don’t allow staff  access to social networking websites risk alienating the next generation of workers”
Support World Magazine

Research from Hyphen indicates that almost half of those under 25 would not join a company with strict social media policies. The report highlights the fact that young workers starting out on the career ladder have high expectations regarding technology and social media, 60% of which recognise social networking sites such as Linkedin improve their effectiveness.

Some managers believe that staff waste their time on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and view it as a dangerous distraction. However, the Hyphen report contradicts this popular belief, concluding that over half of all those polled who have access to social media  at work, said that they spend less than 10 minutes per day on it for their personal use, and 1/3 saying they spend no at all time during work hours.

Those service desk managers who don’t allow their team to use social media could be missing a trick. Nowadays, customers often relay feedback of the company/service desk using social media. If you have a presence on social media then you are more likely to measure customer satisfaction. In SDI’s recent ‘UK Service Desk Benchmarking Report’, Daniel Wood (author) found that 17% of respondents  did not measure customer satisfaction. This is alarming, given that many service desks measure their success due to feedback and perceptions from their customers. Using social media as a tool to gain customer feedback is a great way of getting responsive answers.

Use social media in your service desk team to your advantage with the Social Media Governance toolkit. The Social Media Toolkit helps organisations create an effective governance structure around their social media activities. Social media is, for many organisations, a critical part of how they speak to customers, partners and stakeholders; for others, social media is a dangerous distraction.

Dealing effectively with social media requires a joined-up approach that is aligned with the objectives and risk appetite of the business - a governance approach.

See the advantages social media can bring with this toolkit >>

 Source: Hyphen report, via Support World Magazine

Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter & YouTube – these are the world’s most popular sites for people to share information, socialise and just hang out together, electronically. Blogging, Instant Messaging and Skype all play a significant role in enabling people to keep in touch with one another, wherever they are in the world.

What individuals do at home, they would like to do at work. But how should organisations regulate and manage the use, by their staff, of social media during work hours? And what sort of risks do organisations face, in terms of potential data loss, unregulated communication of confidential information, and work time?

The other part of the challenge is this: how should social media be used as part of a corporate communication and marketing strategy? How should the talents and credibility of individuals within the organisation be harnessed to position the organisation and its products or services in the best possible light? How should the organisation respond to criticism of it, whether on blogs or in a LinkedIn group?

	Social Media Governance Toolkit Comprehensive Suite of Documents and Tools for Social Media Governance. RRP: £199.95 Price: £149.95 You Save: £50.00

Now that employees are using their PC at work for personal reasons, and their computers at home for work purposes, the boundary between the home and the workplace is becoming less clearly defined. Without adequate precautions, this may result in a gap in your information security defences. Data breaches cause reputational damage, and malware problems are expensive to resolve, so you need to protect your organisation from Web 2.0 risks.

This weekend we’ve gathered a selection of ‘How To’ eBooks on information security. These essential publications are available in the eBook format so you can download them instantly for quick reference guides.

How to Use Web 2.0 and Social Networking Sites Securely provides recommendations for organisations that will help them ensure that their employees are using Web 2.0 sites in a secure manner, and that their personal and confidential corporate data is protected.

Protect yourself and your organisation from risks by ordering this pocket guide today Buy now >>

How to Use Web 2.0 and Social Networking Sites Securely Our Price: Rs. 246.77 At its simplest, Web 2.0 is the term used to describe the second generation of web technologies, including social networking sites, blogs and wikis, all of which enable the Web to be used in a different, more interactive way than before. These technologies also enable users to connect with a very large number of people in a short period of time at low cost.

Protect yourself and your organisation from risks by ordering this pocket guide today! Buy now >>

More to explore…

Mobile Security: A Pocket Guide Our Price: Rs. 246.77

E-mail Security: A Pocket Guide Our Price: Rs. 246.77

Threat 2.0: Security and compliance for Web 2.0 sites Our Price: Rs. 246.77

Well, according to Vitrue’s study, your employees will most likely be on Facebook, or other social media sites.

The study, conducted by  social media management company (Vitrue) found that 3pm was the most popular time for people to visit social media  sites such as Facebook.

This should be a real concern for employers. Most employees take their lunch break between the times of 1-2, which means they’re ineffectively taking another break mid afternoon, costing you time and money.

So why not develop a social media strategy for your company? You can develop policies, asign roles, manage risks and monitor the results of having a social media strategy for your employees.

The Social Media Governance Toolkit will help you deal effectively with social media that is aligned with the objectives and risk appetite of the business – a governance approach.

Download the Social Media Governance Toolkit >>

One third of firms have banned social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter at work because of fears of suffering a data breach.

Security firm Clearswift conducted the report on UK companies this year , showing that over half of all managers (53%) now identify social media as an area of concern within their business.

Detrimental data breaches suffered this year (such as Sony and Epsilon) have made other UK companies nervous about their own security.

When restricting employees with social media, it is very easy to take a heavy handed approach. Manager of Stonesoft, Ash Patel,  warned that strict policies were necessary to protect confidential company information, but it is important not to demoralise staff using such a tough approach. There is a very thin line between the two.

However, cracking down on social media can also have a negative effect to how an organisation works and operates. Many businesses use social media to ‘speak’ to their customers, so clamping down on how you use social media in the workplace can have an adverse effect.

It is important to govern social media in the approproate way. The Social Media Governance Toolkit contains a comprehensive suite of documents and templates that will help you develop, implement, monitor and improve social media activities across your organisation. It will help you identify appropriate objectives, assign roles and responsibilities and reduce risks, whilst integrating social media into marketing, communication and positioning strategies.

Download the Social Media Governance toolkit >>