Should businesses be blocking social media?

Over the last few months we have seen a spate of news headlines indicating that more companies are blocking the use of social media in the workplace. Is this down to an Orwellian sense of paranoia surrounding new technologies or is there a business rationale behind these decisions?

In a survey out today, 63% of more than 4,000 respondents in 12 countries said that social media in the workplace represents a serious security risk, yet only 29% report having the necessary security controls in place to mitigate it. This theory is backed up by a piece in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, where it is alleged that corporate spies are increasingly likely to use malware and social media to steal sensitive data and intellectual property.

So is the answer to block all use of social media channels in the hope that this will alleviate a new security risk? The answer is emphatically no. Companies that enforce such a policy will do so under the pretence that you’re here to work and keeping in touch with your friends and family is not what we pay you to do, and anyway you’re putting our data at risk, so it’s banned.

The philosophy of blocking doesn’t work on a number of levels. Firstly, the majority of those in their 20s in the workforce would have been educated online and social media is ingrained in their psyche, to prevent them from using it may be seen as a violation of their human rights. Well, probably not, but you get the gist. Secondly, social media is now a proven new business and customer engagement tool, to stop using it would be tantamount to throwing money down the drain. Thirdly, if you ban something, employees will just find a way around the policy and in doing so will probably put sensitive data more at risk.

Finally, it’s a communications channel, in a number of previous blogs I’ve banged the drum that social media is nothing more than this; it’s just another method of conveying thoughts and wisdoms to the outside world, if you put a gagging order in place the outcome can only be negative.

Business needs to move with the times, we do so much online now that organizations need to adapt and look to embrace new ways of working rather than pulling down the blinds and turning off all the lights.

Luddite (noun) any opponent of industrial change or innovation.