31% of Companies block employee use of Social Media at work

a2miller    October 6, 2012

The rise of Social Media over the past 10 years has been staggering.  Once seen as only a personal network it has now been adopted by many companies as a vital communication, marketing and client service tool.

However, the adoption of these tools is not as prevalent in internal communication and employee engagement as one might think. In a 2011 study conducted by Robert Half Technology they found that 31% of organizations prohibit Social Media entirely in the work place. This means that employees are not permitted to use any platform for personal or business use.

In a separate 2012 study of European CIO’s and IT Directors a whopping 67% block Facebook for any type of employee use, and 60% block Youtube use.

These numbers are surprising and as Justin Fielder, of EasyNet Global Resources states in this study “The gap between Generation X and Generation Y is becoming a chasm” For those under 40 Social Media is becoming the go-to place for information, news and customer service, unfortunately many CIO’s, COO’s and CEO’s don’t see it that way. Resistance remains in the highest levels of business even when many Fortune 500 companies have shown dramatic success properly utilizing Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and more.

The only way for Social Media practitioners to remove that obstacle comes through measurement.  Every senior executive needs to see numbers. We might be aware of the positive benefit of building community or positive sentiment to our brand yet without cold, hard facts we are doomed to fail. By utilizing strong analytic and measurement tools we can provide traditional marketing, communication and client service metrics in the digital arena. Showing the number of impressions a web post had, or the amount of amplification a tweet received or the amount of customers that were provided support will lead to business opening up the gates of social media use in the work place more often. But it is up to those of us using Social Media to be able to show our successes in a quantitative manner.

Lessons to Others

  1. Measure, Measure and Measure – There is value in everything you do on Social Media you must track it!
  2. Don’t assume that every company your work for or with will be a “Social Company”
  3. Investing in a good analytic tool will be an investment in your success.

Submitted By: Aaron Miller, SMBP, University of Waterloo

To contact the author of this entry please email at: a2miller@uwaterloo.ca

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Programme Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

Web Reference
SOCIAL WORK? More Companies Permit Social Networking on the Job, Robert Half Technology Survey Reveals – http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/social-work-more-companies-permit-social-networking-on-the-job-robert-half-technology-survey-reveals-122650448.html

Social Media shunned by CIO’s as 67% block Facebook –  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/social-media-shunned-cios-67-102500492.html

Image – http://www.socmedsean.com/attention-corporate-executives-your-time-for-social-media-leadership-is-now/

One thought on “31% of Companies block employee use of Social Media at work”

  1. Tara Busse

    I’ve worked for two different companies in sales, where the ability to use a company’s Facebook page or LinkedIn page was beneficial to research employees and current “hot topics” to help my sales pitch. One company blocked access and one didn’t. It’s interesting to see how more and more companies are creating Facebook pages, but still 67% are blocking it!

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