Social Networking

Social Networking

Ravi

IT Policy and Strategy

Social Networking

In today's world, with increasing amount of time being spent by internet users on Social networking sites like Facebook, My space, Orkut than the  time spent on websites and emailing sites, companies and organizations are facing challenges on  management of social network use. Article written by Steven C. Bennett  briefly  gives us the insights of  social networking, its advantages and disadvantages to companies. It also suggests a best way which a company can follow to address the challenges (Bennett 2014).

Social networking can be used as potential opportunity to advertise at low cost and expand markets. Many companies have already started using of professional networking sites such as LinkedIn to hire employees.  Some companies have started using social networking sites to attract users into commercial relationship.  However there are also some risks like potential  damage to company image if it is misused by employees.  Employee engagement in actual work cannot be assessed. Disturbances at work place might occur due to personal comments on social media. Further, Social networking can also lead to intentional or unintentional transfer of confidential data (Bennett 2014).

Article suggested that it is practically not possible to ban usage of social networking sites at workplace.  It has cited an example in which  a company decides to ban employee access to all social network sites which turned to be unrealistic and unproductive as employees found alternatives to gain access which has  caused additional wastage of time by employee. As a company cannot totally ban usage of social networking it can regulate usage by laying a set of rules and guidelines A company can permit social network access with  policy and  guidelines on usage.  They must integrate Web 2.0 technologies into their prevailing document management system. Companies must ensure formation of a team representing of all...