On the heels of a report by Global Secure Systems and Infosecurity Europe UK which found that social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo cost businesses as much as 6.5 billion pounds ($12 billion) a year in lost productivity, CIO asks 'Should Social Networks be Banned at Work?'
Will social networks become the new porn and ESPN of the workplace? Surf it...but don't let your bosses see?
CIO's columnist C.G. Lynch disagrees with some of his cohorts, suggesting banning such activity could end up being even more counter-productive:
"I don’t accept the productivity loss argument. Every new technology is what an employee makes of it. IM is a perfect example. The employees who chat with their friends all day are inefficient, distracted workers (who, let's face it, won't last at the organization), while the employees who chat with their colleagues, business partners, customers and other contacts are probably incredibly productive."
"By banning social networks, companies would, in effect, discourage employees from making connections with each other, and with customers (the latter, by the way, usually leads to sources of revenue). That, to me, seems risky. "
Now the arguments here will certainly be drawn between the 'type' of social network we're talking about. A business professional should certainly more easily make the case that their profile on LinkedIn and highly targeted niche social networks is far more valuable to their job than MySpace. But with more 'adults' connecting on Facebook and professional groups sprouting up on that site, even connecting there could be considered legit.
As Lynch points out, even telling employees that they cannot connect to each other would be silly. Thats a great point, in that even if they are not connecting for 'work' purposes, but instead social, doesn't more camaraderie within an office or organization environment help increase teamwork? (Unless of course everyone is just spending their day talking about Fantasy Football picks).
There is so much discussion out there about social networking and its impact, I think it all bodes well for highly targeted niche social networks. Whether its professional in nature and more justifies participation 24/7 and not just after hours, drives people to spend more time on niche networks than the big boys and for us network creators specifically -- drives more advertisers and marketers to us because we're where people are more justified in spending their time on and off work hours.
