Facebook- A Benefit or Distraction?

Social media is here and right now the challenge for many companies is how it can be used to benefit the company. But there are companies willing to ignore the benefits because they don’t want to give their employees access to social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The arguments go something like this “my employees will waste time on these sites”. Let’s look at what the company is really saying with these statements.
Being afraid employees won’t be concentrating on work and will cost you money with the loss of productivity is a fact of life all employers face every day. The truth is this is the same argument that came up years ago when the internet and email were introduced at companies. There are plenty of things to distract employees. In the past managers didn’t want employees hanging around the water cooler and tried to get them back to their desks.

Today the list of potential distractions is endless. They can conduct personal business and use the phone, email and surf the internet on company time. Businesses recognize the benefit these technologies provide far outweighs the risk of employee productivity. Even if they didn’t and took them all away they would still have to deal with employees portable electronics where they can be using cell phones and access the internet and the managers have no control over their use.

What this shows is that this is an ongoing issue between bosses and workers. Employees who are going to waste time will find a way to do it with whatever distraction they can find. Social media isn’t the issue; the issue is the employee and their work ethic toward their job.

Businesses can’t and shouldn’t make marketing decisions based on fear. They need to work with employees and managers to set up a system of accountability. The employee needs to have a reasonable amount of work assigned and it needs to be completed in a designated time frame. If that doesn’t occur then there are consequences that should be in place that the employee knows in advance. Treating employees as adults with clear goals and making them responsible for their day to day work is going to help make your workplace run smoother.

You will never expand your business unless you have a structure in place that can support the growth. Social media should be looked at as a tool to increase awareness of your business and help build your profits.

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Social Media for Recruiting

Everyone hears about unemployment today but some forget that there are businesses actually hiring. Recruiters are finding a challenge to do this with the way budgets have been dramatically slashed. On top of the lack of funds most companies have cut back on their own staff. This means that recruiters are asked to do more tasks. Today’s recruiters don’t have a lot of extra time to spend sorting through resumes and screening out unqualified candidates. Or the ability to take the time interviewing candidates who after hearing about the company feel it’s not a good fit for them.

Social media is one way recruiters can start to build relationships with potential candidates online. By using facebook they can share information about the company and its culture. This information tells what it’s like to work there and what is expected of the candidate. After posting jobs candidates can ask questions about the job to help determine if they should apply. This helps make sure that recruiters are prequalifying candidates. Even if a candidate chooses not to apply for a particular position they might decide they are better suited for another.

Twitter is a great way to share with your follower’s jobs as they become available. This can be done more than once to remind them of the opportunities they offer. These jobs can then be shared with other friends and followers to virally spread information about the openings. Using twitter and facebook in essence lets you use your fans and followers as an employee referral program to help you with staffing.

Budget Issues for 2010

Budgets in 2010 are a study in contrast. During 2009 everyone seemed to hunker down and wait for the storm to pass. Now that the New Year has come everyone seems to be poking their head out to see what’s left. The problem is that most people are cautiously optimistic but they are working with tight budgets that were created during the height of the panic in 2009. Now you have departments fighting over the scraps and trying to decide the best way to spend what little is available.

This is a major problem all by itself but it’s not the only one.  There are two clear camps forming in many companies and that is the group that feels it’s important to jump on board and create a social media program. The other side is the group that feels with such little money available it shouldn’t be spent on something that is so new and untested.  The debate gets more challenging because many in the group that protest the use really don’t know enough about it and their unfamiliarity fuels their refusal.

A perfect example of this was a recent meeting I attended. I was asked by the IT department to drive 3 hours to do a seminar on social media for a health care facility. They wanted to know how it could be adapted and if there were potential benefits. After we were talking for about 30 minutes the Director of Marketing burst into the room and threw a magazine on the table talking about social media as snake oil. I sat there realizing I just drove 3 hours to actually be called a snake oil salesman.

I wish I was making that story up to be dramatic but that is exactly what happened. I had to sit and go over all the things he missed by coming late and then going over point by point his objections. The reality was that he didn’t understand what we were showing the hospital they could do or how the technology worked.

This year might wind up being a transition year. Many organizations are going to have to deal with these challenges when you have people who see the potential and other who don’t. Hopefully they will at least spend time educating all their stake holders about the options so you have people who are making informed decision on how budgets are spent for 2011.