Because I can’t help myself, I’m offering up the following morality play performed millions of times daily within the bowels of corporate America:
Your Employee: Opens up browser to post something witty on Twitter or Facebook.
Your Network: Blocks the employee from accessing the social network in question, perhaps with the digital equivalent of a little finger wagging at employee (bonus malice points if the message the employee sees refers to the social network in question as "the" Facebook/Twitter).
Your Employee: Promptly swivels in chair to access social network in question through the browser on her smartphone. The last time I checked, your company wasn’t blocking cell towers in your buildings, right?
Ruling: The employee continues to think she’s smarter than you. Based on this morality play, she’s got a decent case.
But I digress. With all the workplaces blocking Facebook, Twitter, etc., it’s evident that the irony of the social media workaround outlined above hasn’t hit home yet. But it will. It just takes time.
As the percentage of companies allowing access to social networks continues to grow, you need to realize there’s actually some strategic stuff related to social media that you’ll need to figure out as a progressive HR pro. No one else in your organization is thinking about the issues necessary to have a meaningful approach to social media related to human capital strategy.
What issues you ask? Consider the following gems that will kill you if you don’t figure them out:
1. 1. Purpose. When you grant access to social media across your company, are you doing it because you’re benevolent, or do you think there’s actually a business opportunity in that decision? If you’re simply doing it because it feels good, stop reading now. If you think there’s a business opportunity in granting access, read on. You need to figure some things out quickly.
2. 2. Portability. If you thought portability only referred to you moving your cell number across wireless providers, you were wrong. Portability in social media refers to who owns what related to social media, and whether the intellectual capital related to social media moves with the employee when they leave your company or stays with the firm. As you might expect, portability is reflected in the following details of ownership:
The earlier you figure out portability, the better off you are. Once you figure out the importance of portability, you’ll want to pay attention to the next item on our list – naming.
3. 3. Naming Conventions. As you open up access to social media across your company, you’ll find that there are three types of activity, including the following:
Here’s an example of naming issues in the corporate social media realm. Let’s say you engage one of your recruiters to become active on Twitter in hopes of augmenting your recruiting efforts. Her name is Jen Smalls and your company’s name is ACME. Do you require her to do all Twitter work under the twitter handle @ACMEjen or @ACMErecruiter, or do you allow her to do the work under the decidedly personal @jensmalls?
Each name means something different related to portability and Jen’s ability to develop an interesting and compelling presence related to your company’s brand and her personal creditability. Allow the presence to be built via the @jensmalls handle, and you have no shot at claiming the brand equity on behalf of our company.
4. 4. Personality. Once you’ve figured out your purpose for opening up social media access, then sorted out portability issues and the naming decisions for social media accounts that follow, you’re free to develop some personality related to your company’s social media presence.
Just remember one thing: Unless you plan on doing all company business through a fully corporately branded social media presence, there’s always some probability the social media equity that’s built belongs more to the employee than to you.
If you decide that’s the best path to getting business results for your company through social media (and many companies have been successful with that strategy), play on.
Just make sure you ask the questions before you get started.
Kris Dunn is Chief Human Resources Officer at Kinetix and a blogger at The HR Capitalist and the Founder and Executive Editor of Fistful of Talent. That makes him a career VP of HR, a blogger, a dad and a hoops junkie, the order of which changes based on his mood. Tweet him @kris_dunn.