Finding a Social Balance in the Business World

Chapter 13 in David Meerman Scott’s Book “Real-Time Marketing & PR” is all about the importance of creating a social media plan for a company and then allowing employees to engage in real-time conversations through social media. Scott also mentions how about 25 percent of large organizations block employee access to online social media. In this blog post I would like to give my opinion on what Scott discusses from the perspective of a student studying public relations. 

First of all, I could not agree more with Scott’s emphasis and importance on creating a social media plan and guidelines for a company. Social media has become an integrated and even necessary form of communication in today’s society.  Chances are very high employees at a given company are going to have some sort of presence on social media. Not having a social media policy in place would be asking for disaster. Without a social media policy companies are bound to have at least one employee slip up on social media and create a crisis for the organization. 

Also, you would probably be surprised to learn how many companies and organizations don’t have a social media policy. For example, I am part of a firm project right now working on creating a social media plan for a high profile organization on campus because it does not currently have a plan in place. The bottom line is you will save yourself a lot of trouble in the long run by taking the time to create a detailed social media plan.

Next, the fact that 25 percent of large organizations block employee access to online social media angers me. When you put restrictions on people’s voice you do more harm than good. I read a book this past summer that said employees are unlikely to abuse privileges granted to them in the work place. Contrary to popular belief, the more freedom you give someone at work, the more it benefits the company because people feel empowered and trusted. However, you don’t want an anything goes policy and that’s why it is important to have a social media plan in place.

Chapter 13 suggests two extreme policies that emerge when it comes to how companies handle social media. There are companies with absolutely no type of social media plan in place, and there are companies that completely restrict social media use among employees. Neither of these extremes are a good approach.  The right way to handle social media is to find a balance between these two ideas. Create a plan with guidelines, make the plan known to all employees and then allow them to engage because social media cannot be ignore as a form of communication in today’s society.