Social Networking in the Workplace

Link to March 8 Capital Times article, "Facebook on the clock: Businesses grapple with social media use at work".

Excerpt: UW-Madison communications professor Dietram Scheufele doesn't dispute the theory that Internet users are more productive workers. But he says it's likely because they are better at using technology, which makes them more efficient to begin with.

"They're the same people who also have the Blackberry next to them and the I-Pod going," he says. "These are the tech-savvy people that every company today wants to keep around."

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But it's not the waste of time that presents the greatest risks to employers, says DeWitt's Rowland. The bigger threat, she says, is the possible damage from leaked company information, negative publicity or worse.

For example, if a worker is "tweeting" about what they are doing on the job, they might be giving away proprietary information without realizing it. "An employee may not think much of it, but a competitor might want to use that information," says Rowland.

Moreover, any negative comments about the workplace can take on a life of their own in cyberspace, resulting in damaging publicity for a firm. "If you post ‘my job sucks' to your Facebook page, people can look at where you work and think badly about the company," says Rowland.

Or they could ask, "Now why did I friend this person?"