Social Media 'Etiquette' in the Workplace
Don Peppers
Customer experience expert, keynote speaker, business author, Founder of Peppers & Rogers Group
In a recent Florida court case the judge was disqualified because he and the prosecutor were Facebook friends. But you have to wonder whether the same thing would have happened had they simply belonged to the same golf club.
Social issues like these will become more complicated as we become more electronically interconnected, and as this digitization happens, businesses will have to be careful not to touch the “third rail” in their social media marketing efforts.
There is also the entire question of whether and how best to integrate the professional contacts known to an individual sales rep or employee with those of your other employees, which has been the topic of a great discussion in a post from last week, "Harnessing Your Employees' Social Graphs."
But handling even simple, ordinary e-social interactions might be difficult, as well, because most of us haven’t been dealing with social media long enough yet to have a clear idea of the right etiquette. Etiquette can’t be legislated or prescribed. It will have to evolve on its own, from the collective decisions and judgments of everyone.
Just hypothetically, for instance, suppose you work in one of the field offices of a multi-billion-dollar company. One day your CEO visits the office and meets everyone. Would you send the CEO a LinkedIn invitation to connect or a Facebook friend request? And what if you were the CEO? Would you accept? Should you?
Or suppose an account manager at your company is charged with continuing to maintain and improve your relationship with a key client. Let’s say it’s an important drive account. If she were to link up on a social network with the sales director of your primary competitor for that particular account, would you be nervous? Should you be? And would you have any way of finding out? (Are you even allowed to ask?)
As for the issue of whether or not to "friend" your CEO - I think this and similar social dilemmas will eventually be resolved by the customs and preferences that develop over time, as the situation is faced and dealt with by more and more people. It might eventually be as simple as fitting your own actions to your company's or CEO's individual preferences. Some CEOs will welcome such connections and some will be more standoffish, and the sensible employee will know which type his or her own CEO is before making the attempt.
District Training Officer at Georgia Department of Transportation
10yLong before lines of demarcation were evolving with social media, boundaries existed with Cardinal Rules well-established to protect employers from employees denigrating the reputation of the company in public. Not "pooping where you work" extends to lines outside of a given workplace physical address. In the healthcare stream companies are requiring employees to embrace smoking cessation programs or work elsewhere. One should be self-aware and socially-aware on or off company time as a representative of their employer if your livelihood depends on it.
Director of Software Engineering - Applications - at Deep Sentinel
10yThe converse question is also true ... would it be wise to block people from work on facebook, so they cannot see your off-hand comments that you make to your social friends, even if some of them HAVE friended the CEO? "Blocking" is considered "rude" by some. Facebook even makes a big deal about it, but really how is that different from just closing the door? In many ways, Facebok makes it easier to lie about who you are if you are skilled at it. I mean seriously, how much can you REALLY know about someone from 10 lines of text ever three days? But you can sure THINK you know a lot about them.
Professor and Director of Innovation | Digital Marketing and Business Transformation Smart Digital
10ySocial networks and social clubs are already similar in the near future could also look like neighborhoods or cities, and more inportant, this networking could adversely affect employment opportunities and business people registered there?
Fleksjobber, der yder kundeservice og skaber gode indkøbsoplevelser.
10yYou have to know the CEOs opinion about connecting online before you decide if it is a good idea to connect or not. It is individuel.
Senior Project Manager at AECOM
10yThis should equally apply to LinkedIn. Without putting too fine a point on it, Don, (I don't know you so hesitate somewhat to write this here), your post the other day about Europeans not getting it as regards growth in the same way Americans did, with reference to European red tape, following David Cameron's recent speech, generalized about an entire continent in a way which I thought was out of keeping with what I thought LinkedIn was all about. The reason I maintain separation between here and, say, Twitter or Facebook, is that I don't think LinkedIn was ever intended to be a "Facebook for business", despite recent developments to the contrary, and I'd be entirely happy if it remained that way. I hope you don't see my comments as necessarily negative, but I have to say my eyebrows raised at your headline and its "dogwhistle" approach.