Why your company should ban Facebook
If Social Media is so important, then why I am I recommending that your company ban Facebook?
Facebook now has 350 million active users around the globe – that’s an increase of 40% in just six months . Of these users at least 175 million log on every single day, and they’re posting more content to the site than ever before. So it may seem inevitable that your company will jump on the Facebook bandwagon and let your staff post away.
But is allowing access to Facebook really the best thing for your business? Let’s look at the facts:
Facebook Wastes Staff Time
Statistics suggest that a large proportion of Internet use in the office is for personal business. And – even more shocking – that two-thirds of traffic to porn sites happens during office hours. I’m not suggesting that Facebook is a hotbed of pornographic activity, just that Facebook is not appropriate use of company time.
If your staff are updating their status, tagging themselves in photos and leaving posts on their friend’s’ walls they are wasting your time and your company’s money. And, if you allow access to Facebook for business use how can you tell the difference between genuine business activity and time wasting?
Facebook Strains Your Internet Connection
Research shows that a massive 50MB of bandwidth a day could be wasted on non-work activities. That means you’ll be paying significantly more than you need to for you internet connection. And any business that you do conduct online will be slowed down by the loss of bandwidth.
Not only are you throwing money down the drain but you are putting more strain on your IT department by letting staff use Facebook.
Facebook Could Ruin Your Reputation
Your previously immaculate reputation could go down in flames very quickly indeed from just a few careless Facebook remarks.
More than 8,000 Vodafone customers received an obsene tweet sent out by an employee based in local Stoke, and hundreds replied thus propogating the message over social space. Vodafone has had to do some serious grovelling to get out of hot water. And more importantly, they have had to suspend the employee.
If you allow your staff onto Facebook – and they can mix business and pleasure while they are there – it’s only a matter of time before the headlines read “Facebook Disaster for [insert your company name here]”.
Facebook Could Land You In Legal Hot Water
While the Vodafone case is a story of a stupid joke gone horribly wrong it does show how easy it is to mess up. Your company has a responsibility to keep your client’s private data private, and all it takes is a slip of a click for someone to accidentally broadcast confidential information to the world.
Not only could this be potentially damaging to you, your client and your respective reputations, but it could also put you in hot water legally.
And that’s without considering the damage a disgruntled employee could do all with the help of Facebook.
Facebook Could Get You Sued
One of Facebook’s best features is how easy it is to share content with other users – but this content isn’t always be appropriate for the office. And, if an employee is offended or intimidated by the content their colleague is sharing via Facebook, your company could be landed with a lawsuit.
The easiest way to avoid the potentially unlimited payouts from a discrimination claim? Block employees access to Facebook and other similar file sharing services.
So when you consider the additional costs to your company and potential damage to your reputation, can you really afford not to ban Facebook?
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Katie Saxon
Tags: Facebook
February 25th, 2010 at 9:35 am
I agree absolutely with the risks that you identify and banning facebook would certainly be one way to reduce those risks. I don’t think it will be sustainable in the medium term because social media is starting to permeate the working space. In, say, five years banning access to social networking sites will be as bizarre as banning e-mail. The challenge for organisations is to find a way to move from where we are now to that point while managing the risks that your identify above.
February 26th, 2010 at 10:08 am
It’s easy to see the risks to organisations and you hear all the time about instances where people are being sued or that someone mucked up and posted something they shouldn’t have, take the Vodafone incident as a prime example. However, wouldn’t a better policy be to educate people? As time and time again, something comes along, organisations try to impose restrictions and people always find a way around it. Engaging with your workforce and educating them what you can and can’t do is usually a more productive process and generally leads to greater adoption of policies and practices than imposing an outright ban, when they most likely haven’t done anything to warrant it….