Karlie Justus at SocialMediaB2b Discusses Pros and Cons of Blocking Social Media at Work

Can your employees access popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter? Karlie Justus, in her article “Pros and Cons of Blocking Social Media at Your B2B Company,” at SocialMediaB2B.com, cites a new report from Purdue University that says more than 80% of the businesses surveyed restrict the use of at least one social media site, while another 13% restrict all such sites.

The concern, said the survey, wasn’t so much that people were using their social media presence to socialize, but that classified information was being entered into the public record, at an average cost of $2 million per incident.

However, another report from McAfee, which also commissioned the Purdue report, says that 40% of businesses that allow their employees to use social media in the workplace have seen a measurable increase in productivity.

So what exactly are the pros and cons of blocking social media at work? Justus sheds some light on both sides.

Pros:

1. Your business needs a singular tone and voice for its perceived image. Many B2B companies use a singular image and voice to represent their businesses. In order to maintain the image and feel you want throughout your communications, you can’t have more than one or two people writing what you release to the public. Too many voices muddy the waters.

2. There may be industry specific concerns about social media. For example, if your company makes helicopters for the military, and their current project with you is top secret, you probably don’t want somebody accidentally spilling this information out on the internet. Justus says marketers in these areas should ask their customers whether social media is a part of their marketing plan before planning to use it yourself.

Cons:

1. It silences your biggest fans – your employees. Who knows your products better then the people who make them, sell them and want you to be successful, so that they can be successful too? If your employees can’t talk about your product, what better forms of free advertising do you have in mind?

2. Justus says that few companies tend to stretch the boundaries of how social sites can be used in the office beyond the marketing department. She questions why more companies don’t use Twitter, for example, to provide public relations opportunities for their sales teams. She asks why more companies don’t allow Facebook to be used by Human Resources to help fill a position. And LinkedIn is a proven source for leads. If your employees can’t access all this, however, these are all moot points.

3. A company that can’t access social media is a company that continues to live under the idea that social media is a waste of time, Justus says. If your company uses social media to attract new accounts, but you don’t let your own employees use it, how does that look to your customers?

Five Ways to Make Your B2B Popular on Twitter from Karlie Justus at SocialMediaB2B.com

Chances are, you know that you’re supposed to be supporting your company’s B2B social media campaign with an active presence of Twitter. But what you might be thinking to yourself is, “How do we do that?” Check out this article by Karlie Justus at SocialMediaB2B.com, “5 Ways for B2B Companies to Engage on Twitter.” Justus says that building an online reputation, generating leads and company coverage through Twitter doesn’t happen overnight. You need to develop ongoing two-way communication with your followers. Her five ways to do this include:

• Original content: Create tweets to alert people of the original content that you should be adding several times a week to your company web site. Rewrite eNewsletters, news releases and updates. If you don’t have any news of note, create 140-character facts and tips that you can fall back on when you tweet.
• Retweet: Did you get some excellent information from a Tweet? Share it with your followers. It shows you care about your industry and the other players in it.
• On-the-Ground Updates: Twitter’s mobility and brevity make if perfect for up-to-the-minute updates. “From the field” tweets about events at conferences for example (“just had a great conversation with manager of Smith in Atlanta,” e.g.)shows your company is busy and on top of things.
• Determine the popular hash tags and keywords to your industry: Then use Twitter searches to find tweets with those terms. This allows you to follow users who tag their tweets.
• Tweet with Personality: Your tweets don’t all have to be about business. Justus says, “Think of Twitter as a cocktail party.” Appoint one person to handle Tweets for your company and encourage them to let their personality come through. This means occasional Tweets that step outside the business realm. It makes your company look human and easier to identify with.

B2B Companies: Be more social now with these 11 tips from Hubspot.com

B2B businesses are traditionally slow to adapt to new changes. This is particularly true when it comes to social media. Many companies are still having trouble understanding that they need a social media program. Sure, there are a lot of technical things to worry about that are best left to the folks in your IT department. However, Kipp Bodnar, writing for Hubspot .com, says there are “11 Simple Ways B2B Companies Can Be More Social Today.” They are smaller steps that any B2B employee can not only implement easily, but also actually understand.


Socialize your documents: Chances are you’ve written white papers and speeches that contain valuable information that your potential customers can use. Post them on the web.

Social Media Icons: Make sure you have company logos that conform to the sizing requirements of various websites.

Set up social media accounts now, even if your company won’t be using them for a month or two.

Create a profile for your company at LinkedIn.com. It’s a good way to start connecting with other people in your business as well as potential customers.

Write blog posts. Even if you don’t have a live blog yet, create content that you can post when you go live.

Make sure your staff is equipped to go social. Make sure they have the right tools to create the media you’ll need to create when you go live.

Start to understand the tools of social media conversations such as Twitter Search, Alerts Grader and Boardreader. Use them to monitor the search terms of your business.

Determine who in your company will handle your social media content. Go over how they will represent the company in their posts and blogs.
Set up a Bit.ly account. This service shortens URLs to give you more room on limited-character sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Add social media browser extensions that can help make your browser more social-friendly.

Install Analytics. As you start getting new visitors from your social efforts, you’ll want to know exactly where they’re coming from Analytics tools can help you do just that.