A new poll from Ragan Communications says that 30% or so of PR departments block access to social media sites at the office. (Read it here.)
How very 1950’s! Gee, Biff … make sure the employees aren’t making too many personal calls.
My personal take:
- If you’re worried about goofing off, it’s not caused by Facebook: There will always be a way to goof off.
- If you’re worried about company secrets leaking out: Everyone already has a phone, email, IM, etc. If someone is going to leak, they will leak.
- If you expect people to work for you after hours, they need to replace it with personal stuff during work hours.
Most important:
- You can not be a competent PR executive any more without a deep familiarity with everything social media. Media coverage is now driven by social media, not press releases.
- The only way your staff can be competent in these tools is to play with them. A lot.
- Clients will flee when they discover how ignorant your team is.