Re: Twitter Question on Social Media in the Workplace & Productivity

July 14, 2010 | Posted by: Melissa Chadwick

Earlier this week, we tweeted about a new study from Trend Micro that looked at the habits of about 1,600 internet users and found that social web use in the workplace has risen from 19% to 24% over the past 2 years.

When we got a tweet question from one of our followers @Lokitis asking “@MerrittGroup Do you think social media at work is beneficial or causing less productivity?”  I felt compelled to respond, but by using more than 140 characters.  Hence, the blog response.

Clearly, there are advantages and disadvantages to social media in the workplace.  As with everything, it’s about priorities, strategic value to the business and time management.  Many organizations use social media tools such as internal wikis, message boards or blogs effectively to enhance communication and share knowledge amongst employees.  Even tools like chat can also be invaluable for exchanging ideas while keeping email boxes more manageable.

But the question of whether they are aiding or hampering productivity all really depends on your industry, job function and personal communication style.  I think users should also be honest with themselves.  Are you going on Facebook to engage a customer prospect or will you find yourself posting personal comments and YouTube videos on your friends’ walls for the next 2 hours?  I think the answer can be that simple.

In our industry in particular, it’s essential that PR pros stay on top of the latest news, connect with reporters/influencers, and even communicate with our industry peers (hence the blog response!).  Many of us also then do this on behalf of our clients too!  Social media can clearly save some time when used and applied appropriately.  Also, don’t forget to measure the effectiveness of your efforts.  You want to focus your time where it matters the most so you don’t spin your wheels on efforts with low return.

The volume of social media and new tools that appear every day can become overwhelming and take your time away from other relevant tasks.  That’s why I decided to pull together a quick list of tips for better managing social media. 

1. Manage the madness – Many of you may have your personal Twitter, a work-related account or many twitter feeds to manage.  Tools such as TweetDeck, twhirl, seesmic, or even those marketed for business such as CoTweet, can help you better manage everything a little easier in one dashboard.
2. Update one, update them all – Tired of updating your Facebook and then your twitter and then wherever else?  Use something like HootSuite or Ping.fm, which lets you update all your social media sites at once.
3. The need for feeds – If you don’t have an RSS reader to sift through everything you’re interested in reading by may not have the time, I’m not sure what rock you’ve been hiding under.  My personal favorite is Netvibes, but there are many flavors for setting up a dashboard for filing and organizing all the news, blog and information sources you want pushed to you proactively. 

Some of these may seem very basic and are in no way comprehensive, so I welcome your additions and thoughts.