Social Media
Social media can be a key element of an organization´s marketing operations – it can also be the gateway for multiple online threats. Internet users who fail to use unique passwords for their online activities, share their passwords, or willingly provide confidential information without due consideration for the security implications can be risking the online security of an entire organization.
Rather than have an employee threaten the integrity of your organization´s online defenses, it is in your best interests to implement an Internet filtering solution from TitanHQ. An Internet filtering solution – and adequate training about the risks of communicating confidential information online – can mitigate the risk of your organization´s online defenses being compromised by an employee´s carelessness or naivety.
by G Hunt |
March 14, 2014 |
Social Media
LinkedIn is one of the fastest growing social networks and is now used by employers to build contacts and find new customers and suppliers. The number of LinkedIn users has been swelling, and now the site boasts nearly 1 billion accounts. The professional network is an essential sales and marketing tool for many companies, and recruitment firms would find it very difficult to stay competitive without it. The website extends a company’s reach and can be used for a variety of purposes. Company news can be announced, new products marketed, new employees found, and the site contains many interesting industry articles, providing hints and tips for busy professionals. Many users now search LinkedIn for information before using the search engines. Companies now use the social network as well as their employees. In fact the boundary between the two has become somewhat blurred. For instance, if an individual spends personal time building up contacts, are those contacts connecting with the person or the company? In many cases it is a mixture of the two. So who actually owns those contacts? The employee or the employer? A recent court case in the UK sided with the company. However, without social media usage policies in place, a court case could go either way. Recruitment consultant discovers his LinkedIn contacts are not his own A recruitment consultant at Hays Recruitment had been building up contacts via his professional account. When he decided to leave his employer and set up his own business, he copied contacts to his personal account. These were people he had been dealing with frequently as his job demanded. Hays objected to this activity and took the ex-employee to court over the matter. The judge agreed with Hays and ruled that LinkedIn contacts built during employment at Hays be handed over. The employee was also required to disclose all of the emails that had been sent to those individuals. The employee, Mark Ions, maintained that by connecting with individuals they had disclosed their contact information and were no longer confidential. Hays maintain that Ions stole business contacts. This landmark case highlights the potential problems with the use of social...
by G Hunt |
June 5, 2013 |
Social Media
Ever since the advent of social media networks, employers have been trying to devise ways to prevent employees from using the sites in the workplace. Employers see the sites as a huge drain of the staff’s time and believe they are one of the biggest killers of productivity. It is true that a lot of time is spent on the websites instead of performing work duties, and some employees spend far too much time checking posts. However, new research has now been released suggesting social media site usage may not actually be that bad. In fact, there could even be major benefits for employers. Do you Ban Social Media Site Use at Work? You Could be Causing More Harm than Good! A new study conducted by Warwick Business School shows that banning the use of social media access in the workplace is more likely to kill productivity than allowing staff access. Any employer believing the opposite is true needs to have a rethink. Some downtime in the workplace is a good thing. Employees cannot work for 4 hours straight without a break and be expected to be as productive at the end of that 4-hour stretch as they were at the start. Taking a few minutes here and there to check Facebook can mean employees’ productivity actually increases. Warwick Business School’s Professor of Information Systems, Joe Nandhakumar, ran the investigative study. He believes that some workers are better at organizing their workflow if social media site access is allowed. Knowledge workers in particular can perform better at work if access is provided. Rather than social media being a distraction, Nandhakumar believes the opposite to be the case. Employers just need to find the positives and not concentrate on the negatives. He has also pointed out that the use of social media may be a new issue for employers to deal with, but they have faced a similar situation in the past with the use of email. That was thought to be a huge drain of time, yet evidence suggests that not to be the case. Take it back even further, and the use of the telephone was believed to be a killer of productivity. In actual fact, social media, email and the telephone make workers more productive, and allow them to achieve much more...
by G Hunt |
November 14, 2012 |
Social Media
The rise in popularity of social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ has had a significant impact on employers. Many employees would rather spend their entire working day on these websites than completing work duties. Many employees waste an extraordinary amount of time on Facebook, YouTube and similar websites. Employees will always find a way of wasting time, so the increase in use of social media at work is unsurprising. However, employers who ban employees from accessing the websites – such as by using a web content filter – may find that they are actually shooting themselves in the foot. Allowing employees to spend a little time on social media websites can actually be beneficial for a company, resulting in employees being happier at work. Happy staff are actually more productive. If an organization does not implement a total ban on employees accessing social media and social networking websites, it is essential that staff usage of the sites is monitored. Most employees will use the websites responsibly, but there will always some cases of social media abuse at work. The aim must be to keep that to a minimal level. Installing a Web Filter to Block Social Media Abuse at Work The installation of a web filter and Internet monitoring software lets employers block access to certain websites and monitor usage of others. Web filters can be configured to block a specific website for an entire organization, for groups, or for specific individuals. If an individual is excessively using social media at work, it may be appropriate to block them from accessing the sites from their work computer. Access to the websites can be made a privilege, which can be taken away if an individual is found to be abusing the good nature of their employer. Some employers prefer to ban all employees from using the websites, but there is a problem with this. This tells the staff that you do not trust them to be able to achieve a good balance. Also blocking social media usage at work can have a significant negative impact on staff morale. The more restrictions are put in place at work, the less happy staff members are likely to be, and unhappy staff means low...
by G Hunt |
January 26, 2012 |
Social Media
Recent research shows that the use of social media websites at work is on the increase, with many employers seeing Facebook and Twitter usage at work as being particularly problematic. A new study from Palo Alto suggests that since 2010, the use of Facebook at work has tripled. Twitter use is also increasing, and at a far higher rate. The study showed that usage has increased by 700% during the same period. Facebook and Twitter usage at work: Is it really a problem? The increase in time spent on social networking websites is not all about employees accessing their personal accounts at work. Many companies have started using social media websites to connect with clients and customers. The sites are an incredibly useful way of getting closer to customers. Corporations can use social media to find out what customers really want and what they really think of the organization. They are now essential for many businesses, allowing customer service standards to be improved, while the sites can also be used to effectively promote goods and services. The latter is arguably far cheaper than TV adverts and newspaper and magazine adverts. Nowadays, it is actually a rarity for a business not to have a Facebook and Twitter account. In many cases, companies provide employees with a range of tools to manage social media accounts to send Tweets on Twitter or post content to Facebook. Social media introduces security risks There is no denying that social media is useful for businesses. In fact, having corporate accounts is now sometimes considered essential. Unfortunately, the use of these websites is not without risk. Operating a Facebook page and running a Twitter account potentially exposes a company to malware, viruses, and cyberattacks. The sites take up a lot of valuable bandwidth. Social media websites can also take up a huge amount of time and produce little in the way of additional revenue. The productivity of employees can be seriously reduced if they are spending too long accessing their personal accounts. While companies are using social media sites more, there is a concern that employees are spending too much time on the sites for non-work related matters. Many...
by G Hunt |
August 22, 2011 |
Social Media
Last week, SpamTitan issued a press release about its new social media cost calculator. The calculator was developed to help companies estimate the amount of man hours (and therefore money) they are losing as a result of employees accessing social media websites at work. The SpamTitan social media cost calculator has proved popular and attracted a great many online comments. Calculating the true cost of social media site use by employees In order to calculate the true cost of social media, SpamTitan took a close look at social media usage statistics. An average profile for a typical organization was created and data was extrapolated to provide an estimated annual cost. The results of the calculations showed that a typical company loses approximately $65,000 every year as a result of employees spending time checking and posting information on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the myriad of other social media and social networking websites. SpamTitan calculated that the figure corresponds to 5% of every employee’s salary being wasted on personal social media use. Many of the comments came from individuals who thought we were suggesting that all organizations should install a web filter and implement a company policy that bans the accessing of all social media sites at work. This was not our intention. There are advantages to allowing members of staff access to social media sites at work. There are also many disadvantages to banning access. Managers will be well aware that social media websites are being accessed by employees, and that employees spend a considerable amount of time those websites. What they perhaps do not know is how much time is spent, and how much this is costing them. That is information they need to know. Should social media site access be banned at work? Companies should make a decision about the use of social media at work. They will need to assess the benefits of allowing the staff some “Facetime”, and the disadvantages from the loss of access rights. There are also many legal considerations to consider and the accessing of these sites also raises a number of privacy and security concerns. Many organizations may like to ban the accessing of...
