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48 commentsTuesday, November 10, 2009
Social Networks Don't Waste Time, People Do.
Social Media Only the Latest Scapegoat for Productivity Loss?
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47 Comments
Social media is definately a
Social media is definately a new way for losing productivity - just track the amount of time office workers spend time chatting online, little wonder why companies need to hire more to get the same job done!
RE: Social media time waisting
I completely agree with you on this. My sister is always online playing games in like farmtown and farmville these games comes from social networking sites like facebook. But I do not agree I so much time spending on the social media sites.
I really caused and affect ones behavior and personality and eye visuality. perharps needs a wholesale sunglasses.
Just a comment!
Manila, philippines.
Michael
Thanks for the article Chris!
You'll get out of social
You'll get out of social media what you want. If you spend hours socializing and playing games than sure you are wasting time that could be spent marketing. You can waste time with anything. I could easily spend hours going through my email. It's what you choose to do with it that counts.
increase website traffic
How I promote and increase traffic on my Ayurvedic Herbal Product website using Social Networks
Social media time waisting
I find it amazing for companies that block social media sites, really complicates the effort if you have other people that use these sites to communicate, share, and present information from an event or other activity and you don't have access. Companies are scared because they don't educate their staff, and don't fully understand the benefits of being friendly and social.
For example using facebook, gave me the opporutnity to connect directly with CEO's of companies for a meaningful discussion. This really helped shorten the time and effort required to connect with people in the industry. Conversely, if your playing farmville all day then of course there is no benefit to the company!
But principles in the company need to understand that by blaming the social media apps is not the answer, they need to blame their own structure and processes. Regardless if the person is playing online they are simply not engaged in the business and that is far more of a problem and a fundamental one at that. The waisting of human potential is a crime against humanity!
Totally agree!
Great article Chris!
I completely agree with you on this. SM is just being used as a scapegoat for lack of productivity, without closely analyzing what is really eating employees time.
Keep the great content coming!
Cheers from Cancun,Mexico.
Camilo Olea
Only Appropriate For Some
It is no different than someone reading the newspaper while working, if it is not part of you job, you should not be doing it in the workplace. Now departments such as Customer Service and Marketing, they should be using it, but only in the way that it relates to the company and for personal use.
Cyberworld still needs Social Media
I truly believe that, with some intelligence applied, Social Media answers the need for Cyberspace evolution.
Cyberspace is still a relatively new and thrilling layer to Civilization. When it was new to most of us it was like the Wild West or Outer Space - eerily quiet, and yet dazzling, then a bit like the Wild West of olden days.
If we are to play the game of life in Cyberspace, we need to be playing with a full deck. Social media adds the normal work and play interactions - and plenty of it - so that our experience in our life online is safer and better in every way.
Of course if we do the wrong things or 'not enough' or 'too much' of it, the power and effect are not as good as we aim for.
"Bottom line"
We need to create and maintain a fully representational and effective world in Cyberspace and Social Media helps.
I think that this aspect of it all is what has drawn us to social media and made it so popular that some overdo it.
I am not surprised that "Tech-sperts" find fault with it - taken too far, the whole point of Social media can be lost and turn into Cyber JunkFood, instead of the clear and clean and amazing internet world we seek to create and maintain.
Still, I advertise my things and share good thoughts at Social Media, because I feel that it is part of doing my part online to make CyberWorld a truly and fully EVOLVED place to be.
Elle Fagan
Social Networks a waste of time - Well, yes & No
I am always on line advertizing my two on line stores Cheryl's Gifts 2 Go. I find that visiting social sites gains me the exposure I need to let others know about my stores. I have met very many interesting people and perhaps, some prospective customers too. I enjoy meeting new people and, love finding out about their life on a day to day basis.
What I did find out for myself is, you must discipline yourself. In other words, once you log in, see what others are doing, comment on their status, be friendly but, "don't start playing the games" the site offers. You have to constantly remind yourself why you are there.
I started playing the farm games and, I found myself on that particular social site more often than I really needed to be. Those apps are very addicting. It started running my day in fact. I had to check on my potatoes or, my animals or, whatever. Sure it was fun and, personally I loved it but, was I advertising my on line stores? No, I was playing games.
So, like I said, you need to discipline yourself when it comes to social sites. I still play the farmtown but, plant the vegetables that take 3 days. I use it as an short escape from my marketing plan. It is great for a break!
repairing your credit
It is always a matter of each person's individual choice and really does.
It is also it is important to show them some leeway in how they will be able to conduct themselves as long as the company's reputation or bottom line is not harmful.
I am rid of social network time wasting.
During global finance crises, i can't understand, why people can waste their time, instead of beeing more productive?
Social Networking
This is now the trend. But for employers, this is is a waste of time for their employees. The productivity will really decrease since this is the talk of the mouth even not online. So how much time they will waste? Online and offline.
Though social networking is a tool may be used for marketing, traffic, communication, on the other side of it, there is always a negative impact with regards to the productivity and the concentration of such person being totally involved with such activity.
But for younger ones, this is their tool to socialized. Too bad that if you are working, this is not good for you.
What about phone usage, coffee breaks, water cooler chatting?
Social networks, when analyzed from this perspective can have a professional use as a source of knowledge sharing and ways to do a better job, however they also are source of distraction.
I think that they should be allowed without any limitations at the workplace. Organization should let employees have access to it during work hours to rip the benefits of it, but should also implement the mechanisms to monitor usage and track employee performance. This will allow them if there is a trend that relates both and then address it.
Finding the ROI
I believe that there is value in Social Media otherwise I would not be spending time responding to this thread but I do feel that you need to have a plan going forward that uses IM as a tool in a multi pronged advertising and marketing strategy.
So you need to identify where the cash out is and have everyone moving towards that goal, be it domination of a particular products or concepts that directly benefits the bottom line.
Before the dot bomb I worked for a tech company and they were only interested in their own latest gizmos and did not embrace the new marketing channels and they got to be also rans to the ones that adopted the new media as part of their corporate culture.
Social media.. the biggest time waster of the last two years
Your "belief" in the commercial value of social media is a total act of blind faith. I took a look at my twitter account after 4 months and " not to my surprise", around 80% of them were nothing more than blatant marketing messeges. The law of redundancy says that I will ignore most of those twitts, and so I do, and get back to real work like creating value products and services. Social media will out-live all marketing and branding attempts and everyone will feel stupid for thinking otherwise. This is what I "believe".
The company's time is on the company's dime
Employees are paid by their employer for only one thing; to do the work that they are employed to do. There is no argument or even discussion here. It is the employer's dime and it is not the activity that employees should be engaging in. Of course it impacts productivity.
In a small firm where social media and employee participation may be of real benefit to the firm, there may be a benefit to the employer that is verifiable. This is the one exception.
Would I let employees engage in social media activities during lunch or breaks? Yes.
Companies have to compete and any reduction in productivity or time management is a first-class ticket to the bottom of the competitive heap. An employees' job and income and health benefits trump spending time doing non-work related activities. Everyone should be working to make their employer the best and most competitive company in their niche. That will ensure the future of the employee's steady stream of income and benefits.
Social Network Is a waste
I have account on myspace, facebook or twitter or whatver social network sites. And go many hundreds of people in my list. When I look at them, none of them are my serious friends . To me it is just waste of my time. I know that is same for millions of people.
Finally I reallised that it is better to make friends with whom I see them with my own eyes rather than be freidnd with someone whom I never seen in my entire lfe and wasting time on social networks..
Ditto
I completely agree. SM generally has no place in the workplace outside of marketing and branding. I am the Network Administrator and Webmaster for a communications group that owns radio stations, an advertising agency and media production house. While SM has benefits in creating links to websites and generating hype over a product or promotion... for the most part using SM to market I have found it does little more than add an additional link for crawlers to index. People have already been "viral advertised" to death and have begun to tune it out. The time and energy spent on SM advertising far outweighs the benefits IMHO.
Additionally, for those with access to social media sites within my organization, I have found that of the time spent doing productive promotional work, twice as much time or more is spent playing Mafia Wars and Farmville, or checking out someones keg party pics. Radio Disc-Jockeys and other people in the Internet Promotional department have access via user level web proxy... secretarial staff, accounting, even the production department have no reason to be there. And still all too often when I do a floor walk I see screens rapidly minimizing as I come around. I lean over someones shoulder and say "How did your fantasy football team do yesterday?"
I guess the question is if you block Facebook... what about ESPN.com? What about the local TV and News websites? Google Mail. Amazon.com and ebay (often find people doing personal shopping in the office...) It's a losing battle for those tasked with making sure employees focus on work at work... employees will slack off and not do work, it's in their nature... I'm doing it right now writing this...
Social media
I agree. I wasted many months of potential productivity chasing the social media bandwagon.
It got me nowhere and did not effect my bottom line whatsoever. The problem with social media as I see it is that it is not "Marketing media" it is "social media". Somewhere to go and chat with friends. It is an activity to be carried out in ones spare time. The social media channels have been over-run with poeple that are attempted to use it as a marketing tool and really pisses a lot of people off. including myself. The hype about social media will die out and when it does, a lot of folks are going to be feeling pretty stupid. Social media is not and never will be a marketing channel.
I'm Not Sure I Agree With All of This
In regards to the following statement "The concerns addressed in this survey were the usual suspects: staff productivity, network security risks, and damage to the corporate reputation. Productivity was by far the top concern," I DO agree that staff productivity can decline if they are frequently using social media during work hours. However, I believe that if you want your staff to be brand ambassadors for your business you should set guidelines as oppose to banning it altogether.
Why does google support social media in terms of rankings???
We are an e-commerce retailer and feel forced to post frequent "interesting" comments on social networking sites as it helps the rankings. Why??? I much rather work on the products, pricing, suppliers... I think it is an "unwisely waste of time"!
Social Media
People should go to work, not to play around on social sites
Social Web Sites
Social Websites can be used not just socially but for business also "Wake Up". There are alot of people on social websites especially people who love to spend money.
Social Networking.....good idea!!
Depending on what type of work you do, social networking can be an asset to many types of business. If you're in a business where you need to advertise or get some form of ads circulating the social media is a good source. Of course people that are on social networks just to play around....well like all things, we must have discipline. Afterall, if it isn't something you can use to help promote a business....then why else are people on it? If you need some help with idea's for an internet based business you might want to check out this blog, they have great ideas for getting a start with an internet business, plus they're always asking for your input too.
http://easycomputerincome.blogspot.com
Social Media
The man with the gold makes the rules.
Socal Networks don't waste time - people do.
While I don't think that social networking is the sort of activity one should be participating in while "on the clock" (with the possibly exception of some sales/marketing functions), my biggest concern would be the security risks inherent to social sites these days. More and more, sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are being invaded by scammers, trying to harvest information and install malware.
Better to simply block those sites from the company servers, and be safe. The IT department can readily modify permissions for those personnel that the company feels should have access to them.
Social Networks
There are a few issues. Its a fact that UK employers have a tendancy NOT to trust their employees, which ultimately means that if staff are not allowed to do something, they will do it. It's called human nature. Fact, a large proportion of UK employers do not look at a web site primarily for business, it's a toy thingy with fancy graphics and photos etc. As for IT managers. Its not the fact they are IT Managers, it's the fact they have some power. And sadly some do like to weild that power, because they can!
What I would like to know is, how do companies in the US look on this issue. The evidence I see, is that they are more relaxed and DO take the web very seriously, unlike my countrymen.
Billable Time & Productivity
My company works off billable time so if we are not billing a client's project, the company does not get paid. Each of our designers, coders & programmers have minimum billables they need to achieve each day/week in order for the company to stay profitable. We look for short cuts and time-saving tips to maximize budgets and to streamline our non-billable, internal tasks.
Integrity and Social Media Usage
No matter what people do to encourage their employees to work, it is always a matter of each person's individual choice.
Some people appreciate the opportunity to work hard and contribute to a team effort and their employer's bottom line, others look for ways to avoid work and the creation of value in society at large.
For employees who show responsibility and productivity, it is important to show them some leeway in how they conduct themselves as long as the company's reputation or bottom line is not harmed.
For employees who seek some way to avoid their responsibility and duties whether through the use of Social Media or other distractions, it is probably best to simply show them the door.
Why would someone ask an IT manager what is productive or what m
IT Managers are the anti-christ to marketing or making money... if they ran the world, they would have us require a faxed with the customers signature in order to insure it is them.... or require quadruple Opt-in including social, phone number, date of birth, address, and underwear size in order to be added to a mailing list...
Who would ask an IT Manager what is productive?
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