Boost Work Productivity With Social Networking
Admit it – you check your Facebook and Twitter accounts while you’re at work. I know I do. (Oh wait . . . I work from home . . . guess I’m off the hook!) According to Office Arrow:
Examining the online habits of oil and gas professionals, Microsoft Corp. and their partner, Accenture, found that many workers believe that social-networking tools could enhance their job performance. In fact, 40 percent of survey respondents said that organizations could reap tremendous benefits if they promoted information-sharing through social networking. Why? Well, thanks to Facebook’s minute-by-minute status updates and “fan” pages, these workers can connect with other professionals in their field and bounce ideas off one another. However, you don’t have to work in the petroleum industry to benefit from this Web wonder.
Accenture’s Middle East Managing Executive, Omar Boulos, for one, believes that the possibilities of social networking are endless. “Companies are dealing with several trends right now, not only the aging workforce walking out the door with decades of knowledge, but also experienced hires coming into their businesses who need to understand a new corporate culture,” he says. “[They] have an opportunity to supplement their existing collaboration capabilities with newer tools, such as podcasts and social networks, to accelerate the sharing of knowledge, increase teaming, and augment communication between their workforces in different regions.”
OK, so this study doesn’t have any stats to show a boost in job performance, but the next time you’re clock watching and wondering if your boss will care if you jump on Facebook, just remember . . . you’re actually enhancing your work output. So go ahead, send that Tweet!
And as long as you’re avoiding those monthly budget reports, why not check out a new social networking site exclusively for lesbians? Lesbian Lush has budget-friendly dating tips, plus suggestions for finding great travel deals. Don’t forget to join the Queercents group on Facebook, and you can now follow us on Twitter.
What do you think? Does social networking provide the possibility of really improving professional connections? Or is it just a time suck?
Ahhh thank goodness I am just old enough not to care about facebook or twitter. There is just nothing I want to know about anyone in that kind of detail. And my job is such that there are no experts to consult on the web and in fact doing so would get me sued, lol. I can’t imagine anything that would make my job harder than having to try and socially network while working. But I understand for those with different lines of work it might be a good idea.
Serena: Apparently, everyone is twitting away these days except me! Tweet tweet tweet. I still don’t get it. I don’t personally use Twitter. I still don’t have a Facebook account. Of course, Queercents as Queercents is active on both, but that’s only because of you! And thank god we have you!
So here are my thoughts. [This could probably be a post unto itself.] Or better yet, first a few thoughts from Seth Godin:
Now Seth does have a Twitter account for his blog, but it’s essentially an RSS feed of his blog content. What’s the point of that? Isn’t that why people use a feedreader? I know, I know… the Queercents tweets end up just being a feed too of our content. As I said at the beginning of this comment, I don’t get it! Seth has a personal account, but it looks like he just registered and parked the page so no one else could grab it before him.
The only person that I follow is Penelope Trunk. Not as a “Follower†but rather I just bookmark her Twitter page and read along because I think she’s funny and figured I’d watch how she’s using it. But her tweets are pure entertainment… juicy and packed with sexual tension from the perspective of an on-the-prowl forty-something divorcée. (And personally, I find that to be a titillating break during my work day!) It provides her personal brand with another dimension. I would probably never use it this way. By, keep em coming, Penelope!
Other marketing gurus swear by it. Guy Kawasaki for one. But he too is a “brand†and he’s always promoting a book or site or something. I see how it works for him. But for the millions of others – I think it’s a big “time suck†as you call it!
Here’s one comment from the web that perhaps explains the appeal of Twitter:
Now that’s the best explanation I’ve heard to date.
Clap, clap, clap . . . Nina and Candrin, I think you both summed up the arguments against social networking very nicely.
My work blocked facebook a few months ago although they haven’t blocked twitter yet. I will admit that I was checking facebook too much and quite honestly, it had no work application at all. It’s just a time suck.
Luckily for me, i am the “social media strategist” at my organization. So I’m supposed to be tweeting and posting on facebook at work!
but yes, the opportunities that social networking sites provide are tremendous. So many people can be reached through these sites. I find it easier to have successful events due to Facebook’s Events feature.