Corporate Social Media Policies

There's a very interesting set of questions in the post Happy New Year! AND do you have opinions about social media governance? This is by an IBM employee, Jen Okimoto, who works in the domain of Web 2.0 and is asking about a very important issue ...

Access to and Governance of Social Media Tools in Corporate America.

This is a big issue. I've posted before a list of Corporate Policies on Web 2.0 and you can see some of the patterns that have emerged, but these don't necessarily help answer the questions being raise. I have some numbers in Web 2.0 Corporate Access that shows that a significant number of corporate policies are to shut down access to the tools.

Her questions are right on the mark. These are problems that I heard during my sessions last week as I mentioned in ASTD Follow-Up. Here are the questions she posted (with significant additional commentary).

1. How detailed should social media guidelines be?
2. When introducing social media into the workplace, how do we address HR concerns about reduced employee productivity?
3. How do you guide employees or manage employees in navigating the gray with respect to posting content that is or is not appropriate in the work environment?
4. What about content that falls squarely in the HR domain? What if employees use social media to publicize HR issues, or to gain "supporters" to their cause?
5. Do we have IBM or client examples of stats, use cases or any other stories that address these concerns?

This is an important discussion to be conducted. I hope you will visit her blog for details and post your thoughts.