Tracy Panko, CEO at Spiral16 (http://www.spiral16.com), joins us to discuss the art and science of social media monitoring, your SM policy, and the mayhem that ensues when your policy and processes are not in place... Read the Transcript

Tracy Panko CEO Spiral16 http://spiral16.com

Tracy Panko is the CEO of Spiral16, a Kansas City-based software and strategic data services company that provides a web monitoring and measurement platform for brands and companies all over the world. Companies use the business intelligence provided by Spiral16 to make strategic decisions in all facets of their brand. Prior to joining Spiral16, Panko was a Managing Partner of a successful software company and has served as CEO of other emerging growth companies. She is a popular speaker on the subjects of business strategy and innovation including social media.

The self tending mushroom alert will go to a large number of companies this month for not creating or implementing social media guidelines. Lawsuits are proliferating as a result of social media slip-ups in the work place, but as only 29 percent of American companies and 20 percent of companies worldwide had a social media policy in place as of February 2010, perhaps the blame does not totally lie with the employees. Employers are reacting with fear and trepidation about employees gossiping online, but in reality, the gossip has always taken place, there are just so many more ways to discuss issues at work in this age of technology. Workers who have apparently crossed the imaginary line have been disciplined and, in some cases, terminated. This may be an over-reaction because as the National Labor Relations Board who overturned one employee’s termination reminded us, “Speech is protected because the employer cannot terminate employees for talking about work conditions.” So, as long as the comments are part of a conversation and are not disloyal or defamatory, discussing work on social networks is allowed. Despite concerns about loss of productivity from employees using social media during work time, a report by The Department of Management and Marketing at University of Melbourne in Australia, 2009, says that workers who engage in "workplace internet leisure browsing" are 9% more productive than those who don't. Yet still—hence the wide-spread self tending mushroom alert—according to the February 2010 Manpower Employer Services report, 54 percent of American companies completely blocked access to social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. However, a recent Deloitte study found that 61 percent of employees would not change their online behavior even if they were being monitored by their employers and 49 percent would not make changes even if a social media policy was in place. The lessons from this month’s Self Tending Mushroom Award are these. First, Ignoring the need for a social media policy is asking for disaster. A social media policy protects your business from four angles. There is no one size fits all in social media policies.  Social media policies can be simple and effective. Lastly, train your employees on your social media policy. Clue in your team with a simple online video or audio post to get the points across.