Facebook users cost SMB’s thousands – says Telstra

As hard as we try, those of us in Social Media are always going to struggle when old media giants like News Corp decides to lay the boot into social media via one of the popular tools – in this case Facebook. The report from (News subsidiary) Adelaide Now is a clear attack on social networking and social media and is designed to do nothing more than instil fear in the minds of business owners. The headline pretty much gave away the bias of the article and upon reading it I had my expectations of a hatchet job pretty much confirmed.

What really stood out for me (other than the blatant bias in the article) is the comment from a Telstra Executive.
Telstra Business Executive Director Brian Harcourt was quoted in the article as follows:

“If an employee spends as much as an hour a day on Facebook, it can end up costing a business thousands of dollars in lost time over the course of a year.”

I’ve thought long and hard about this comment and whether to just ignore this or write a stinging rebuke. I really don’t follow the logic of a senior Telstra executive making comments like this. He’s basically telling the business community to lock down internet access or “god forbid” it will cost your company thousands of dollars.

Why am I confused by this comment (or frustrated)?

1. Telstra has been promoting itself as a leader in the social media space, espousing their brilliant efforts to connect to the community and providing the means for people to have dialogue.
2. Telstra recently announced your own internal social media policies with much fan fare  (or was that just a reaction to the @fakestephenconroy fiasco).
3. Telstra sells internet access – broadband is their bread and butter remember…

So, Telstra is telling the business community to curtail use of the internet particularly the evil Facebook as that is where bludgers congregate? That would be like Jeroen van der Veer (he’s the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell) telling his customers to NOT buy the Land Rover Discovery 3 V8 HSE because it’s a V8 and man they suck the gas down. Forget about the fact you could drive it sensibly and reasonably economically and derive much pleasure and benefit along the way – “It’s a V8 man; it’ll cost you thousands of dollars a year”.

So rather than be critical of Telstra, I’m going to help them. I’d like to put forward many of the points that (I suspect) Brian didn’t get a chance to in the article. I want to believe that Telstra believes – and knows this is not about bludgers; it’s about culture and engagement (remember the former CEO’s massive spread in The Boss Magazine last year where he talked long about culture and engagement?). Telstra knows this is about accepting that technology is good and things are changing.

I can imagine Brian and his colleagues looking at this research and wanting to say to the public and their valued business customers – “the research shows that business owners are worried – they don’t quite get it like we do. So because we’re innovative leaders, we’re going to contribute some of what we know and hold true, so that others can learn how to harness the potential and find a positive. Because it’s not about bludgers it’s about empowerment and trust”.

I am of the opinion that Telstra would get much more mileage (or column inch coverage) if they said this, or if they even went a step further and followed the lead of their global innovative peers like IBM, Dell, and Harvard by saying “Our message is don’t lock down. Our message is to allow dialogue, to embrace it through a set of mutually agreed guidelines. In fact, here’s our policies – take them and modify them.

We’re Telstra, so we’re going to contribute to the community. Because we believe this is the way of the future because we’re bloody smart and innovative, and we want you using our products.”

Isn’t that a much better story line than what News Limited concocted?

I like this model where Telstra uses their PR presence/muscle to go into the community and have the balls to say “come with us, we’ve got some great ideas”.

Social Media Policy – balancing freedom and corporate responsibility

I caught a very interesting article this morning from the WSJ about social media policy. It delved into the issues public companies face with respect to using social media tools and public disclosure/SEC compliance.

This is a topic I’m always asked about when I talk about social media with CEO’s and I think it’s a reasonable question to be asking. I commented earlier this month about Australian Telco Telstra’s recently announced social media policy which was good but I felt they were closing the gate after the horse had bolted.

Many social media experts put forward an overly simplistic ideal that the corporation should just get in and join the groundswell and let the information be free with this sentiment picked up in the article with reference to eBay seemingly putting some boundaries around an official Twitterer:

Some followers think the tougher oversight is squelching Mr. Brewer-Hay’s spontaneous, informal style

This type of mindset is dangerous as it fails to balance the desire to be open and collaborative with real world regulatory demands (such as continuous disclosure obligations).

This collision of ideals is where I feel many social media experts and participants really let themselves down in that they don’t or won’t accept realistic boundaries around the use of social media. If an employee puts information into the community that is wrong or is breaking the law why shouldn’t the company act? What justification is there for this ideal that “sanitising such posts risks hurting credibility with online audiences”?

If you step back from the regulatory aspect, it’s also good business to have a policy in place that reinforces mutual obligations as well as the overall strategy. The US Air Force has a very interesting flow chart that they use to help their employees understand how to engage. As David Meerman Scott discusses in his post, the USAF has a well developed policy that encourages every employee to be a communicator. The USAF’s blog assessment flowchart is something I was very impressed with as it’s a simple but effective tool to help visualise one aspect of a social media policy.

US Air Force Blog Assessment Flowchart

My advice to CEO’s is to focus on getting a clear and simple policy in place and then sticking to it. Get on the web and find examples of what others are doing well – i.e. Dell, IBM. If you find reason to intervene then make sure you do it in a way that is open and transparent. Most people in the community will respect this and appreciate the fact that a company is prepared to be open but is also prepared to be diligent and responsible.