A US company has decided to introduce Facebook Fridays to give staff time to be on Facebook rather than banning it altogether.
http://www.serena.com/company/news/pr/sPR_11022007.html
It is a gimmicky idea and will doubtless generate Serena a lot of press but it does highlight how progressive companies are thinking about social media.
It is exasperating when you meet internal communications professionals whose idea of introducing social media to their staff is to set up a blog for the MD. Will it work? Probably not.
MDs want to engage with their staff. Well why don't they take some time out and consider how social media applications could really assist them.
But they have to understand that social media is about letting staff create the content and involving them. And it is about being innovative. Social Media is also a cultural change. It is going to demand that companies re-think how they talk to customers and to their staff. But it could really benefit those companies who use social media applications in a progressive way. I also think it is a cop out to suggest that these applications are only relevant to young people. Communications executives in large organisations should be engaging with social media because it is here now and it is the future.
