The fact that so many companies are refusing to review their firewall policies has been compared to the many short-sighted agencies who had access to the web blocked because senior management did not understand what was going on during the early days of the internet.
Back then senior agency management thought too much time would be spent on 'idle' surfing, as Mark has pointed out in response to my Dell piece. And the same is now happening with large organisations. They cannot see what videos are on YouTube about them; they cannot see what blogs are saying about them; they cannot read links which agencies send to them because of the firewall policies.
The same companies that prevent their experienced communications staff from viewing whole sections of the web are totally out of touch. They have their heads in the virtual fast moving sand like idiotic ostriches. Hiding behind the firewall and pretending that social media does not exist is not an option. The web is democratic. It is part of today's business culture. It is new and fundamentally changing that culture. Any company that does not understand this will go into terminal decline or be the subject of social media network driven rallies and boycotts which it will be powerless to see or pick up until it is too late.
Why do we allow dinosaur firewall policies to determine how communications staff can respond to social media? Bring down the firewalls and join the fast moving world of blogs and videos and photos now and see what people are saying about your company and do something about it!!! Stop pretending this world is just for digital natives or your children.
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