Count your blessings if you can check your Facebook or get to Twitter through your company’s network, because more than half of companies won’t allow it. And those companies see a measurable gain in productivity from their workers.

Fifty-four percent of companies block access to social networking sites on their office networks according to a study by Robert Half Technology. That means no Facebook, no MySpace and certainly no Twitter.

Many leaders are concerned that social networks pose a distraction for workers that could hurt productivity and profits. In fact, 77 percent of Facebook users check their accounts at least once per day from work.

Another study performed by Nucleus Research found good reason for leaders to be concerned about social networking at the office. Last July Nucleus reported that companies suffered a 1.5 percent loss that allowed workers unfettered access to the Web.

Dave Willmer of Robert Half says, “Using social networking sites may divert employees’ attention away from more pressing priorities, so it’s understandable that some companies limit access.” However Willmer also believes that the social Web can be useful to workers in some sectors.

Practically everyone in Marketing has heard of using Twitter or a Facebook fan page to pump up other marketing efforts and engage their community. Some Recruiters also use social networks to sift through potential hires.

These types of uses for social networking are starting to drive some exceptions to bans on social networking at work. In fact, the Robert Half study found that 20 percent of companies allow social networking if it’s expressly for work purposes.

Jobs that allow extensive use of social networking tools on company time are still few and far between. However that won’t stop throngs of so-called social media marketers from trying to get paid for their ‘efforts.’

Related:

Entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 9:48 am under Social Media.

Read more entries by Dave Jeyes.
Stumble It!