Whenever I speak to a group of larger companies, I always ask the audience how many block common social media sites. On the average, about a third raise their hands. This becomes a common question they then ask me, “how do you feel about blocking common sites Scott?” So here is my answer in written form for my readers that deal with this issue. Let’s break this down into the reasons I hear that organizations block sites (Facebook, Twitter, youtube, etc.)

1 – By allowing these sites, people will waste time contacting their friends instead of working… I guess the logic here is that since you can’t trust your people to do their jobs, and your leadership is not motivating enough to give people passion for performing, you will block them from the few respites they might have to stay sane. Sorry, this makes no sense. Reason one is that they have iPhones and can use any of these tools on their mobile devices anyway. Reason two is that they still have other devices like a telephone you provide, and they can sit on that all day with their family an friends if they really do not want to work. Reason three is that people are either going to do their job or not. The presence of technology tools is not going to change that. Reason four is that young people especially are using these tools FOR BUSINESS in some cases and what you gain by taking them away, you lose by stopping people from connecting with customers, partners, and vendors in says that would have built relationships.

2 – We can’t control what our people would do or say on these sites about our business so let’s block them in order to be safe… Really…. REALLY? Grab the cluetrain. You cannot control what they say on their iPhones, or their home computers, or verbally, or just about any way! How is blocking Twitter going to keep someone that is going to talk smack from talking smack? So you are willing to trade the benefits of social media as a communication tool, for the misbelief that blocking them will stop a malcontent from posting something? Really?

3 – We don’t want our people using these sites if they are going to mix business with pleasure. In other words, friend people that are clients, and mix them with high school friends. – See bullet 2 above. You cannot control who the next generation friends on their devices. Another take on this is we will have to live in a world going forward where all of us create two profiles – a personal and professional and keep everyone in the appropriate bucket, or we will have to accept that people are human beings and have lives out of their careers. And then people will have to have the discretion to not upload drunken high school Spring Break pictures onto a friends Facebook site if they are over 20 years old.

4 – Some of these sites use up too much bandwidth so we block them to keep our access speeds up – I am sure this is aimed at the dreaded video sites – Hulu, Youtube, Vimeo, etc. Yes, video takes up a lot of bandwidth, especially if you are downloading a full length movie off a pirate site. I am fine blocking sites that break copyright laws. I am not fine blocking youtube for example. Some people actually need to access videos for various reasons. Plus, bandwidth is not that expensive at this point. Better to provide enough than to block sites that will make you appear to be old school.

5 – Our employees do not even use computers that much, and when they do, we have specific applications for them. Open access to the Web provides no value in our world – People that make this judgment are always over 50 years old. Get mad at me if you like, but I have never seen a 30 year old leader block access. But, just to provide real reason why I do not agree: When you hire young people and they show up to work and see that you block things they have been using for years, the clock is ticking until your A players will leave. They will see you as stodgy and behind culturally, and will move on. The C players will stick with you – so enjoy them! You assumption is that your people will not find valuable things to do with social media, and I promise you that is wrong. No matter what business you are in, people will find clever ways to leverage these new tools. And finally, the Web is becoming a huge river of information and if you want ANY worker to stay up on the latest information in their field, or to grow as a team member, it might be nice to let them connect to others in their field.

Conclusion – People fear what they do not understand. History is littered with examples of people that saw a new technology, and blocked it just because it was new and they did not understand it. Heck, I was banned from using a calculator for much of my school life!!! Sure, it might seem like I have been a little harsh on this subject, and yes, there will be people that will waste hours a day on Facebook if you are not careful. But barring a tool from the masses because of the bad behavior of a few is not the solution. Disciplining the few is the answer. Here is the reality… If you block social media sites today, you will unblock them in the future. It is simply a matter of time until the pressure will build too high.

Scott Klososky
Scott@klososky.com