Airfreight Security

Integrating social networking at work

Some organisations have chosen to integrate applications such as Twitter, LinkedIn and instant messaging into their daily 

corporate practices – but for others, the prospect of using such potentially unruly tools has led to them blocking their use.

However, with information now widely acknowledged as the most valuable business currency – particularly during tough 

economic times – blocking Web 2.0 access could seriously damage an organisation’s competitive advantage.

Not only do social networking processes give employees the ability to locate the right people, information and expertise quickly, 

but they also greatly aid external networking, sales and marketing activities.

The instant nature of communication in a Web 2.0 world is a major part of the business appeal of these tools – but there is a 

fine line to tread.

Information can easily be divulged, co-opted or misconstrued, opening enterprises up to great risk, ranging from embarrassment and reputation damage to business failure and other serious financial consequences.

For instance, there have already been numerous cases of employees being disciplined for discussing proprietary information on sites such as Facebook, while a major US network was recently reprimanded when one of its journalists leaked off-the-record commentary from President Barack Obama via his Twitter feed.

Organisations must therefore take care of their data, ensuring that all relevant material is preserved and accessible, and 

preventing information leakage via careless employee use.

On top of the ever-expanding volume of e-mail, documents and other electronically stored information, organisations now face 

the increased difficulty of finding information from myriad sources.

Add to this the fact that so few companies have any clue about what data exists, when it was posted, and which site it lives on, 

and the potential cost and time implications for dealing with such requests are huge.

Consequently, businesses could face serious problems, including failure to control the flow of sensitive corporate information, an inability to comply with regulatory investigations and exorbitant costs when faced with an eDisclosure event.

There is no doubt that Web 2.0 applications can offer a powerful means to capture latent knowledge and experience within an 

organisation. Blocking employee access to certain Web 2.0 sites is therefore pointless – not only will staff find a way round any 

restrictions imposed, but cutting off such real-time resources virtually ensures a loss of competitive edge.

Instead, organisations must get Web 2.0 savvy – sooner rather than later – ensuring that employees are fully aware of the 

possible ramifications of using these tools in such a dynamic and evolving technological landscape.

Furthermore, integrating social networking applications at a strategic level within an organisation’s corporate information and risk management policies is becoming critical.

Creating and enforcing the appropriate usage policies to ensure the security and confidentiality of all information across the 

enterprise for regulatory compliance and records management purposes is the key.

As social media tools will only continue to grow in popularity and usefulness in the business realm, corporate policy and control 

coupled with organisational discretion are crucial both to maintaining a competitive advantage and ensuring that companies have adequate procedures in place to protect against information risk.

However, while having a corporate policy in place may seem common sense, it is important to remember that any such policy is 

only as effective as its enforcement