Online social networking has been the center of discussions across all sectors of business and professions. Should companies allow employees to use social networking as a work activity or task?
What are the benefits to social networking? What are the pitfalls? Just what are the rules of online social networking? With more people going online, rules and boundaries are emerging.
Social Networking Rules?
How can there be rules applied to online social networking when the most powerful draw of social networking has been no holds barred, no rules apply?
For social networking to be considered a viable, useable, effective business tool, usage rules have to be applied.
The rules are going to vary according to the type of social networking being used. There are many different kinds of social networks online including business, marketing, manufacturing and the more infamous personal networks such as Facebook and Myspace.
Which networks your company should frequent really depends on the target audience, the reasons why the company is using networking (sales, support, vendor relations, etc.) and the end results desired.
First Rule – Determine Social Technographics Profile
Groundswell, Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (2008, Harvard Busines Press) is a new book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (top researchers from Forrester Research). The authors discuss the online social networking phenomenon and how companies can use it as an opportunity to connect with customers.
There is a technographics profile offered online at www.forrester.com/groundswell/profile_tool.htm. The web site suggests that a company start by determining the kind of relationship to build with the customer. The profile tool helps a company determine what kind of social networker its customers might be.
There are six levels of social networking participation provided in the profile tool - creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, inactive. The networks a company needs to be involved with will be determined by where the customers fall on the profile.
Sample of the New Rules
A sample of the new rules for networks such as Facebook and Myspace were reported by Psychology Today (November/December 2008). For example, one third of students surveyed believe that high school and college faculty should be barred from posting to student’s networks because of identity management concerns.
Having too many or too few friends on one’s friends list could be damaging. Three hundred friends have been determined to be the optimal number – more and you appear desperate – less and you become less socially attractive.
Not mentioning religious beliefs and identities online is another acceptable practice. And, although students do not want teachers posting on their profiles, when teachers and professors have their own profiles online, they are perceived as more motivational and end up with more comfortable classroom environments.
Online Emulates Real-Life
In the early days of online social networks, many networkers used the online networks to increase their ability to reach others. Today’s social networking is a different environment with a higher population and as such socially acceptable rules are beginning to surface.
As business professionals, marketers, public relations and communications professionals, and advertisers have to be aware of first where their customers fall in the six levels of participation and then the rules of the particular networks used by their customers so that they communicate within those newly set and continually evolving boundaries.
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