360DigitalInfluence

I spotted a fascinating piece of news today about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reversing a social media policy shortly after issuing it. The original policy, issued Friday before the holiday weekend, notified employees that TSA would block certain categories of websites. Blocking certain websites is common, and so were most of the blocked categories, which included extreme violence, criminal activity, and gruesome content. One blocked category, however - sites that contained “controversial opinions” - raised a number of eyebrows.

At about 5:30 this evening, according to CBS News, TSA reversed itself on that particular category, assuring its employees that it does in fact want them to think for themselves (my interpretation).

For communicators, I think there are a couple of lessons here. One, of course, is a simple reminder that “internal communications” no longer exists as a category, if in fact it ever did - companies should operate on the assumption that any information provided to employees will go public, sooner rather than later. A second is that it’s hard to regulate the consumption of information in a way that makes sense in the borderless world of the internet. Most people would - I think - agree that companies have the right to prevent employees from using company provided equipment to access pornography and violence during working hours, but even the definitions of those categories can be problematic  (in reference to the TSA policy, for example, what exactly is “extreme violence” - and does that mean “normal violence” is acceptable?). And it only becomes more complicated, as TSA’s experience shows us.

In an earlier post, I cited Jay Shepherd’s Tweetable Twitter policy as an example of a thoughtful, smart social media policy - any other policies you’d recommend?

Very interesting Detroit Free Press article on how companies are dealing with social media. What is your company doing? What are the best (and worst) policies and practices you’ve seen? I still think the best Twitter policy ever is Jay Shepherd’s 140 character policy but if you have a fave, I’d love to know about it.

For several years now, conventional wisdom has told us that we’re all on the road to a fully digital world. It’s certainly possible, and the 2009 comScore report suggests it’s likely.

According to comScore, whle U.S. e-commerce market shrunk for the first time since tracking began (total spending dropped 2 percent, travel spending, 5 percent), it’s likely a blip caused by the recession, and everything else – search, online advertising, smart phone usage, social networking – increased substantially.

Other sources, however, suggest the path may not be so smooth. A digital age survey by Wells Fargo (my client) found that while most people have taken their first steps in many digital categories (have a cell phone and digital camera, check account balances online) there’s a sharp dropoff in each category. We tend to think of young people as the most digitally sophisticated (my sister, a school principal, tells me the new term is “digital native”), but in the survey 30-somethings were more likely to be digital adults. Try it yourself and tell me how you scored (I’m a teenager myself).

And a “take back reality” movement, while small, is growing, according to USA Today, with people signing off and “scraping” their digital selves to spend more time in the real world.

Will we turn digital, go analog, or end up somewhere in between?

Executives often ask “How can I control employee blogs about my company?”  First, they can’t.  Just look at Gannett and Starbucks and the ensuing Wall Street Journal blog.  Second, they’re asking the wrong question.  What they should be asking is “What can I do to ensure my employees have something good to say about me when they do blog?”

The issue isn’t that social media has given employees a voice they never had, although that certainly is one effect.  The issue is that employers are not treating employees in a way that employees feel is fair and equitable.  Companies should instead focus on evaluating their internal practices and think about how they can use employee blogs as an extension of their brand and as a feedback loop.