It’s hard to open a publication or look on the internet at a twitter stream and hear the endless chatter from social media strategists.
We try not to overuse the word social media here, but this article by Timothy Pychyl (in response to another article called Facebooking at work) was an article that caught our attention. If you’re wondering about a social media policy within the company, there are new tools cropping up that are showing users how much time per day they are spending tweeting, facebooking, or chatting on IM.
Some companies take more draconian measures towards social media usage: Social media is banned in about 54% of workplaces.
It seems to be a fine balance, right? Allowing people to be social is an essential distraction that could spur creativity and innovation. More new products have probably been conceived at the water cooler than in a cubicle sitting alone.
Some things are very seductive distractions that can undermine even the most goal-oriented individual. This is certainly true of social media tools, because in addition to feelings of competence and autonomy captured in the analysis above, we also have a basic human need for social relatedness (which Pamela notes as well). So, at work I may have goals that are appropriately challenging and defined and targets to meet, but my social needs are even more well defined and certainly easier to fulfill (and more fun too).
We liked the article in Psych Today because it specifically discusses goals and their social nature. I find it strange that “challenging and defined goals and work targets” are held to be mutually exclusive from interacting socially. Isn’t the workplace just a “social” network oriented around a set of shared goals and interests?
It’s amusing, but not surprising that companies would block Facebook. Throwing sheep, superpoking your boss, and playing Mafia wars might be fun for a little while… but we believe cultivating purpose oriented interest networks is still a gigantic opportunity.
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