Bizbox Twitter:

Twitter in the Workplace

By Jerry Kalish

That’s me, of course, on the left, talking on the phone. If I’m not doing that I’m sending and answering email. And for about the last six months, I’ve been one of the estimated six million people on Twitter. In fact, so has BizBox.

If you’re not quite sure what it is, Twitter is a free social networking service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates, known as tweets. These tweets must take up 140 keystrokes or fewer, and can be sent to individuals or a network of “followers"; users receive them in turn from people they follow.

Here’s a much better explanation, as only the creative folks at Common Craft can do, in their video, Twitter in Plain English.

As explained in the video, tweets answer the simple question: “What are you doing now?”

Which brings me to my topic. Answering the question "What are you doing now?" can sometimes cause problems in the workplace for employers whose employees are using Twitter to do so. Or maybe employees are spending time following tweets having to do with such current Twitter trends as #Swine Flu, #Wolverine, or #Steve-O. Or maybe employees are revealing a little too much, since all user information is public by default.

According to computer expert Graham Cluley of antivirus firm Sophos, an embarrassing or incriminating tweet, or one which may have been sent accidentally, even if deleted, still exists on the Twitter site. And thus, is searchable forever.

So if you’re looking for a simple Twitter policy, here’s one discussed at the Workplace Prof Blog. It’s by attorney Jay Shepherd, who writes the management-side Gruntled Employees blog. He shares his firm’s Twitter policy with us. He says:

"Our Twitter policy: Be professional, kind, discreet, authentic. Represent us well. Remember that you can’t control it once you hit 'update.'"

(In case you're wondering, yes, that policy can be written in under 140 characters!)

It’s common sense, of course, but that doesn't mean you don't need to make it formal policy. After all, as I pointed out on my Retirement Plan Blog, if common sense was so common, more people would have it.

Jerry Kalish is founder and President of National Benefit Services, Inc., a Chicago-based employee benefit consulting and administrative firm that serves private-held companies, publicly traded companies, and public sector employers. He blogs at The Retirement Plan Blog and can be reached at jerry@nationalbenefit.com.

Comments (2)

May 5, 2009 10:18 AM

Comments (2)

Angela Connor:

Twitter guidelines are important. They should support the overall mission of the company and more importantly it's social media strategy. I just finished guidelines for my employer as the lead of a social media task force. There should be a mission. You need to have some idea of what you want to get out of Twitter and how you want to help others. Nice post.

Posted by Angela Connor | May 9, 2009 5:29 PM

Posted on May 9, 2009 17:29

Brady Cook:

Another thing I wonder about is the possibility of a competing company obtaining too much information from Twitter. As you mentioned, the information is public by default. One thing to be considered in policies is your competitors could be following your employees. Maybe one of your employees could reveal too much information or maybe a group of employees tweeting collectively could give a competitor too much insight into your company’s operations. Do you really want your competitors knowing the types of projects your employees are working on, the technologies you are using, where your employees are traveling to, etc? Perhaps that maybe a bit paranoid, but it’s worth considering.

Posted by Brady Cook | May 27, 2009 6:17 PM

Posted on May 27, 2009 18:17