A failure to use social media is tantamount to ignoring the telephone at the end of the 19th century, according to Socitm's research unit.
A report from Socitm Insight, Social media: Why IT management should lead their organisations to embrace it, published on 18 January, said IT managers should be encouraging councils to embrace social-media services.
It said services such as Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn and Ning could help shape the public sector as it struggles to cope with the effects of the recession. In addition it claimed non-engagement with social media risks ignoring comments made externally about an organisation.
Socitm Insight's findings are based on interviews with 57 IT managers and web specialists from across the public sector. They reveal that some public-sector employees are already sharing important information with their counterparts, industry experts and researchers. Elected members and senior managers are using the medium to communicate internally.
The report said 32 percent of local authorities are now on Twitter, and 12 percent have a Facebook page. Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, for example, has a Twitter account and a corporate web page for employees as well as for communication with the public and businesses.
Stratford-on-Avon DC, described in the report as a small council with modest resources, is "in the vanguard of social media adoption". It was one of the first local authorities to use photo-sharing site Flickr, and has an 'album' containing contributions from the public and the council.
However, the survey revealed that 90 percent of organisations restrict staff access to social media and about 67 percent have a total ban. Others allow use of social media during lunch breaks or out of office hours, suggesting they see them as social tools and not of business benefit.
The report said such software restrictions will not work, because employees will use their own facilities, such as smartphones.
A third of respondents said they were concerned about bandwidth, but the document points out that with the advent of cloud computing and the increase in web and network services, organisations will have to "make some hard choices" about the types of traffic they wish to carry.
It is not the role of IT manager to block access to social media, the report argues: rather they should point out the technology potential and provide service managers with costs, particularly those that arise from the need for additional infrastructure.
"Use of social media has exploded, appearing on the radar of IT managers, but mostly for the wrong reasons," says report author Chris Head. "The term 'social' implies 'not related to work', but this is a fallacy.
"CIOs and heads of ICT need to take the lead and educate colleagues on the organisation's management team about the benefits of social media, as well as finding ways to accommodate them appropriately and safely through the corporate infrastructure."
Talkback
I will conceed that for many people Twitter and Facebook are almost second nature. Both services are seen as wonderful and can do no wrong. However, I have to disagree I am afriad. Unfortunately, if a company were to allow access to such services staff would spend more time updating their profiles and status' than actually working.
I have heard conversations in the workplace between staff where all they discuss is changes they have made to their facebook profile. Apart from being a terrifying insight into the amount of innane and pointless comentary these people deem to post for the world to see, it instantly made me very glad that Facebook is out and out blocked on our proxy for for all staff and learners across the board.
Social networking sites have always had people gushing over the potential benefits for businesses to have a presence on them. However, look at how few bothered with MySpace or any of the others before Facebook arrived. I do not see businesses or Councils allowing access to Facebook on their networks any time soon. Especially Councils, who in my experience, have enough trouble getting their staff to do their assigned work as it is without any additional distractions being introduced.
Let a lone risking confidential material slipping out onto it, or trojans slipping in via it, and with streaming hd content on the rise the warning of bandwidth usage is a genuine one.
Not to mention ipv4's running out, sounds tome like this report is being punted to create 3rd party benefactors.