Facebook is a social network, but people tend to forget that Facebook is a proprietary social network and like Marc Cuban puts it best:

“If you join Facebook, by definition you want to give up some of your privacy”.

Cuban is specifically talking about Facebook however this is true for all social media web sites. Despite having a clear business model or not, they are still businesses offering a service.

Unfortunately, most corporations do not have the expertise and due to costs of acquisition, it is often not feasible for them to develop their own social network platform so that they can control 100% of their content. Therefore, corporations must turn to dominant social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, et al. Especially since there is already a large population on these platforms.

Privacy concerns on social media are very important for large corporations mainly because of the size of their workforce. Every business has sensitive information that cannot be shared and unfortunately, not all employees can understand the implications, despite having the best intentions.

With studies supporting the theory that social networks boost productivity, blocking access to social media in the workplace is a very unpopular ruling.

However, it is important to understand that it is not a question of productivity. Rather, it is a matter of security and not only on a technical and system network level (virus, trojans, etc.) but in terms of information.

Once something is on the Internet, it is there forever and can be accessible at anytime. Do not be fooled in thinking that once it is deleted that nobody can put their hands on the information again (Google cache for instance is one of many ways of accessing something after it has been “removed”).

Therefore, every piece of information that a company publishes on social media needs to be thought out thoroughly. Social Media is a nightmare for the legal department and rightfully so. Since different employees have different levels of responsibility, they also have a different understanding of the implications of any content they share about their work. An employee can put the corporation at risk by simply taking a picture of themselves at work and sharing it on Facebook because although such activity can be low risk, something in the background of the picture can show information that can put the company in hot water. Unfortunately, the employee did not think about it and the damage is done. The truth is, it isn’t the employee’s job to think about every piece of content posted, the implications and the possible repercussions.

It is the leaders’ responsibility.

Unfortunately, due to the new nature of social media upper management often delegates many activities related to web 2.0 to junior employees thinking that the young graduate understands social media and that they themselves do not because they are older. The problem with such a train of thought is that the junior does not have the decades of experience in business that the upper management has and thus cannot understand (and rightfully so) how a piece of content can affect a business.

The solution is clear, upper management needs to become familiar with social media enough to not shy away from the tools. This does not imply that C-level executives should all make YouTube vlogs or Tweet. Rather, they need to learn how social media functions as well as the philosophy of the web 2.0 in order to appropriate them as an additional channel of communication so that they can understand the implications of certain information being share publically.

Hence, the importance of proper social media coaching and training for upper management not so that they can participate on the platforms but that they can manage their business better. Such training needs to recognize the traditional roles and responsibilities of the different executives and upper level managers so that proper information about social media can be shared with them. Training at this level must be broad enough so that executives and upper level managers who are not familiar with the web can understand but not too technical at the same time because they are not all expected to be performing the execution on the social media platforms.

Understanding is key for upper management in order for them to properly lead the organization and avoid missteps from employees with less experience and less vision.