Facing Up To The Future

As all good PR people know, there’s nothing like combining a bit of righteous indignation, some dramatic survey research and a few sweeping generalisations to make a ‘news’ story – and this week’s spot prize for media alchemy goes to law firm Peninsula, which has the online social networking phenomenon firmly in its sights.

According to Peninsula’s latest piece of research, a minimum of 233 million hours are lost every month as a result of employees “wasting time� on social networking – and its director of employment law is calling on all firms to block access to sites such as Facebook (though I’m presuming that even he would allow people who actually work for Facebook to take a peek now and again…).

Numerous organisations, from Lloyds TSB and Credit Suisse to the Metropolitan Police and Kent County Council, have already taken steps to stop their staff accessing social networking sites from their office computers.

And there have even been reports of an Argos employee being sacked for expressing a far-from-positive opinion about his place of work on his personal Facebook page.

On a superficial level, you can well understand why employers don’t want to give their staff carte blanche to chat to friends about their weekend plans whilst their noses should be firmly to the grindstone.

But in my own industry, there’s a more complex debate going on about this issue which will, in time, I believe, be replicated in other industry sectors.

The simple fact is that the ways in which people obtain the information they use to make up their mind about products, services and pretty much everything else is changing out of all recognition.

People are no longer content to be told that Product X is better than Product Y – they now have the ways and means to find out directly what their peers think, or, equally importantly, to influence these opinions.

More and more PR consultancies are not only allowing their staff to access Facebook, Bebo or Myspace, but, having recognised the potential that such sites have to shape and drive popular opinion, they are also actively encouraging them to use it as part of their daily work.

Morally questionable? Yes, perhaps, depending on the way it is done, but the likelihood is that it’s a trend that will spread across other industry sectors once the positive impact that ‘frivolous online chatter’ can have on brand reputation and sales figures becomes better understood.

And since most companies are keen to promote their staff as their best ambassadors, more and more might well eventually see the benefit of allowing them (with the appropriate safeguards) to make their voices heard online from their place of work.

Looks like the righteously-indignant amongst us are going to have plenty of chances to let rip in the coming years…

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