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As an owner of an IT company, I am constantly asked my opinion on allowing FaceBook (or other Web  2.0 platforms like MySpace) into the workplace. Like so many other things in life, the answer is that “it depends”. It depends primarily on who in the company is using it and also how your company is structured.

Let’s start with the “who” should be using it: anyone in marketing, sales, or most management – assuming that they use it to some extent for business purposes and that your business is suitable for use on a social media platform. If you manufacture skateboards or provide marketing services, you should be using FaceBook. If you’re a defense contractor… not so much. FaceBook and other social mediums are becoming more used as the de facto communication tool, so allowing these platforms to be used by people in business development makes sense. As of this writing, I am guessing that a full 20% of my own business communications are going through FaceBook or Linkedin.

If your company is structured as a performance-only culture, then I say “Open the flood gates!”. By performance-only culture I mean that every single employee’s salary is somehow affected by incentives and/or commission based on performance metrics. In this case, FaceBook should not make a difference since all that matters is putting scores on the board (who cares how it is done short of breaking the law). Incidentally, this is crucial for employees that telework as you do not have any ability to block computers on their home network from accessing these sites.

Since I have told you “who” and “what types of companies” you should allow, here is the “why”: Blame it on the millennials. This generation wants to work from wherever during whatever hours they want and the ability to collaborate easily which is what tools like FaceBook provide. In the end it is all about collaboration, very current information, and staying “in front” of one another. Social media is a great place to announce events, post blog article links, links to other useful resources and to show a more human side of you if you’re willing to open up a little. Why is the latter important? Because people buy from people, not from companies – unless you’re just that well branded.

My company, Carceron, has allowed FaceBook because it is a medium we sometimes communicate on and also a medium we communicate to customers and fans with on our Carceron fan page.

In summary, there is no one size fits all answers to this question. Seek expert advice from experts in information technology, especially those in security.

Side Note: For those of you not aware of how web sites are blocked, many solutions exist that allow a business to block specific web sites like FaceBook, as well as generic web sites by category, such as: pornography, hate groups, etc. This is usually done by a small investment in a higher level firewall, such as a SonicWall, with a content management subscription. If that does not provide enough security, there is software that can monitor and record everything a user does. SpectorSoft makes such a product and is the solution of choice for Carceron.

In today’s wired, always-on world, poorly configured computers and the Internet can be a significant source of distraction to employees, to say nothing of it being a source of liability to businesses for a number of reasons.

Put Them On Notice

Every business needs to incorporate an acceptable end-user policy agreement into their employee handbooks. This policy should cover issues such as:

• Web Sites Allowed & Not Allowed to Be Visited While at Work
• Email Privacy & Acceptable Use
• Use of removable media such as flash drives and blank CDs & DVDs

You can download a sample template by clicking here: Carceron End User IT Policy Agreement

Watch Where They Go

Most firewalls, such as SonicWalls, have the ability to filter web content to the business network, thereby limiting which web sites users are allowed to visit. In the case of the SonicWall, the basic package comes with URL blocking (block specific web sites that you manually enter into the device) and keyword blocking (block web sites with specific keywords, such as “Viagara”). You’ll want to be careful with keyword blocking, especially in the medical profession, as certain sites that would be appropriate might be inadvertently blocked – for example, if you blocked the word “breast” you would also block all breast cancer awareness sites.

The more advanced version of SonicWall’s content filtering services operates much like anti-virus software. SonicWall provides the Advanced Content Filtering for an annual fee and for that fee they maintain a database of tens of thousands of suspect web sites that you can block by genre (e.g. hate groups, violence, nudity, sex, etc.). The annual fee ensures that you continue to get updates to this database, similar to an anti-virus software subscription.

Watch What They Do

For the extremely cautious or paranoid business owner, there is software that can be installed on computers to record “video” of all of the user’s actions. SpectorSoft is one such application. This will let you see everything that the user is doing on his or her PC during the day. Programs like SpectorSoft can email these videos on a daily basis or when a certain event transpires (logging onto FaceBook).

You’ll want to be more careful with this software in terms of privacy law. Consult with an attorney before implementing.

Customizing the Desktop for Maximum Productivity

An often under-utilized feature of the Windows Server operating system is Group Policy. This nifty feature allows network administrators to lock down desktops for the whole domain or only certain subgroups. Here are a few examples of the many things that you can do with Group Policy:

• Force “My Documents” Default Save Location
• Force standardized desktop wall paper (e.g. company logo)
• Remove Windows default games such as Solitaire
• Remove the “Run” options (especially good for security)
• Restrict color printer use
• Restrict use of macros on Office applications
• Deny access to the Control Panel or certain elements within the Control Panel, such as Network Settings
• Enforce password complexity (passwords must be x-number of digits long, etc.)
• Enforce password history (users cannot re-use the same password withing so many days of each other)

As an extreme example, one time we configured a client’s desktops to only run three line of business programs and nothing else. They had no Start button, no My Computer, no access to Control Panel or Network Settings, could not browse their drives… nothing. Needless to say, productivity soared!