As a child, many moons ago, my father built a wildly successful hiring business in California’s Santa Clara Valley. He did it by working the old-fashioned way; after all, it was the late 50s and early 60s! He networked, developed relationships, engaged with reputable partners, and delivered a strong product and service to his clients. As a small business owner, you had many roles, while maintaining tight control over all aspects of your business. It didn’t have a marketing department and it didn’t depend on a tech guru; he worked with a slide rule, a drawing board, and stubborn determination. Social strategy back then meant dinner parties, golf outings, and cocktail hours, all of which are vastly different from today’s tweets, likes, and shares.
Not long ago, the personal computer revolution forever changed the way we do business, interact, and communicate on a daily basis. Before the Internet, we relied on the United States Postal Service to deliver our mail; Today, we send and receive dozens of email communications personally and professionally. The Internet also gave rise to other forms of communication, including the recent explosion of social media. Now phrases like “follow us on Twitter” and “like us on Facebook” are common practice. What’s more amazing is that we can communicate, brainstorm, and share information 24/7, 365 days a year thanks to the large number of devices paired with social media sites and apps. Initially, the business community turned a blind eye to these things; categorizing them as tools for personal interaction.
However, social media has exploded in marketing departments at companies of all sizes. People are using these tools in innovative ways to connect with current and future customers. Historically, the SME community has been the last to jump on the train of technological innovation. When we consider social media as an option, it seems to be more mature for the average small and medium business. Why? They are often better equipped to be more agile and adapt more quickly than their business-size counterparts. There are many forums to discuss the business impacts of social media; Common topics are how to integrate social media with your marketing efforts, how to monitor comments, and how to calculate ROI. In this article, I want to explore how the social media and application foray affects and potentially jeopardizes network IT assets within an SMB organization.
Network access is critical when thinking about your IT scheme. If you have staff in your organization who spend time on social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, are those apps consuming your internet access, potentially affecting performance? Other sites and apps that I won’t mention here allow users to download and stream large music and video files, and in doing so further ties the internet connection. In some cases, this can halt productivity. Plus, there are bandwidth hogs built into some of the more popular apps. For example, you can embed YouTube videos on Facebook or link to them via Twitter.
Aside from potential security risks, SMB organizations are smart to worry about the ramifications of downloading content from social networking sites to their network systems. The organization’s IT infrastructure can become vulnerable to malware and viruses that will exploit the network firewall from within. A great way to manage access and thwart such exposure is through firewall technology rich in content filtering. Content filtering significantly reduces the risk of malware infections; However, keep in mind that once a user has access to social media sites, they can often download untold amounts of non-work related material.
Now that we understand that a strong commercial firewall is often enough to limit the potential for network compromise, how can you prevent employees from spending work hours on social media? Security hardware and software, if configured correctly, will intervene to keep unwanted use of social media under control. While some groups prefer to block their bandwidth entirely during business hours, there are often business reasons for certain employees to be able to access these sites. A great example is what I do all the time! I act as a marketing manager, posting content on LinkedIn or the company’s Facebook page, researching material for an article or Twitter post, or reviewing notifications from sites like Manta and Yelp for comments posted about the company. Most commercial firewalls provide granular-level permissions to allow use by people who need it.
Concerns about network space, storage arrays, and servers are another area that is often overlooked. Think of the employees who enjoy listening to music while they work. It’s easy to see the impact of streaming media on your internet connection by checking firewall logs, but you may not know of an employee downloading their entire iTunes library to their local machine. It is highly recommended that you back up your network frequently, including all employee machines on a regular basis. If not, what are you waiting for? Unfortunately, those large sound files in that music library can end up on your company storage device, consuming space that should be reserved for work-related content. In many cases, you can configure the backup device or external service to ignore files that are not job-related.
The last area that most of my SMB clients tend to ignore is their mobile environment. Today, most organizations have mobile or remote workers accessing the network wirelessly through personal and / or business devices. In these cases, activity can affect the performance of wireless access points and strange legitimate business use. When employees are allowed to access company resources on personal devices, a BYOD (bring your own device) policy and accompanying mobile device management (MSM) software package is essential for managing access and permissions. and configure the appropriate security necessary to protect core network assets.
From an IT perspective, these are the most common potential problems when implementing the use of social media in an organization. However, as technology changes, there will always be new threats that will make your network infrastructure adapt. It’s a struggle to find the balance between acceptable use and business cases for social media. Take the time to map all the potential outcomes and develop best practices to limit risks and exposure. Like anything else, you can’t be sure you cover everything, but make sure you have systems in place to ensure you can overcome anything that comes up. Don’t be afraid of Twitter or LinkedIn. Used appropriately and creatively, they can be a blessing to your growth and a beacon to show you the way to bigger things in the future. Now, you are really doing fine if you can narrow it down to 140 characters. My father would be proud!