Corporate Twitter
November 24th, 2008 
Business, New Media, Social Media 
Mark Kizelshteyn
With social networking services over the last few years bridging people’s private lives with their professional — there is a constant fear of workers getting in trouble with their boss.
This evening, on NPR’s new tech segment, they were discussing Twitter in the office and how corporations, once weary, are now embracing this technology. Twitter, recently seen as another, significantly quicker, way to get in trouble and even fired is now seen as a tool of efficiency. Office Gossip, sharing proprietary info and off course the time lost to playing with services were often the mantra of large companies seeking to ban employees from using services such as Facebook and Twitter.
What are they preaching now? Well, that people have come to hate email and will do anything to avoid a clogged inbox. Twitter to the rescue. Messages that need to be shared with the office – news that needs to be out quick – office-appropriate gossip — throw it up on Twitter or Yammer (a closed circuit, twitter-like, service allowing businesses to privately communicate internally). Managers are finding this service increasingly useful and businesses around the world are begining to adapt Twitter (or similar programs) as a way to get info out and keep the inbox clean.
The fearful embrace: Will Twitter increase your efficiency? To each his or her own. I am happy for those businesses that finally got on board, but there was another solution that Twitter et al. provided that I just found ridiculous. Now, (finally!) people don’t have to concern themselves with the order in which they enter people’s emails in the “to:” section, as to avoid ranking their co-workers. Is that really a problem?
Is Twitter used in your office? Do you encourage your employees to use it or is it banned?
In my office, it is key. We can’t live without it. And now, this is meta.
~~ addendum ~~
NYTimes on November 21st : “Now, Brevity Is the Soul of Office Interaction” — Good Piece.
Tags: NPR, Office Politics, Social Media, Twitter
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