Mediaboss Marketing

January 28, 2013, 5:16 AM PST

Takeaway: While keeping employees off of social networks is difficult or impossible, developing and distributing a social networking policy can help companies minimize the risks.

Social networking has been a prominent trend for a while, but companies are still figuring out the best ways to handle it in the workplace. Although social media sites can have many benefits for business - they can offer companies new ways to reach current or potential customers or for employees to connect with each other - they can also introduce new risks, such as:

Some organizations have responded by trying to block employees from accessing Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. However, many of them are learning that its not always possible to keep people off of social networks.

Three-quarters of employees use personal devices to access social media at work, with 60% saying they check Facebook, Twitter and other sites multiple times per day, according tothe newSocial Media and Workplace 2012 Report, courtesy ofSilkRoad.

Thats despite the fact that only 43% of the 1,105 people surveyed said their employer allows access to social media at work. In other words, blocking access to social networking sites wont do much to actually keep employees from using them.

While keeping employees off of social networks is difficult or impossible, developing and distributing a social networking policy can help companies minimize the risks.

There are some of the top mistakes organizations make when developing social networking policies:

A lot of companies social media efforts focus on keeping employees from posting anything online that damages the companys reputation, makes sensitive information public or creates other problems. But its important to make sure the rules apply to managers, too.

After all, theyre the ones who typically know the companys secrets and are therefore the ones most likely to accidentally release sensitive information on a social network. Also, managers can create the most risk because its their job to discipline employees based on their use of social media - and doing it the wrong way can cause legal problems.

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Companies’ top five social networking policy mistakes