Social Media At Work- Click here http://bit.ly/o8UaEF for full article

Social Media At Work- Click here http://bit.ly/o8UaEF for full article

Hours in a work day: 8. Time spent social networking: 7. The other hour was lunch.

Other than being the butt end of a lot of productivity jokes, social networking has changed the playing field. Like it or not, many people are tuning into sites like linkedin, facebook and twitter for their daily dose of what's going on. Why fight it when you can use that power? You can make social networking a part of every employees daily responsibilities, just enough to satisfy their need to log on.

Facebook became a huge networking tool because it's easy to share information with hundreds of people. You can keep people apprised of new happenings at the company with a simple post to the wall. Have one of your workers in charge of that. How exciting would it be to be the person announcing the new big thing for the company?

Twitter is a great example of where someone's social networking skills can come into play. People love to read tweets. Why? Because they want some juicy gossip about this and that without having to read a huge post. Twitter does that in just a few short words and phrases. Get one of the workers to add a twitter post about something new and exciting happening at your company. You are missing a huge opportunity for your company by telling your workers not to use twitter.

Linkedin does exactly as it's name suggest: it keeps people "linked in". Business contacts are created every day using this tool. Why deprive yourself of that help?

Social networking provides a platform for someone to easily gather information. You know those people that post their homework problems they can't solve on facebook? Why can't your company use that same idea? You can also have a common platform for all of the employees by creating a page and having everyone follow on facebook or twitter to stay informed.

There are of course, things to be noted. It can be very easy to transition from using social networking for work, to just surfing your friends posts. If you assign workers to be in charge of your social networking page, make sure you choose responsible workers. What about everyone else? Vacations allow people an opportunity to recharge their batteries. Think of letting your workers check that celebrities tweet as a mini-vacation. They'll come back recharged. By harnessing the power of social networking, you can keep the workers happy and benefit yourself as well.