It seems this week we have seen a ton of stories about organizations cracking down on their employees use of Twitter and other social media sites. The latest to do so is sports network ESPN, which today issued a set of guidelines that basically prevents it’s employees from using Twitter, or any other social media sites, freely.
Before that we saw these headlines:
Chargers’ Twitter cops bust Cromartie for tweet
Marines block social networks, concerned about security
NFL Formulating Game Day Twitter Policy
Green Bay Packers ban Twitter on the job
Now, I understand that there is work time and Twitter time, and people should probably not be tweeting when they are supposed to be working. I also get that these are private organizations that are free to set the rules that govern their employees. Further, I also get that these organizations are wary of what may be said about them by their employees, should those employees be allowed to tweet freely.
That all said, it seems like paranoia to me on the part of the organizations. It seems like maybe there is room for a company policy governing tweets with clearly stated consequences, instead of outright bans, or tweeting only with your supervisor’s stamp of approval, as is the case at ESPN.
What do you think?
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