Golden Practices Blog

Disenchanted with the New Facebook?

I'm hearing it everywhere. People are pretty heated over the changes Facebook rolled out last week.

Other than some technical problems I'm having with errors and actually using the site, I think there is actually some good potential in the changes they've made.

First, let me reassure you that your "old" News Feed view is still there!

Just choose "Status Updates" in the left column. If you want that as your default, just grab it and drag it to the top of the stack.

So the new News Feed is a filter set up to show you the most popular items...the items people are engaging with on your wall and others' walls--likes, tags, and comments. The downside, of course, is that you may not want to see all your friends' friends posts and you will by the nature of filter.

The Live Feed shows (almost) everything new. It seems to still pick friends who are most actively engaged and it's limited to a certain number of friends (which you can change down at the bottom). The default limit is 250 so if you have fewer than 250 friends, you should be okay if you want to see them all.

Though it is frustrating to have changes pushed without much (any?) explanation, it's nice that we have more options.

Social Media Risk Tolerance Quiz for Firms

I'm working on some risk assessment tools for firms to use to determine the level of rigidity (or lack thereof) needed in their own social media policies--and firms' likelihood, or not, of success in using social media tools to their full potential.

And I wholeheartedly believe that, while some potential risks exist (liability, etc), such policies are primarily anchored to the level of trust within an organization.

I like to keep things simple so I created a 3 question "Quiz" for firms to assess the strictness of their policies governing, well, everything--but particularly: Communication, Internet and Email Use, and Social Media Use.

Here's the quiz:

1. How important is autonomy among your firm’s values and current practices? (scale 1-5, 5 highest)
2. How important is innovation among your firm’s values and current practices? (scale 1-5, 5 highest)
3. To what degree does your culture demonstrate trust in, and respect of, employee judgment? (scale 1-5, 5 highest)

Results:

Add to determine your total score.

Score of 11-15 = SM usage can flourish in your firm because trust inspires people. A brief, mellow policy will be more than adequate and you won’t have to worry about hampering people’s enthusiasm with rigid, unfriendly policies. (samples: Baker & Daniels Mayo Clinic and Headset Bros )

Score of 6-10 = SM usage may be less than it could otherwise be. A tendency toward carefully worded, somewhat detailed policies convey the firm is wary or skeptical and somewhat concerned about being embarrassed by employees.(sample: Jaffe template Harvard Law and Microsoft)

Score of 1-5 = SM doesn’t fit well with your current culture. Very specific, restrictive policies probably suit your firm best. Look closely at the underlying reasons for your concerns and try to understand the root cause so you can work on building a more knowledge-worker-friendly environment. (I choose not to embarrass any orgs by listing them here, but these tend to exceed 2 pages, and include everything but the kitchen sink)

I invite your thoughts...

PS - hat tip to Social Media Governance for their excellent compilation of sample policies and to Ron Baker for his response to my questions on the subject which helped contribute to the direction of this brief quiz