By Michael Alan Hamlin

Last month, Facebook emerged as the top website in the Philip­pines on Alexa, hav­ing grown more than 1,000% from January to September 10 this year. Other social media sites in the top 15 websites in­cluded Friendster (3), YouTube (5), Blogger (6), Multiply (9), Twitter (11), Photobucket (12) and WordPress (15). The latest ranking was further evidence that social network marketing is increasingly relevant in the Philippines.

Another indicator was the use of social networks to coordinate relief efforts in the aftermath of two devastating typhoons, Ondoy and Pepeng. On Facebook and Twitter—the two social networks I admit to using—“friends” and “follow­ers” feverishly posted informa­tion indicating where help was needed, and how volunteers could get involved. Of course, the social networks were also a popular channel for venting frustrations over poorly main­tained flood control infrastruc­ture, the lack of preparedness of disaster response teams, and the seeming irrelevance of government as private citizens took responsibility for much of the relief effort.

As social networking mar­keting has become more of an obviously tier-one communica­tion channel, educational in­stitutions and self-made gurus have sprung up to offer insights, advice, and tools for leveraging them. The Asian Institute of Management has introduced an elective to its degree programs, I understand, focusing on social networks for business. The Ateneo de Manila University of­fers a 16-week certificate course. A number of online advertising “experts” offer one- and two-day seminars.

This interest is a sign that B2B and B2C marketers are moving past the test concept phase of their social network marketing programs to imple­ment serious strategic cam­paigns. These marketers rely on digital agencies to design and implement search and display advertising campaigns. But when it comes to digial PR, while the agency continues to advise and help clients design campaigns, much and often all of the content generation is done by the client.

The reasons vary, but boil down to the reality that even highly specialized digital PR agencies don’t have the domain expertise and inside knowledge to be credible or exert thought leadership for their clients. Clients are therefore forced to dedicate intellectual resources to their digital PR campaigns, and to become an active participant in generating visibility for their personal and corporate brands.

This presents a number of issues for the company and for the CIO. For the com­pany, who just participates in digital PR is an issue. Having employees authorized to post status updates on Facebook or blog during working hours is likely to encourage other employees to spend much of their time online during the day, reducing productivity, gobbling up bandwidth, and creating security breaches. For this reason, over half of US. CIOs completely ban visit­ing social networking sites at work, according to the results of a recent survey conducted by Robert Half Technology, a recruitment firm for technol­ogy professionals.

Just 19% of respondents to that survey said they allow employees to access social networks for business purposes only. Sixteen percent of respon­dents said they allow limited access. Whether companies allow access to social networks at work, another potentially prickly issue is how employees identified with the company conduct themselves on social networks, and whether their conduct supports or under­mines brand image.

To address these concerns, consultants and agencies alike increasingly advise their clients to adopt a formal policy setting out the ground rules for social networking. Typically, such a policy will include sections of the company’s philoso­phy towards social networks; information on the issuing authority; definition of social networks and their role in society in general and for the organization and its employees in particular; responsibility of employees; topic matter guide­lines, use of company assets; examples of acceptable use of social networks; inaccurate and defamatory content; and, off-limits material.

In my firm, our policy en­courages employees to have an online presence, but limits ac­cess during work hours except for employees who access social networks for business purposes, such as our marketing manager. The policy requires employees, whether they access at work or not, to: 1) Be relevant to your area of expertise; 2) Do not be anonymous; 3) Maintain professionalism, honesty, and respect; 4) Apply a “good judg­ment” test for every activity related in any way to the firm. The test involves asking, “Am I guilty of leaking information, trade secrets, customer data, or upcoming announcements? Is it negative commentary regard­ing my employer?”

Penalties for violating these policies are also provided, and are aligned with relevant labor laws and conventions.

Social networking market­ing is a real force, and it is grow­ing stronger. Like anything, it can be abused, and it’s impor­tant for companies to make sure it isn’t, and that it contributes to enhanced brand visibility.

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