Social networking, (perhaps unsurprisingly) came out tops on a latest report from Nielsen wire of Americans online activity, followed closely by blogs, emails and gaming! Is this a productive use of the opportunities posed to us by the web in its entirety? Probably not but I don’t really think that’s the issue. The internet is a well-used resource for escapism or relaxing, and chatting to friends, sharing photos, ideas and stories is generally a popular way to do this. The problem though, which these figures suggest, is that in order to reach such a high percentage ranking in online activities, social networking is obviously being a used on a much more regular basis than simply to chill out for an hour on a lunch break or in the evenings…

The percentages… Online time-spend

The stats show the extent of social network’s dominance, when placed in comparison to other relatively popular online activities.

The research revealed that Americans spend a third their online time (36percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging.

Email which, in relation to the working day, you would expect to occupy a high percentage share time, holds just over a third of the time that social networks do. Nielsenwire go on to do something really interesting with the said data which is illustrated in the figure below, breaking up how internet usage would look if all U.S. internet time was condensed into 1hour!!

So with ALL U.S. internet time condensed into one hour, blogs and social networks take up almost 15mins!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow, that really shows the preoccupation people have with Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and the likes!

The big question – Is social networking productive?

To be fair this is quite difficult to measure because these percentages are made up from a whole cross-section of the population, from school kids, university students, males, females, office workers, construction workers, housewives, the elderly….. you get the jist.

However the over-ridding dominance of social networks and blogs cannot be ignored. Clearly those who work in an office type environment, with easy internet access, may be accused as being the most susceptible to concentrating a little too much on what their mates and co-workers have been getting up to at weekends. However, the boom in usage of mobile internet means that such a distraction is now available for almost all employees regardless of occupation… apart perhaps from miners who may find the signal a little difficult!! The point is the usage and time-spent on social media during work is becoming a concern for Boss’s the world over. Numerous reports point to the link between increased usage of social media sites and the paralleling decrease in employee productivity and efficiency. For many the rash answer has been to totally ban all access, this involves both verbal bans and physically disabling connection to said sites from work computers.

In my opinion this is not the best option unless you want to completely kill employee morale. Completely outlawing this ‘take 5’ activity may have an even less productive affect. Employees may become more disgruntled and less content in their employment, for those desperate for the info that would have taken 2mins online they may instead engage in a ten-minute phone-call, or the more adventurous may spend time online looking for other ways of accessing these sites from the many cheat sources of info available online. The happy medium I believe is monitored or controlled access.

Allowing employees access to their social network kick is believed to actually increase productivity as a result, as it gives the employee a ‘take-5’ from work pressures to regroup. It also fills them in on the latest talking point or plans for the weekend so that they don’t waste time throughout the day trying to find this out through a series of texts, or by sitting daydreaming about what the weekend may bring!

So… a solution for employees and Boss???

So it’s all about balance… too much access is obviously damaging to productivity but so too is a complete ban of social networks. Obviously mobile internet is harder to control but work computers are a much easier target! What’s required is the use of a service such as Maildistiller’s Webaware. With this product, managers and C.E.O.s the world over are able to control the social network settings of their employees whilst they’re at work. You can decide on the amount of time each employee is able to access social media sites, as well as what time of day access is available and the number of posts they make etc. Pretty perfect eh!

This way you get the best of both worlds, employees are happy to get their daily fix and as a boss your keeping employee morale high without worrying that you’re paying people for 10% work 90% networking!

Social networking isn’t going anywhere guys so there’s not much point simply ignoring it. The stats in the above report prove the reality of the U.S. web-user’s mindset, but I’d confidently say a similar U.K report would mirror very similar findings!

As for any of you employees out there banned from accessing your favourite social network site at work… pass this blog on to your boss… some middle ground could benefit you both!

Note – I know I’ve totally left out those (such as myself) who use social networks and BLOGS on a daily basis as part of their job! But that’s very different, using these sites to further your company’s brand message and reach (as I’ve blogged about before) is quite different than what happened after a few pints last weekend