A blind eye to social media?

Been digging through a survey about social media just put out by Russell Herder and Ethos Business, one of those mysterious groups that does that sort of thing. These folks surveyed more than 400 executives to check out what they had to say about their use and perceptions of social media.

You can read the whole report here, but I thought I'd offer my take.

• 87 percent of those surveyed said that social media was not included in their crisis communications plan.
• 40 percent said: "Our technology blocks employee access to online social media for any purpose."
• 81 percent see social media as a corporate security risk
• 69 percent have no written social media policy and
• 73 percent see their companies increasing their use of social media (82 percent for brand building, 60 percent for networking and 32 percent for customer service)*

All in all, a good overview of what's kicking around in the brains of business decision makers. But it's easy to wonder if we should lose faith or just remain patient.

It's always been tough for the early adopter crowd to chillax, while the rest of the world tries to hurry up. Businesses are going to be more cautious than the fictional techie in his mom's basement.** But the problem I see is that caution borders on paranoia about new technology.

The worry about security, in my mind, is always on thin ice. Informed, well-trained and educated employees who know how to avoid sites that could endanger a system are always better than a blanket ban of sites for banning sake. As we bang our collective heads against the walls about how to make our school kids more competitive with the world, huge chunks of the Internet are inaccessible by teachers and students because of "security" concerns.

Lift the veil on the web to more workers, more students and more teachers and some of them will find better ways to communicate, share insights and (maybe) discover the next big thing. But turning off the tap to the web just makes for more problems than solutions.

And for a business owner to just say no, means that they are choosing to stay out of the conversation and link economy that is thriving now on the web. No engagement means they have chosen to give that insight, that potential good will with customers and that profile to their competitors.

From the looks of it, a majority of execs want to dive into the social media pool, but have to figure out what it is first. Hasn't the web gotten mainstream enough that every business needs to keep up with what is happening online in order to thrive as a business? While members of the geek squad like me may think so, even decades after the web was born, it's not the case.

Companies are still stepping out by not having a policy in place for use, by not including it in their crisis communications and not embracing the web as an active, rather than a passive, tool.

If the primary concern for many of these companies is protection, which is why they bring the firewall down to keep the bad guys out, while not use two of the best pieces of protection out there in enacting a social media policy for employees and figuring out how to use social media once something flares up in their business.

Two essentials that aren't going anywhere for a while. Maybe the execs will look their way soon enough.

FOOTNOTES

* Execs could give more than one answer on reasons for using social media.

** And for the record, it was my Mom - and Dad's - basement.