How Does Social Media Affect Productivity at Work?

I came across two different infographics on how social media use affects productivity at work, but they come to opposite conclusions.

The first infographic is from Compliance and Safety makes the case for allowing both personal and business-related social media use at work:

 

Featured By: The C&S Blog

The second infographic I found on BitRebels.com, and is based on a Microsoft study about interruptions:

Can these two perspectives be reconciled?

As regular readers of this blog already know, interruptions are a major productivity killer, and I'm all for keeping them to a minimum. So if you're allowing social media to interrupt other important things you should be doing during the day (such as by allowing notifications or other alerts to distract you when you're working on a substantive project), it might be time to re-think how you use social media.

But social media can be a good way to take a break, unwind, bounce ideas off of others, to get  new business ideas and increase your engagement with clients, potential clients and referral sources.

Bottom line: It isn't that social media is bad or good per se - it's all in how you use it, what purpose it serves, and when you engage in social media activities.

Comments

[Toxic Torts]

I was hoping I'd personally locate an write-up this way because of the info I needed to get our school assignment completed.... Many thanks.

[Allison Shields]

Web App Development: Thanks for your input.

There really wasn't an 'argument' to this post - it was showing different perspectives on productivity and social media. I think it all depends upon how you use these tools - they can help boost productivity, aid in engagement and ultimately boost the bottom line if used correctly (and by the right people within the organization), or they can devolve into unproductive time-wasting.

I think it's worthwhile to discuss what users are seeing, what the impact is at work, and how it can be improved.

[Web App Development]

If social media is burning 650 billion $ on - productivity its also bring in a 1200 billion as value add in making one more productive @ work ( ideas inputs speed reach and more) so the point is negated and a pointless argument.

[John W.]

Hi, thanks for showing us these infographics! If I were to say, social media sites are really affecting productivity at work unless if you are marketing a product through Facebook or by all means social media. I can prove it myself, I get addicted to Facebook and Twitter but thanks to our boss who provided us a productivity software (like Time Doctor). We’re now getting more work done while working less. It’s not intrusive and we’re happy to know that we’ve got rewards from our boss when we hit our target for the day.

[Allison Shields]

Good points, Hal. You can certainly measure the time a certain task or group of tasks takes away from your work, but who's to say that the same amount (or more) time might not be spent on yet another non-work task. And some of those "non-work" tasks may be more "productive" than others.

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I like the info graphic that you've chosen. It's easy to follow and supports your topic with useful facts.

I think to an extent though, some of the calculations are misleading. Who is to say that the 3 minutes per day people spend tweeting would not be spent on some other leisure activity? Is it that employees would normally take a quick break and instead of going to the kitchenette for a drink of water, they spend that time checking their email?

In that case there are other effects to consider, such as the way the body suffers over time because people are spending breaks at their desk instead of walking or stretching.