Reputational risk

According to the third annual Deloitte LLP Ethics & Workplace survey,
60 percent of business executives believe they have a right to know how
employees portray themselves and their organizations in online social
networks.

As long as it concerns the organizations, I really think it is amazing that the percentage is not 100%.

At the same time, about one every two employees said that:

  • content posted on their social networking profiles is not their boss' concern;
  • official corporate guidelines would not change how they behave in cyberspace.

Is there a tension here? I really do not think so, as people are – most probably – aware of what can be said and what is dangerous. Under this light, official guidelines (for blogging, social networking, writing on forums,…) would be more supportive than repressive. But the subject of control

[…] A mere 17 percent of executives surveyed say they have programs in
place to monitor and mitigate the possible reputational risks related
to the use of social networks.

brings another question to attention: what monitoring tools are we talking about?

MonitoringToolsThis is indeed a twofold problem: should such monitoring tools aim at controlling what employees do online in general (in order to possibly prevent reputation damage), or at trying to be aware of any conversation about the brand/company/organization …and possibly enabling employees (by providing them with actionable guidelines) to play an active, positive role?