HR Professional - April/May 2008 - (Page 43)

I I T E RV I T SNG N P O S E W B Y M E R E D I T H B I R C H A L L- S P E N C E R SOCIAL MEDIA MAVEN COLIN MCKAY NAVIGATES THE TRICKY WORLD OF PRIVACY AND ONLINE NETWORKING n expert in online communications, Colin McKay is director of public education and communications for the office of the Privacy Commissioner—the federal agency responsible for overseeing the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which helps organizations and citizens understand their obligations, and their rights, under this law. This self-described techie recently launched an external blog for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner that provides updates and analysis on privacy issues. He also maintains a personal blog—Canuckflack.com, an editor’s favourite—where he comments on all things media, public relations and communications. “It was serendipity that I ended up at the Privacy Office but once I got here I realized that a lot of privacy issues are the inverse of everything evangelized about social media,” says McKay. “As a privacy advocate, you’re always questioning the motives of the people trying to engage in the conversation, how they are collecting information, how they are storing it and how they are manipulating it.” HRP: With the social media revolution taking hold via blogs, wikis and networking sites like Facebook, companies are getting in on the act; but aren’t there risks—like not being able to control what employees are saying? CM: People are now getting the tools to make their voices more widely heard and managers haven’t spent a lot of time considering how they should resolve HR issues in this interactive environment. There are a few companies that have created guidelines about what employees can do if they w w w. HRT houghtLeader. c om A MY FAVOURITE BLOGS Web Strategy by Jeremiah (a Forrester Research analyst): www.web-strategist.com/blog IBM Blogging Policy and Guidelines: www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/ guidelines.html Church of the Customer: customerevangelists.typepad.com Wikinomics: www.wikinomics.com BlogWrite for CEOs: www.blogwriteforceos.com/blogwrite Common Craft: www.commoncraft.com Groundswell: blogs.forrester.com/ charleneli/2007/12/the-post-method.html want to blog or use these tools on company time and what is expected of them as representatives of the company. But most corporate concerns about social media are alleviated if you already have good personnel policies in place. If you’ve identified how employees should deal with clients and the outside world, a manual for who can speak on behalf of the company and handle corporate information, you are 90 per cent of the way to creating an environment where you can feel A p r i l / M a y 2 0 0 8 43 http://Canuckflack.com http://www.web-strategist.com/blog http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html http://customerevangelists.typepad.com http://www.wikinomics.com http://www.blogwriteforceos.com/blogwrite http://www.commoncraft.com http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2007/12/the-post-method.html http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2007/12/the-post-method.html http://www.HRThoughtLeader.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Professional - April/May 2008

HR Professional - April/May 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Contributors Leadership Matters By the Numbers On the Web Careers World Watch Accounting Health & Safety Foreign Professionals Management Office Life Legal Compensation Web 2.0 @ Work Talent Management Systems On Message Strategy HR 101 Interview With Colin Mackay Off the Shelf The Last Word

HR Professional - April/May 2008

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