Demystifying that New Employee Communications Tool

As a seasoned practitioner, you're probably hearing the "I'm-trying-to-kill-this-but-playing-along-for-now" questions from your colleagues who are a bit wary of that slick new item in your proverbial employee communications toolbox.

"Won't this increase our liability? What about discoverability?" come the rapid-fire inquisition from the caffeinated folks in legal.

"How do we know that people will use this appropriately? Can we control what they say or don't say?" come the queries from the compliance team.

"Do we really want to give disgruntled employees a forum like this? Won't they be able to get to everyone in the company?" inquire the human resources professionals.

"How can we make sure that people don't use this all day instead of working? Are you sure there's any real business benefit to this?" pass the lips of line managers.

With the advent of internal/employee-focused social media tools, these "new" questions and dozens more like them are being asked every day. But are they really so new?

In short, no.

You may recall that little technology affectionately known as e-mail. I recall first using it in an office setting in 1995, on a fishbowl-looking Mac terminal dedicated to the task behind our agency's reception desk that had an astonishing 28.8 Kbps dial-up capability. Fast-forward 15 years, and e-mail is a part of (if not controlling) our everyday lives. Oh, the dangers...

Or look back to the introduction of instant messaging. My God, you could reach a colleague five desks away and not even need to get up. IM killed the water cooler.

Of course, that World Wide Web thing was just a fad, right? Imagine being able to go anywhere in a virtual universe at the touch of a few keys. It's amazing there's any productivity left in the world.

Don't even get me started on that wonder known as the facsimile machine... I could make that thermal paper zing and sing at the end of a squealing line thousands of miles away in a remote branch office, spewing out anything I could fit onto a scannable sheet.

And of course, the evils of pen, paper and stamp are well known. You mean I could write to anyone about anything, and have it arrive uncensored? You betcha, and with that newfangled photocopier, I could even make copies of letters I received and tack them to the office bulletin boards.

OK, I'll stop before I get to slate tablets and smoke signals. But you get the point. The questions being asked today by your colleagues are -- in many ways -- the same that have been asked for decades as new communications technologies have been introduced. Sure, there are some differences here and there, but the basic principle is the same:

"What I don't understand, I fear. And what I fear, I seek to kill."

So, as you go about launching your internal social media platform, take a few moments -- or more likely a few weeks or months -- to reintroduce your colleagues in legal, HR, compliance and elsewhere to the communications "technologies" they now take for granted. Get to the core of their fears, and help them see social media tools as evolutionary, not revolutionary (yes, my fellow PR pros, tone down the hype already!).

And if that doesn't work? Well, I know where you can get a deal on some slightly used fax machines and reams of thermal paper! Just tell your employees it's "vintage" social networking.