Social Media: Growth, Risk, and Tactics - ComplexDiscovery Archived Content

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Data Growth and Enterprise Risk (1)

When you think of the drivers accelerating the amount of information being created and replicated in the Digital Universe, you may think of the financial databases of Wall Street, the acres of servers operating at giant Internet service providers, or the storage devices supporting 100 million enterprises in the world.  However, more than 70% of the Digital Universe this year will be generated by end users – both in and out of the workplace.

Of this user-generated content – estimated to be approximately 880 billion gigabytes – about two-thirds of it is considered “enterprise touch”.  This “enterprise touch” content is user generated content for which enterprises are responsible. Enterprises are responsible because this user-generated content passes through the servers, network, or routers of an enterprise at some point. When it does, the enterprise is responsible at that moment for managing that content, protecting user privacy, watching over account information, and protecting copyright.

The Growth of Social Networking (2)

In further looking at the growth of and responsibility for user generated content, it is important to note that while email appears to be the primary communications tool in most enterprise environments, when one considers the fact that the number of worldwide users of social networking surpassed users of email in July of 2009, it seems to reason that legal professionals considering enterprise communications in their electronic discovery audits, investigations, and litigation should, if they have not already, begin to view social networking based communications in the same way they consider email communications.

Organizational Risk and Costs (3)

While the benefits of social media use in the workplace can be great, the risks associated with social media usage by organizational employees can also be great.   These risks, many times grouped according to their origin as a data risk, a behavior risk, and/or a technology risk, can have a significant impact on key organizational areas to include but not limited to:

• Revenue: The potential for organizational revenue loss based on reputation damage and confidential information exposure.
• Productivity: The potential for organizational productivity loss based on too much time spent on social networks and use of social networks to undermine management by circumventing established hierarchy and workflow patterns.
• Security: The potential organization information system security compromise based on the introduction of malware into technology systems and uncontrolled exchange of data.

A Simple Framework for Considering Social Media Risk

In order to appropriately evaluate and address potential social media risk within an organization, its important to have a simple and understandable approach from which to begin considering an organization’s social media landscape.   While there are many tactics and techniques for evaluating and addressing potential social media risks, the following four steps may provide a useful and overarching framework for beginning to consider social media risk:

Detection:

• Do you have a risk related to social media? (Example:  Potential or Actual Risk)
• Have you done an impact analysis on how the social media risk might impact the organization?  (Example:  Acceptable or Unacceptable Risk)

Identification:

• Have you identified the social media networks that might contribute to social media risk with the organization?  (Example:  LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter)
• Have you identified employees that may be using social networks in the workplace?  (Example: Individuals, Workgroups, Departments)

Location:

• Have you determined the location where social networks are being accessed?  (Example:  Inside Corporate Firewall, Outside Corporate Firewall)
• Have you established policy or guidance addressing the access of social networks by employees?  (Example:  Social Media Usage Policy, Corporate Communication Device Usage Policy)

Reporting:

• Do you have a system in place to monitor usage of social media networks?  (Example:  Active Technology Monitoring, Passive Human Sampling)
• Have you established an individual, workgroup, or department as the lead in assessing social media usage reports?  (Example:  Director of Human Resources, Office of Compliance, IT Department)

While there are many additional considerations that could be added to this short listing, the benefit of the framework is that it can help you get started evaluating and addressing social media risk in an intentional and proactive manner.

(1) IDC iView: The Digital Universe – Are Your Ready, dated May 2010.
(2) Morgan Stanley Presentation:  Internet Trends, dated April, 2010.
(3) Gartner Research, G00173953, dated February 2010.