Government Opens Up Facebook for Federal Employees

I was at a cookout this past weekend which was attended by a man employed 10 years as an information technology specialist for a local office of the federal government. His friend asked him how many federal employees did his IT group support, "a couple hundred or so?" He responded that his IT group of five plus a manager supported 42 federal employees. His friend commented that the private business for which he works was hiring IT staff. The federal employee asked how much the jobs were paying, to which his friend replied "$50,000." The federal employee scoffed and said, "I make more than that and I don't have to do anything. That's the problem with private business; they expect you to work your ass off but they don't want to pay you anything." Of course, my opposite reaction would be: "That's the problem with government; they don't expect workers to do anything while paying them 40% more than their private sector counterparts by using politically-backed public labor unions to extort money from taxpayers."

Study: 46% of Federal Gov Employees Allowed to Use Social Media at Work

More Than Half of Federal Workers Use Facebook While On The Clock

OhMyGov!
April 7, 2011

Get Back To Work! Oh...Nevermind.

A new report shows that social media plays a bigger role in the day-to-day life of federal offices than you may think.

According to a survey by Market Connections, Inc. 46% of federal workers are allowed to access social media sites while at work. This is a massive jump from the 20% who reported social media access in a similar survey conducted in 2010. Market Connections made the finding in their third annual "Federal Media and Marketing Study," which was released publicly this week.

"We're all dealing with limited marketing budgets, and we don't have a lot of margin for error," Lisa Dezzutti, president and CEO of Market Connections said of the report.

The survey, which was filled out by over 2,600 federal employees, seeks to measure the influence of print, television, radio, mobile, and web-based news sources in the federal workplace.

The full survey is available here and is worth a look. Some of the more striking findings include the revelation that 40% of federal workers still prefer print trade publications as a main news source, and over half of feds use Facebook for "work purposes."

Of course, it would be nice to know the average age of those still riding the wave of print media as a "main" news source, as well as the real number of those who use Facebook solely for work purposes.

Because if you believe that over 50% of federal workers who are signing onto Facebook are doing so for business and not pleasure, well, we've got a big pile of "Trump/Bachmann 2012" merchandise to sell you.

Social Media Making Big Inroads at Agencies

Survey: 46 percent now allowed to access social media at work, up from 20 percent a year ago

March 30, 2011

Federal Computer Week - Nearly half of the senior government employees who responded to a recent survey — 46 percent — are allowed to access social media websites at work, up from 20 percent a year ago, according to the survey released today by Market Connections.

The most popular site was Facebook, which was accessed by 54 percent, including 20 percent who visit the site at least once a day. The next most popular sites were YouTube, visited by 34 percent; LinkedIn, 18 percent; Twitter, 9 percent; MySpace, 6 percent; Flickr, 5 percent; GovLoop, 5 percent; and GovTwit, 2 percent.

Forty-five percent of the respondents said they use Facebook for work and personal reasons, while 49 percent said they only use Facebook for personal reasons.

The most common work-related reasons for accessing Facebook are research, cited by 26 percent; communication with colleagues, 26 percent; communication with the public, 17 percent; communication with other agencies, 8 percent; and recruitment, 4 percent.

Market Connections, in conjunction with TMP Government, surveyed more than 2,600 senior federal employees at both defense and civilian agencies from November 2010 to January. The employees were selected from subscription lists of more than a dozen top federal trade publications, including Federal Computer Week, along with databases from trade and professional associations and other third parties.

The surveyed workers covered a range of job functions, ranks, purchasing responsibilities and demographics. The survey also showed that 64 percent of respondents access e-mail on laptop PCs, 28 percent on BlackBerrys, 14 percent on iPhones and 11 percent on Android smart phones.

The respondents access news sites from mobile devices as well, including 14 percent who use BlackBerrys to do so, 11 percent who use iPhones and 9 percent who use Android phones.