How can a government communicator help convince traditional bureaucracies to adopt social media tools - even as part of a pilot project? The key lays in the preparation of arguments and counterarguments, to be used as part of a pitch to senior management.

We are not all naturally risk adverse, but we can work to anticipate the points that will prompt questions from our Undersecretaries, Assistant Deputy Ministers and Directors-General. Building from that analysis, we can make sure our presentations and white papers address concerns about IT infrastructure security, information retention and workplace productivity that are sure to come up as a proposal makes its way through a department or ministry.

Some of this data is being pulled together already. As corporate consultancies begin to play in the arena, they are beginning to address the implications of social media adoption from the point of view of a corporate manager: what about the risk?

For example, Clearswift recently conducted surveys in Britain and the United States to examine use of social media and “Web 2.0″ sites in the workplace. Their news release highlighted the term “data leakage,” and the U.S. news release emphasized that the “Growing popularity of Web 2.0 sites put corporate information at risk and drains productivity.”

The data points being fed to corporate clients, as a result, emphasize three points:

• without a plan to deal with social media use, corporations risk the loss of valuable corporate information, either intentionally or inadvertently;
• employees, especially the younger generation, are already online A LOT during work hours; and
• use of “Web 2.0″ sites can significantly affect productivity in the workplace.

Key to these arguments are two separate sets of findings:

United States

• 46 percent of office workers have discussed work-related issues on social media websites;
• 71 percent of office workers use Web-based email at work for personal reasons;

Britain

• 42 per cent of office workers aged 18-29 have discussed work-related issues on social media websites
• 59 per cent of office workers aged 18-29 believed that employees should be entitled to access Web 2.0 Internet content from their work computer for personal reasons, compared to 38 per cent of employees aged 30+.

It’s hard to compare the two sets of surveys, as their methodology is different in each country. Still, the results are similar and reinforce the message being driven by Clearswift:

“More than half of the people we surveyed feel that they are entitled to access the Internet and social media sites at work, and 27 percent of them work at organizations that don’t have an acceptable use policy or don’t know if one exists,” added Ian Bowles. “We have become way too casual with the Internet; this despite the propagation of viruses, bugs, spam and scams that plague the Internet and can harm an organization. We urge businesses to take a sensible approach to the risks posed by the Internet and social media sites.”

Does that voice sound familiar? Can you visualize having that conversation with a senior manager in your organization? Have you already lived through that type of exchange?

h/t to the Melcrum Blog, and cross-posted to canuckflack.com