Social Media Opportunities for Safety Professionals

CHICAGO – With rapid change in the dissemination of information influencing how people do their jobs, safety professionals may do well to consider social media and the relative benefits and challenges it may present.   

Safety professionals should understand and pay attention to the privacy settings of their social media sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, said Dr. Aaron C. Bird, of Oakland (MI) University in a technical session he presented at the American Society of Safety Engineers Professional Development Conference held in Chicago June 13-16. 

Much of the session titled “Social Media, Smart Phones, and E-Learning for Safety Professionals,” was devoted to an overview of the various social media and their relative usefulness for safety professionals.  

Though its members use it primarily for personal and recreational purposes, Bird sees several opportunities for safety professionals to capitalize on the popularity of Facebook for disseminating information. 

First, Bird recommends establishing a Facebook page and “liking” companies and articles that safety professionals wish to share with their workers. Bird said that ‘liking’ (the practice of connecting to a company or individual by clicking a ‘like’ icon is a practical way to discover and share information most useful to a specific population that faces a hazard more important to its industry or operating environment. Bird did not address the growing trend of IT departments that block employees from accessing Facebook while at work. 

The increased use of the social network, LinkedIn may afford safety professionals a greater opportunity to use social media than Facebook, says Bird. LinkedIn is a widely used and popular business social network.  Far more of the attendees admitted using LinkedIn for business than those who reported using Facebook for business purposes.  

“LinkedIn is more used more often than other social media” said Bird, who explained that LinkedIn is a place where members can network, answer questions and participate in discussions in forums specific to a profession or topic of interest to a particular population.  

LinkedIn is also useful for safety professionals looking for a job, Bird pointed out.  Bird also mentioned that some employers encourage the use of LinkedIn, but did not elaborate as to the circumstances where employers would likely encourage the use of social media or caution against dangers of employers doing so. 

The popularity of Twitter makes it a logical inclusion in this presentation, and Bird emphasized the socio-political influence Twitter has made of late. Bird sees potential in the immediacy in which Twitter can deliver information on safety topics, but cautions that the potential for “retweets” (the practice of redistributing another’s postings) and lack of privacy can be challenging.   

“One re-tweet (can be) seen by 1,000 people” he said. 

Smart devices like iPhones, Droids, and electronic tablets show real promise for safety professionals. “By 2013 there will be one billion smart device users,” said Bird. This wider availability of mobile devices capable of delivering content can be used by safety professionals for a variety of purposes from disseminating safety talks to gathering safety audit information.   

Safety training is increasingly being offered via eLearning and Bird presented several examples, but did not offer tips for discerning good training from bad, or mention that some eLearning will not meet OSHA requirements unless the sessions are proctored or meet somewhat stringent requirements before OSHA will accept it as equivalent to instructor-led training on the same topic. 

Bird offers five insightful tips that will benefit safety professionals and others as well: 

“Don’t post anything if you can answer “no” to any of the following questions:

· Is my post or comment worded respectfully?

· Am I confident the information is completely correct?

· Does the post or comment contribute value?

· If (I am posting something) during work time, is my post work related?

· Do I really have time to spend on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn? 

The first portion of his presentation focused on the declining social network MySpace. Because MySpace has been around so much longer than most other social networking, there is a much greater volume of research focused on it.

“My space has been extensively studied in peer-reviewed documents because it was (for a long time) the only social network with a population to be statistically relevant,” said Bird. 

Bird presented interesting and relevant data about the strikingly fast speed at which social networking is growing.  According to Bird, “In August 2006, MySpace’s 100 millionth user logged in; one year later there were less than 100,000 (active users).”  

He attributes this decline in popularity to a demographic that was largely young girls and older men. While Bird was quick to add that most of those who used MySpace were doing so “legally, ethically, and for socially acceptable reasons,” he followed those comments with a rogues gallery of slides showing news clippings that detailed shocking and gruesome cases where sexual predators and murderers found victims using MySpace.  

Let’s not forget the Craig’s List killer, either.  

The argument that the decline of MySpace was perhaps hastened by the negative portrayal by media cannot be completely discounted, a far more likely cause, however, was Facebook’s rapid growth. 

The response from audience members was positive and enthusiastic. The disparity of topics was not an issue for many attendees who came to the session with a diverse range of expectations from learning more about social networking in the broadest sense to hoping for a list of safety applications that can be run on a smart phone.