With new purveyors of social networking sites sprouting up at a rate of knots, it really is time to broach the subject of whether or not social networking can co-exist in the workplace.

The general definition of ‘personal’ seems to involve publishing huge amounts of information on the web for consumption by anyone with a computer. People are sharing photographs and memories on the likes of MySpace, organising events on Facebook and creatives are utilising YouTube for their big break. Celebrities are even deigning to share their lives with us on Twitter.

With Facebook having more than 400 million active users, businesses are being forced to take notice of social media and the effect it is having on their employees.

The general gist of sites such as those listed above is for people to provide up to the minute updates of what is happening in their here and now; no matter how banal. You would therefore have thought that most businesses would be predominantly concerned about a reduction in employee productivity with frequent breaks to update one’s status. However, most business owners are more concerned about security and possible viruses being allowed into networks and servers.

So, is there a place for social media in the workplace? Well, there are increasing numbers of users of sites such as LinkedIn who are getting very positive results. The potential for such a premise is huge – business networking sites could also be garnering 400 million users. Surely that would be good for everyone?

- Laura