According to the CRTC, in 2005 CBC had an average of 10,730 employees.
A whopping 2,413 of them have Facebook profiles and have joined the CBC network (and who knows how many more haven’t joined.) That’s 22.5 per cent of the entire staff, and climbing.
Yet for all those 2,413 members, the network page itself is a wasteland: two discussion topics, and 17 wall posts.
(By way of comparison, that’s less activity than the group I set up for the CBC.ca softball team, of which there are 12 Facebook members.)
Now, there’s also a CBC group on Facebook (a group is different from a network) with 345 members. And, to my unending dismay, its full title is “CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation)” - it’s Broadcasting, kids! But that group has a meager three discussion topics, 11 photos and 86 wall comments.
Which is pitiful.
Now, CBC’s audience is much more active – the fan group “I Heart CBC!” has 3,199 members, 48 photos, 57 topics and 291 wall posts. The group “I love ‘The Hour’” has 2,596 members, with 43 topics, 50 photos and 355 wall posts.
Granted, there are more fans than employees – and thank God for that! But why is the group and network we created for ourselves so barren?
CBC’s audience is busy on Facebook, and we’re pretty good at encouraging them to be (see the Great Canadian Wish List.) Based on raw numbers and personal experience, CBC employees do use Facebook, frequently. But we suck at representing the CBC itself.
Granted, it’s better to have an audience that talks about us than for us to be talking about ourselves (hey wait, what am I doing right now?) But I read in yesterday’s Globe that increasingly, corporations are using Facebook to talk up their companies and attract young talent – for example, the Ernst & Young Careers group alone has 8,485 members. (The same article does give the CBC credit for its YouTube video promoting what a great place it is to work… it appears to have been posted by one Tod Maffin. It’s also available via the CBC.ca/jobs site here.)
Should CBC make more of an effort to promote the corporation online? How? And whose job is it – the employees, or someone in Corporate Communications?
-PG
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When the lines between work and your personal life start to blur, life can become a scarey thing.
My boss is in the CBC network…and I don’t want to have to go and set up tons of filters to block things that she or others in the network can see. We get along great, my boss and I, so I don’t mind so much, but i’m sure my opion would differ if I couldn’t stand her.
Besides, it’s much too easy to track ‘productivity’ using Facebook…
“how come that report isn’t ready but you’ve added 10 news friends and posted a note and joined a network all between 9 and 5?” OR “I thought you were sick yesterday, how come you’ve added all those pics from the beach?”
shudder…the horror.
I don’t blame CBC folks for not being ‘too active’ in the network. It’s only a matter of time before Facebook is blocked by Websense (shoot…I hope I didn’t give the IT department any ideas)
Facebook is personal
CBC is work
They don’t mix.
I do, however, suggest you check out the profile for “Chinook P. Falcon”…
Ugh. The “I Heart CBC” group was active and popular long (in facebook terms) before that awful Great Canadian Wish List was born.
I dunno if CBC should make more of an effort..I mean it’s not CBC wide. The Radio 3 group is going pretty well
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2211393123
3,139 Members, 32 Discussion topics, 526 Wall topics - and that’s just for Radio 3
But for the most part it seems to go better when the CBC doesn’t do it themselves…like the I heart CBC group, There are now 531 members in the R3TV group - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2350312148 and 4,449 on the Myspace http://www.myspace.com/cbclove but, Triple Sensation, for example has only 273 … if it’s the people who ‘own’ the CBC maybe it’s best to let them do the ‘online’ part of it, for whatever reason - with the exception of Radio 3, it just seems to be received better when it’s not official.
Have the considered the fact that Facebook is a great social network, but really sucks as a message board?
Because we have a strict journalistic policy within the CBC, many news employees are probably not sure how and what is ok to do in Facebook. Can you state your religion? Your political views? How much personal info can and should you post? Facebook encourages users to list all the above. While the CBC doesn’t want us broadcasting such personal viewpoints…
CBC Worker says - “we have a strict journalistic policy within the CBC” Thanks for the laugh! I had a hard day at work in my private enterprise job today and this was sorely needed.
No - the CBC wouldn’t want their employees broadcasting personal viewpoints. Bwahh ha ha ha ha!
Why is the CBC Facebook so lame? Because Facebook is for YOUNG PEOPLE.
If it has to be someone’s task to make it work, it won’t, period. People talk where they feel comfortable talking, and it’s apparent from the group that Facebook just doesn’t do it for people. The thing to do is to find out where they do talk, and to find ways of making those channels more open (if that is the desire) or to stregthen them so they keep growing with the organization and the times.
Real email addresses and real names.
As usual, Ouimet’s nailed it. What you say in Facebook is attached to your name and photo. CBCers are smart enough to know that the bosses are almost certainly watching what’s said in a public forum as big as facebook, and that creates a chill effect (I’m predicating this on my own assumption that increasing CBCer participation would equal lots of critical things being said — which I think is a pretty safe bet).
What would be interesting would be to see how the CBC Facebook ‘network’ compares to other workplace networks in terms of activity, etc. I suspect that with the exception of the few orgs that have already demonstrated a real belief in the ‘new transparency’ trend, most of them are just as quiet as ours.
In terms of transparency, why is the comment function for this video (a piece on “working for CBC”) disabled?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsVh9wjRIkU
[...] Why is the CBC Facebook group so lame? - Interesting & insightful posting and comments. Perfect timing for my dip/jump into Facebook. It is a tool that has the most potential to surprise. [...]