United Biscuits sets up social media trial to assess business benefits

Big cheese at snacks company offers a taste of social networking

In light of security concerns around the use of social media in business, United Biscuits' CIO, Clifford Burroughs, has created a group of 'super surfers' in a bid to assess the risks and benefits of its use within the enterprise.

The snacks company has banned the use of Facebook and Twitter for all staff but will allow it for the few comprising the 'super surfers' group.

Speaking exclusively to Computing, Burroughs said: "Social media and collaborative tools are useful to the business, but we're still cautious about access to sites such as Facebook and Twitter."

The company does use Facebook as marketing tool, however.

"We have several brand Facebook groups – from a brand equity perspective Facebook is great. You can get 20,000 hits in an hour when you post something about a snack – it's amazing."

While the group is still experimenting with publicly available social media, it does use a platform internally.

"We have dedicated internal social networking platforms that provide feedback around innovation, for example. We've got a tasters group, and a consumer feedback group. There is very sensitive data stored there, so we want to make sure we have our arms around it."

And while Burroughs updates an internal blog to keep his staff apprised of his thoughts, he has not yet opened his own Twitter account.

"I haven't started using Twitter yet, but I'm beginning to feel I should, because people are tweeting about me. I was at an event last week and someone tweeted about my participation. Perhaps I could make an impact by being involved."