If security is an issue, you can create a separate user account that would exist outside of the corporate firewall and allow specific users access to the outside system. They can then set up a process for sharing information.

However, IT should not be dictating corporate communication, marketing or strategic planning. It is there to assist and provide resources. With all due respect to the IT groups I have known, very few people in IT understand or appreciate the company’s vision, mission or goals. Instead of giving me reasons why something as it stands is risky, they should be finding solutions to the problem that facilitate the users’ needs.

Social media is an easy, inexpensive and effective way to communicate to an audience that would be otherwise unreachable. Learning to coexist and benefit from the relationship is far wiser than trying to block it and avoid its existence.