The flip side, of course, is the handful of employees who constantly complain, vent and bicker, usually on micro-blogging platforms. IT leaders advice: Let them do it. If you staunch their voice, then you destroy trust.

How do you avoid social networking problems? The trick is knowing how people interact, not necessarily the intricacies of the technology. For instance, social networking is self-regulating and self-outing so that peer pressure will often correct behavior without corporate intervention.

"You have a social reputation," Jones says. "When you have more eyes, there will be less complaining because [nobody] wants to appear as a whiner."

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