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It’s Not Whether You Do Social Media, But How Well

by Lucy Garrick on Sunday, May 9, 2010

The latest video from socialnomics.net is largely directed to advertisers, trends in communications are important harbingers for organizations as well. Consider how two-way communications made possible by the same technology (web 2.0+ or enterprise 2.0) that is used for social media is impacting the way knowledge and communications are shared inside your organization. Collaboration allow organizations to innovate not only its products and services, but its culture and the processes and structure that get real work done. “Social media” collaboration can be done piece-meal or strategically, depending on what you hope to get from it. The trends in this video should make it obvious that organizations no longer have a choice on whether to DO social media. The question is how well will you DO it. Do you see it as just another technology and limit the strategic thinking to those in IT and marketing, or do you use it as a competitive advantage.

Social media will have impact not only on your brand, but how your organization learns to work and lead together both internally and with its stakeholders.  I have excerpted a few of the assertions from this video with my thoughts on how you might begin to connect the dots between collaboration and building a stronger more sustainable company.

Much more than anything else in the workplace, the use social media technologies is about improving the value and effectiveness of human interactions.

  • Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30-years-old and 96% of them have joined a social network, therefore, the senior leaders in your organization need to understand and think strategically about how to use this technology in every aspect of the business, from initiating new ideas, to getting projects done well, to developing and running communities of practice.
  • Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé – some universities have stopped distributing e-mail accounts, therefore, it is important to include details of how social media technology strategies will benefits your operational plan.
  • Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth now becomes world of mouth. People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services than how Google ranks them. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations.This is also true for employees and organizational stakeholders and it impacts the effectiveness of organizational leadership at every level.
  • Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like Mad Men Listening first, selling second. The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years.  Enough said.

    • Tagged as: Collaboration, Innovation, Leadership, social media skills, Video, Virtual Collaboration

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