The Social Workplace

The Social Workplace

ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION

InSites Consulting

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16% of US companies have integrated social media into their entire organization.
27% are in the process of doing so.
20% are setting up pilot projects.
23% are taking their first small steps in using social media.
14% are doing nothing with social media.

THOUGHT: I recently discussed cloud computing and how its adoption will help to transform how we work by making us less dependent on physical locations in order to be productive.

I’m writing this newsletter, for example, using Google Docs while at home with a cold. When I’m ready to send it to y’all, I’ll use the cloud-based email marketing service MailChimp to deliver it to you.

Social media adoption within businesses will have an even more profound effect on how we work.

I think a lot of managers and executives don’t see the benefit of integrating social media inside of their business because they see social media as a marketing tool. You use Facebook to build an audience to whom you can then directly market.

I think that sentiment comes from people who get the basic concept of Facebook and Twitter but really don’t use them themselves. As a result, the manner in which people use these tools is lost on them.

If they’ve never organized a happy hour on Facebook, then its potential as an organizational tool within a company is not apparent. If they don’t actively use Facebook themselves, then the power of its “passive intelligence” capability does not register.

Let me explain.

I’m not a caller. I don’t typically call up friends and family on the phone to chat. Don’t know why, but I’ve never really done that. I have a brother and two sisters who live outside of Minnesota and thirteen nieces and nephews spread out all over the place. Before Facebook, people would make a phone call to get brought up to speed on the lives of those close to you, and even then, you learned only what they thought of telling you at that time.

Now, all my brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews are on Facebook and as a result, I know them far better than I ever did as a result of their activity there. I know what food and music they like, where they’re going for vacations and what they did there, what classes they’re taking or what they’re working on and when they’ve been promoted.

Status update by status update, I gain a much fuller understanding of who they are as individuals, what their likes and dislikes and talents are. I also have a more in-depth understanding of the whole that is my family.

Take that same dynamic into the workplace and you’ve just created a highly efficient way to keep employees informed about what others are doing and working on. Suggestions or contributions come effortlessly and naturally: “Hey, did you consider this?” or “You might want to check out that resource.” You also gain a much fuller appreciation of the strengths of your fellow employees.

If you’ve never contributed to a conversation or participated in a debate on a blog, then its utility as a collaborative tool will not occur to you.

We are at the infancy of the social organization but it is as inevitable as the generations that are beginning to demand it.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: News stories of 2011, LEGOized [GALLERY]

Thank you for soft tissues.

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