Social Media in the Organization: Embrace it. Don’t Block it!
Written by Ron Desi on July 8, 2009 – 4:45 pm - 
I was recently interviewed by Andy Rosen of the Daily Record for his article ‘Lockheed Martin is getting social – with a private network’. According to the article, Lockheed has created its own, internal social network and just recently re-opened access to Facebook. I wanted to delve a bit deeper into this topic and give my thoughts regarding social media usage within organizations.
Companies need to embrace social media…not fight it.
Some companies might feel the need to ban social media entirely. Watching YouTube, checking a friend’s status update on Facebook, or tweeting about a trending topic is a waste of valuable work time, right? Perhaps, but managers need to look beyond the “loafing” aspect of social media and begin to embrace its business potential.
Organizations need to be smart and view social media as a tool to gain a competitive advantage. Social media can provide a wealth of knowledge to employees tapped into the correct networks. Employers benefit from employees who read blogs or are on Twitter reading tweets relevant to their job. It helps them enhance their knowledge base. For example, a software developer might need to troubleshoot a problem. He or she can tweet the issue to his or her followers and obtain technical assistance. This saves time and money. A sales rep can read blogs from a sales guru like Jeffrey Gitomer and gain really great insight (try www.salescaffeine.com/)
Teach employees how to harness its power
If used correctly, social media can be a great tool for employee productivity. The question is, how can companies focus employee’s efforts to use social media tools for business effectiveness? Teach them! For example, an organization should hold seminars on how to leverage social media. Customize the training for various departments. Here are a few ideas:
- Teach the sales department how to tap into sales networks to increase sales (LinkedIn and Spoke come to mind).
- Teach accountants how to leverage social media to help them become better accountants. The Maryland Association of CPAs is on twitter (@macpa). In my opinion, every accountant in Maryland should be following them on Twitter.
- Teach HR professionals how to leverage Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Show IT development staff which social media can help them resolve technical issues faster than random troubleshooting or calling the tech support line (which can be pricey these days).
- Post training videos on YouTube.
- Have the CEO (or boss) blog like Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson publishers and CEO social media ”rock star”
In his article, Social media gets the job done at work, Devin Dwyer interviews a few IBM managers. IBM is embracing social media. According to the article, half of U.S. companies ban “blogs and online communities”. In my opinion, this is incredibly short cited. One of the IBM managers states,
“Do companies ban people from going to the water cooler to talk? Of course they don’t. But they choose to ban tools of social media, because they’re scared of them or because they don’t understand them.”
Sure, there will be employees who goof off and spend two hours looking at photos on Flickr or playing Mafia Wars on Facebook. However, these same employees would likely be wasting time doing something else if they did not have access to Flickr or Facebook. Most employees want to do a good job and will use social media in productive ways if expectations are set and they are taught how to use them. If a sales person can gain five additional sales a quarter using a social network, that’s worth the time he or she might spend watching the latest viral YouTube video.
Should companies build their own internal social networks?
I think it is great that organizations are implementing internal social networks. I think they can help build community, leverage knowledge across the organization, and employees might be able to collaborate more effectively using internal social media tools. However, internal knowledge can only go so far and I think employers should use an internal / external strategy. Train employees how best to use the internal social network and how to best leverage the external social networks as well.
Tags: Social Media
Posted in Business Insights, Social Media | 10 Comments »
July 9th, 2009 at 8:10 am
[...] This post was Twitted by ubtowsonmba [...]
July 9th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Social media can expand one’s knowledge base and help companies reach out to their consumers on a more personal level. The numerous benefits are worth the dive into the social media world.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Michelle – thanks for the comment. I agree, social media can be an a great tool for building corporate and individual effectiveness.
July 21st, 2009 at 3:03 pm
As a manager I consider most social networking in the work place the 21st century replacement for the personal phone call.
Unfettered access and the lack of an enforceable policy leads to reduced productivity by younger employees. Gen whatever needs to remember that they are there to work, not fancy themselves some corporate on line representative of the company.
July 24th, 2009 at 7:28 am
I can understand some Managers’ reluctance to get invovled in the social media space – ex. The Boss’ concerns about employee productivity. However, social media doesn’t seem to be a fleeting trend and those companies who don’t jump on the band wagon now, will likely be seen as “behind the times” and will be playing catch-up at some point or another. And by then, it might be too late.
Instead of reprimanding employees for being in this space during work hours, embrace and harness their knowledge and expertise in these areas! These “younger employees” can be a great resource for helping companies be successful in this space, and will probably be passionate and enthusiastic about being able to use these tools to add value in their work.
July 25th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Julia – thanks for the comment.
August 5th, 2009 at 7:34 am
[...] my last post, Social Media in the Organization: Embrace it. Don’t Block it!, I mention this specifically. Organization must embrace social media and show employees how to use [...]
March 11th, 2010 at 10:02 am
[...] changed my mind from my prior opinion. I now believe that organizations should BAN social media [...]
March 11th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Ron – are there any scientific studies published that support the notion that social media leads to reduction in productivity?
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:22 am
[...] networks, use these networks to become more knowledgeable about a variety of topics. In fact, I believe organizations can use social media become more effective. Also, what’s wrong with having a little fun? If users of social media want to spend 15-20 [...]