It started as new media, then interactive media, then consumer generated media, then web 2.0 and now social media…. How different are these definitions? Is social media the new new media? At the end of the day, it is about connectivity that facilitates dialogue and encourages co-creation and conversation. The signal-to-noise ration is high, no question. What about the potential for mining knowledge from heaps of noise and clutter?
Can social media transform the enterprises? Or goverment? Social media can bypass hierarchical structures (generally) established to manage and protect now-antiquated and quaint information flows. The hierarchy is flattened for internal communication, but more often, social media permits external access (inbound, outbound and crossbound) of information and experts whose credibility is established by the social media and, perhaps more importantly, would have been an unknown without social media.
Smart companies can imagine the benefits if they can successfully utilize social technology and media to engage their customers, customer advocates, partners, employees and suppliers in an open and transparent dialog. Every organization whether banks or governments need to rebuild trust with their public. Many of the trust and credibility that organization used to enjoy were wiped out completely. Can you still trust your bank? Social media not only impacts external customers, it also drives internal change too. By adopting a freeform social media model based on entirely on grassroots populism is anarchy and anarchy is not the same as flexibility and agility. Social media can disrupt hierarchies and very often those hierarchies that are disrupted by inputs brought in from the outside should be broken, but goals, accountability, and processes are required to maintain forward momentum in any organization. In short, social media can transform organizations and accelerate change.
Social media will be used as a platform to reinforce an organization’s purpose and mission, whether it is a business unit or enterprise. It will used to energize and engage employees. All enterprises need to be social, people are social, customers are social, and businesses are social. It is not about point solutions to improve current information systems and processes, but new ways of connecting, competing and creative collaborating. In a wold without trust, social enterprise is the answer. It is Twitter vs SAP.
Charles Handy wrote “technology without trust is just traffic“. I believe technology without trust is just noise. Handy may not have used twitter or blog or other social media, but he gets it. It is all about trust, a social enterprise is best poised to do that.
Have a great weekend.
