Will Social Media Change Your Business Outlook?
Posted by goodmind on May 27th, 2008
One of the most active and lively “web-based” conversations is about the intersecting applications of social media and business. We admit, there’s very little we can add to this conversation that hasn’t already been said on this blog, or somewhere else, especially when Business Week has updated their seminal post “Blogs Will Change Your Business.”
The new version is more aptly titled “Social Media Will Change Your Business,” which is more or less indisputable fact at this point. However, the revised article contains a key revelation concerning companies currently using social networking applications for professional purposes – and using them well for that matter.
Though outward signs of social network use are easily recognized, and anyone can communicate their observation that Company XYZ “gets it” just as easily, no one is actually embracing the bottom up ethos giving executive management Kafka-esque dreams. Basically, even the most authentically enthusiastic advocates of crowdsourcing and the like, wouldn’t necessarily go to the crowd for advice. In fact, it might not even occur to a believer to crowdsource a solution to a personal, or professional problem.
In a rather revealing moment, the authors admit that even their own professional behavior doesn’t yet reflect what they’ve come to know and preach about the professional potential of social networks;
“Even when researching a story like this, it’s easy to fall into old patterns. Let’s see, we thought as we started out: Which top executives are embracing social media? Sun Microsystems (JAVA) chief executive officer Jonathan I. Schwartz is a blogger. What’s he up to? IBM (IBM) set up its own social network for employees, Beehive. It has 30,000 employees on it. We should definitely give them a call.
But hold on. If we’re writing about new networks that extend beyond companies and break down their walls, and if these technologies are often beyond the control of executives, what are we doing calling the bosses? Like many others in business, we have developed top-down reflexes that are nearly Pavlovian. We have to deprogram ourselves.“
Social Media will only change your business if you let it change your business outlook, and incorporate it into your daily business behavior. It’s like trying to lose weight; success is a lifestyle change. Fad dieting will only lead to frustration.
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