Connecting for Collaboration via Social Media?

We must begin by saying that executives recoil at the term “social media” with visions of unproductive activities on such sites as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, all the while risking the enterprise security and compliance. We prefer to use the term collaboration networks regardless of the media or means they use, which clarifies the purpose in the context of enterprise investments, expectations and policies.

Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd in The Über-Connected Organization: A Mandate for 2010 on HBR Blogs outline the benefits of social media for collaboration and offer guidance to enterprise leaders on how to proceed. Their business case is:

1. Access to social media improves productivity
2. Millennials will seek jobs that encourage the use of social media
3. Companies that provide access to social media create a more engaged workforce

They recommend enterprise leaders to address the following questions before proceeding:

• What business benefits are you trying to solve?
• Who needs to be involved in the coalition to become über-connected?
• What type of change management plan needs to be put into place?

They pose a very interesting question: Has blocking Facebook today become the equivalent of denying an employee access to a phone at work 40 years ago or email 20 years ago?

This reminds me of the collision between immovable object and irresistible force, about which we wrote in an earlier post, Leveraging Social Media for the Enterprise, but HOW? It is about the pent-up user demand that is the irresistible force colliding with the immovable object that is traditional IT thinking. The collaboration culture and the mindset of the organization have to evolve.

We must begin with clearly-defined business objectives, as outlined in the 4 Ps of Effective Collaboration. We have also outlined the distinction between collaboration and social networks, as well as the objectives of players in collaboration networks, in earlier posts. Collaboration networks are effective enablers of collaboration, but collaboration itself must be goals-driven.

It is hard to deny the power of such networking sites as LinkedIn, that have been used effectively by the enterprise for recruiting and sales leads generation. Visions and articles abound for marketing on social media sites such as Facebook and Myspace. But most CMOs have failed thus far to demonstrate an ROI on such marketing investments.

When you have a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail, said a wise soul! We ushered in the new era of automobile travel by paving the cow path, only to fully appreciate later the power of automobile and associated infrastructure that led to the national highway system and urban/transport planning. The web also went through a similar evolution when we started putting content on the web as the content was, before we started creating content for the web.

Is Facebook or Twitter the answer for improving collaboration? Is “Facebook for Enterprise” or “Twitter for Enterprise” the answer? Probably not! They are hammers, and quite effective at that for their purpose, but look for the right nails. Oh, and also watch out for paving the cow path.

Social networking sites use impressive tools that can be utilized for collaboration networks for the enterprise. But, we must not forget to pick the right horse for the course. Remember, the enterprise reluctantly adopted IM but never the whole AOL walled-garden. And, they have been right!

And, do not forget the ROI. “If you have to ask for ROI, you don’t need to know” is a funny line, but therein lays the challenge.

Update on 24 December 2010 by Lokesh Datta

See Related Posts:

• No Recession for Social Media Investments
• Good Advice: Using Social Media for Project Management
• Engaging/Networking Tools for Collaboration
• Comparing Collaboration and Social Networks
• Leveraging Social Media for Person 2.0
• Leveraging Social Networking for Enterprise, but HOW?