This presentation introduces social media and its relevance to organizations. It discusses how social media allows leveraging the diversity of individuals and harnessing the power of collectives. A simple framework is presented for understanding how social media addresses needs, outcomes, and amplifiers. A case study of Canada Post is described where social media helped provide communication channels for employees and integrate tools to address business issues.
Simply Social: Simplifying Social Media\'s Relevance to Organizational Objectives
1. Simply Social Simplifying Social Media’s Relevance to Organizational Objectives February 2010 [email_address]
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4. Beyond Functional Contribution The knowledge our people bring to the organization is greater than the job or function for which they were specifically hired
5. <new stuff> has taught us about… … the power of the collective … and the diversity of the individual
6. <new stuff> has taught us about… … a Better, Faster, Cheaper way
9. Social Media “ … media designed to be disseminated through social interaction .” (Wikipedia, as of Dec 22, 2009) “ … a type of computer mediated communication (that aims to) connect, collaborate and inform/convince .” (Corporate Executive Board) “ … people having conversations online .” (“What the f**k is social media”, Marta Kagan) “ … are online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between audience and author… .” (Joseph Thornley, 2008) “ … an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures .” (Various)
10. Is this really a paradigm shift… http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mcc/004/0001.jpg … or just a new spin on an old thing?
11. We’ve gone from lips to ears… Time (in years ago) Social Media Breadth and Depth 3,000,000
12. … to raw material media… Time (in years ago) Social Media Breadth and Depth 20,000
13. … to electronic media Time (in years ago) Social Media Breadth and Depth 135
14. … and gone from 1 to 1… Time (in years ago) Social Media Breadth and Depth 40
15. … and 1 to many… Time (in years ago) Social Media Breadth and Depth 10
16. … to many to many. Time (in years ago) Social Media Breadth and Depth 0
Ok – so I’d like to get into a bit more of the presentation specific to social media….but keep in the back of your mind these concepts as they come up later.
But if we remove the word “online” – what we’re left with is people having conversations. Well. This is a photo of Alexander Graham Bell’s conceptual drawing of the telephone. Notice one person on one end of the “line”, and another person on the other end ofthe “line”. They aren’t “on” the line, per se, but they are between it which is pretty close. But this is also “people having conversations”, no? This concept of two people talking to one another seems pretty straight forward to us – social media should become this straight forward. Is this “really” a paradigm shift? Or just a spin on an old thing. The answer, I think, is yes and no. No – because, while there is a lot of stuff that is new one could hardly justify saying that a key model of communicating is really changing. However, when one might argue that this movement is transformative and exhaustive BECAUSE it is social. And the introduction of social media into the fabric of work could very well be consider a paradigm shift
Once we achieved the ability to CONNECT – ON A LINE – our progress grew exponentially. We went from the transmission of social information from 1 person to 1 person – here we have Tomlinson using ARPANET to send the first email message. (ok, it was to himself, but that’s not the point)….
… to a 1 person to many person type of transmission. It was at this point, perhaps about 10 years ago, when “Blogging” hit the mainstream, that the reality of the power of SOCIAL media began to take hold. The ability for conversations to be had, easily, between 1 and many was a significant turning point….