Is The Enterprise Ready For Social Media?

	By Andrew Jenkins October 19, 2009 Volterra Consulting, Founder Biography	Connect.Follow.Network.

I was at a Salesforce event last week where they demonstrated the integration of their platform with Facebook and Twitter. The more impressive of their two examples was Twitter.  With it a tweet could be captured with a customer profile to initiate a trouble ticket or sales lead. While this was interesting it still seems to be lacking something.

I’m not faulting Salesforce. They are simply integrating with complementary platforms that are becoming more prominent in their market. What I am suggesting, however, is that they are missing the social part. In fairness to them, many enterprises and their suppliers are also missing the social part.

What I mean by that is that they are focusing on the tools rather than the social interaction. Salesforce sells tools but I wonder if enterprises and their suppliers give much consideration to the environment into which they wish to install a tool or solutions. Is the environment or culture already social or at least predisposed to it? If not, there is a high risk of failure for the solution and the enterprise’s social objectives will likely not be achieved.

Even if the enterprise could be considered highly social, there is a great deal of trepidation regarding social media, which is why organizations have been slow to adopt.  Having a proper sense of what approach to take provides some comfort and Dave Fleet provides some helpful tips on social media policy for companies, which should serve to reduce their fears and elevate their comfort level.

On Radian6’s blog, How can you help the enterprise socialize?, Lauren Vargas discusses their internal efforts to create a safe haven for staff to test social media, ask questions, and better understand the demands put on organizations before they can gradually embrace it. As I mentioned earlier, the focus was on tools rather than social interaction and Lauren says it even better when she says “The tool is not the platform for sharing information, it is the people.”

This is where I think a lot of social media gurus, consultants and solution providers seem to be missing the point.  There seems to be very little time and effort devoted to situational analysis or organizational assessments, specifically the people and their readiness to adopt social media.  If there were, the success rate for social media initiatives would most certainly increase. That is, of course, if the analysis or assessment concluded the environment (i.e. people) was conducive to social media.  If it wasn’t conducive then the enterprise would avoid wasting time, incurring extra costs and, even worse, the prospect of a public shaming via social media if they went about it all the wrong way.

The hype surrounding social media would give the impression that things are moving rapidly but the enterprises, and the people within them, need to be slow in their approach because putting a strain on an organization should not be the intent with social media. Enterprises need to ensure that any social media initiatives align with their strategy but most importantly, their culture and their capability.

  

 

Comments

[Andrew Jenkins]

Thanks Rahul and Salima for taking the time to read my post and to share some insights. It is greatly appreciated.

I would love to hear more about your social media experiences within the enterprise.

[Salima Valji]

Totally agree with Andrew's point of view in the article. I help organization's navigate this everyday and have learned that implementing social media marketing/ social business is really about change management. The tool or idea is not enough to support an organization through the transition. It requires alot of education, training, new policies, and sometimes even new org structures. So an organization really has to be ready to take on this big undertaking before beginning.

[Rahul]

Andrew, good view on enterprise and social media. The last two lines viz."Enterprises need to ensure that any social media initiatives align with their strategy but most importantly, their culture and their capability" says it all. I would just like to contribute by adding the word 'corporate vision' to it.