by Joe McKendrick
October 15, 2009 at 4:21 pm
· Filed under Enterprise 2.0
As relayed by Boston-based CTO John Moore, IDC has released some not-so-encouraging statistics on social media adoption. Namely, that 54% of all US CIOs prohibit social networking sites at work, and even more disturbing, this represents a 20% jump in the first half of 2009.
“CIOs are erecting walls around the business, not opening up,” Moore concludes.
The implementations that are out there may be more simplistic in their usage than we like — for example, IDC finds that 70% of users of social networking sites use the sites “to look at pictures only.” I’m not quite sure what it means to be simply looking at pictures, or what pictures they’re looking at (head shots, graphs?), but it doesn’t sound like very sophisticated or advanced usage.
The IDC findings fly right in the face of other surveys highlighted in this blogspace, such as the recent McKinsey findings, which paint more positive scenarios about social media adoption.
Did IDC interview companies hiding under rocks, perhaps some backwater operations that are still wrestling with the PC invasion? Perhaps — though I have a very good friend who is an IDC analyst, and I know he selects his samples and works his data very carefully. And the 20% increase IDC reported in social media prohibitions is something that would jump out of any sample.
I sense that a clampdown by management and corporate legal departments is at work here. And this is coming from two directions:
1) As noted a couple of months back, a Deloitte study uncovered great concern about damages to corporate brand as a result of unfettered social media usage by employees.
2) In addition — here’s where legal sticks its claws in — there are growing liability and legal concerns about statements being made via blogs, wikis, and other forms of social media communication. E-mail communications are already ensnared in the legal system; social media communications are sure to follow.
But legal and branding concerns shouldn’t be a show-stopper. Here’s how to help organizations keep their eyes on the social media prize:
Recognize the expanding business value of social media, and build that into your corporate strategy. In doing so, social media evolves from informal grassroots movement into methodologies baked into the corporate culture.
Watch what the competition is doing. Companies are getting out oin front of their markets by engaging with customers and partners.
Let common-sense communications guidelines prevail. As with email — and any and all corporate communications for that matter — social media communications should not be mean-spirited, defamatory, or invoke gutter-speak. Apply the same rules — and training, if necessary — for inter-office communication to the out-of-the-office communications through social media networks.
Don’t let fear or nervousness cause managers to throw out something that is providing such an important competitive edge as social media.
Permalink
9 Tweets 
3 Other Comments
Just stopping in to tell you that I appreciated the blog reference and agreed with your points. It is critical that businesses find ways to meet their customers where they are at. If your customers are on social networks, discussing your company, your competitors, your products and services, you had better be there too.
I am a huge proponent of adopting Social Support Communities, in the right circumstances, as they are great ways of engaging customers in a manner that increases loyalty and reduces your operational support costs. Treat social as you would treat any communication channel. Apply sound business practices, establish strategies, execute on tactics, reap the rewards.
John
 |
ffblogOctober 15th, 2009 at 4:21 pm |
New Post “Mr. CIO, Tear Down This Wall” http://bit.ly/4zZ8s6
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
54% of US CIOs prohibit social networking sites at work; “CIOs are erecting walls around the business, not opening up.” http://tr.im/BWjX
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
You know you’re in trouble when they start quoting you: http://bit.ly/1OLtLG @CarolineDangson, good post on your stats #social #ssc
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Mr. CIO, Tear Down This Wall http://bit.ly/Wrz0j #sCRM #socialmedia
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
writing a response now to clarify http://bit.ly/1Pm2Rl
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Go git ‘em @CarolineDangson!!! writing a response now to clarify http://bit.ly/1Pm2Rl
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
waiting for moderation – it’ll be up soon @marcusnelson: re: writing a response now to clarify http://bit.ly/1Pm2Rl
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Mr. CIO, Tear Down This Wall http://ff.im/-a532v
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
|
finbargOctober 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 am |
Hi Barry, I think we have to credit the rationality of CIOs as well. If I balance the risk: linking of my brand with inappropriate behaviour and diversion of valuable employee time into non-productive activity, against the nebulous benefit that good things come when people are connected, then I have to be something of a risk taker to say "ah, sure — go on ahead!" And we know that today’s CIOs are not hired to be risk takers, but careful stewards of technology which is useful but can turn around and bit you!
This comment was originally posted on barryjogorman’s posterous
Yes – some credit due to CIOs. However I tend to believe that part of what employees bring to a company is their network. Therefore I have serious reservations about companies restricting their ability to interact with their network. Putting a value on the networking – another question. In many cases I believe ‘nebulous’ would be not be a fair assessment of the potential benefit of the networking – though it may be a fair description of the current , actual benefit.
This comment was originally posted on barryjogorman’s posterous
|
finbargOctober 22nd, 2009 at 2:15 am |
Absolutely. You know that, I know that, in their hearts most of these CIOs I’m sure know that too, but their professional charter is to minimize present cost and risk…
This comment was originally posted on barryjogorman’s posterous
|
Luis_ALOctober 26th, 2009 at 1:38 am |
Nos craintes générationnelles plus fortes que nos connaissances techniques et professionnelles ? DSI trainent aux US …http://is.gd/4BWZy
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
» Subscribe to the RSS feed for these comments
HTML-Tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Additional comments powered by BackType
