I’ve read in a recent Melcrum study about social media that one of the “issues to consider when developing your social media strategy” is that you have to “prepare to relinquish control and share the process.”
Here’s where I disagree and get concerned….when you’re trying to influence a group of (often) reluctant senior executives to use social media tools at the company, the last thing you want to say is that: “…um…yes…well, you will need to give up control.” I’ll tell you, that meeting won’t go well.
To me, the idea of giving up control suggests we had it in the first place. Did we as communicators or executives ever have control over water-cooler conversations…over what employees say to their colleagues, friends or families? While I agree blogging for instance, means employees (who write well and cleverly) can easily amass an internal following and get the ears of a wider audience. This can be risky. Yes. BUT…at least with blogs we know what employees are talking about.
Social media tools provide insight into hot topics, issues and conversations that are happening in the hallways and beyond. And this in turn provides opportunities to influence these conversations by contributing our opionions/position on any given topic.
So…are we giving up control? I’d argue by bringing these conversations online we actually have more of a chance to really know what’s going on in our own companies.
4 responses so far ↓
Mandy // June 22, 2007 at 7:29 pm |
Sandra I heartily agree that using language like “relinquish control” when trying to build the case for social media with skeptical leaders, is probably not a good idea!
But what we were trying to highlight with that particular point – which we elaborate on in the “strategy” chapter of our report on “How to engage employees with social media” – is the need for a slightly different mindset when thinking about how conversations will develop via blogs, wikis, social networks, etc.
No one will ever be able to control the conversations that take place at the water cooler. But I think consciously or not there has been more control over the way people communicate in more public forums, perhaps because previously there hasn’t been the instant feedback mechanism that many of the social media tools now allow.
When we interviewed practitioners for the report about their experiences when introducing social media tools, many of them spoke about the need for allowing conversations to develop in a more organic way.
Ultimately, the tools don’t mean that there’s no control – it’s still quite easy to moderate a blog and reject inappropriate posts. (Or better still, put clear guidelines in place and encourage people to use their common sense and professionalism to guide their actions.)
But they do (or should) encourage a move away from the old-style top-down communication that takes place in many organizations, towards a more open, involving way of communicating where employees are invited to take part in a conversation and share information as they choose, rather than have it pushed at them in a way that leaders or communicators choose.
As one of our interviewees put it: “One of the most important aspects of social software – which is almost their primary appeal and the thing that makes them work for the user – is that they are random and unpredictable. So you have to be comfortable with a degree of uncertainty.”
One of the great lessons of the rise of the blogosphere, he says, is that simple, person-to-person conversations can blossom into quite large exercises in knowledge sharing if they’re allowed to grow in whatever way they need.
But perhaps for the purpose of getting leaders on board, using language like “prepare to open up the conversation” sounds less threatening than “relinquish control”!
Mandy
Sandra // June 22, 2007 at 10:08 pm |
Mandy…totally agree…and must say that I enjoyed the report thoroughly. It’s true that leaders do need to prepare themselves for a different communications experience (and many are not quite there yet…not ready). So I like how you worded it at the end: “prepare to open up the conversation”….I think we’ll have greater influence with them with this slightly, but significant difference in tone.
There were a lot of really good case studies in the report, and I’m glad to see social media looked at from an employee comms perspective. So far much of the research has looked at social media from a traditional PR/marketing viewpoint. (Personally I think PR, marketing and employee comms will be a unified area brought on by social media…as employees are increasingly looked to for information by prospective buyers, customers and recruits…but I’m getting slightly off-topic.)
Mandy // June 25, 2007 at 4:30 am |
I think that unification of PR, marketing and employee comms through social media is a really interesting concept. How do you envisage that happening? Perhaps we can explore that in the next report!
Mandy
Sandra // June 26, 2007 at 2:26 am |
Mandy – I think that would be great….I’d buy that report!