Risk, mitigation and opportunities in Social Networking

Hein Gerber is speaking at the Institute of Corporate Directors breakfast about what social media and networking actually is, and how corporations can use social media to their benefit.

We’re talking at the moment about what social media is, how it works, and what some examples of social media are. Hein dares people in the room to type “company name” and “facebook” in google and see what comes up. He says that many corporations don’t know they’re even on Facebook.

I constantly forget that corporations aren’t up to speed on social media – that we really are early  adopters.

The main drivers of social networking: uptake and exponential growth, changing workplace demographics, and enabling technology.

The proof is in the numbers:

In January 2008, Facebook there were 64 million and now, 11 months later, there are 124 million users. Companies are starting to realize that social networking and the requirement to spend money on these services and to invest in social networking in order to recruit and retain employees.

The examples that hein is using to explain the kinds of corporations that are using to describe social networking:

Delta, Boeing. BC Government, Nike, Nortel (on Twitter) TELUS… I’m surprised that we’re not talking about some of the really big players in  the social media world – sure all these companies are using these tools, but what about Mortrin, Southwest Airlines, and some of the other really big players?

Wow. We’re talking about Second Life, and Telus’s virtual store … he’s using 15 million registered users as the figure to explain how “important” Second Life is, but this is telling me that the corporate world is really very behind on the actual social media world – there’s really not many people who are actually using Second Life anymore.

Now we’re getting into the risks. This is what I’m really interested in – I want to see what the corporations think of as the major risk factors in business.

One of the major ones is from an individual perspective: that an employee can put some of the confidential information out on the web; they think that there will be a slow down in corporate infrastructure if people are streaming videos; malware, viruses etc; damage to the brand (oh hai Mortrin), corporate espionage, performance degradation and productivity loss.

Ahh, now we’re getting into Mortin. Hein thinks that it was a good move to pull the ad, that Motrin was acting in the companies’ best interest, and yet, Ad Age makes a good case for the fact that Johnson & Johnson moved way too fast. Just because a few people were rather, ahem, vocal, doesn’t mean that it’s the view of the majority of your users.

Some of the questions that Hein says companies should ask include:

What is your organization’s approach and commitment to Web 2.0?

How will your organization benefit from embracing Web 2.0?

Does your business strategy consider the impact of Web 2.0?

Has your organization conducted a risk assessment of internal and external implications of Web 2.0?

Is your infrastructure secure enough?

Will your organization be able to measure the impact and benefits of Web 2.0?

Can your infrastructure support Web 2.0?

Does your organization’s policies address the use of Web 2.0 technologies?

Does your IT portfolio include an inventory of Web 2.0 applications and initiatives?

Is your organization actively monitoring public Web 2.0?

Some of the advice that’s being given this morning is really concerning me – blogs won’t just “be viral”. People won’t just “learn about it” even if you have good content. It’s not a “Build it and they will come” matter. yes, you have to have a goal for having a blog – you can’t just put it up there and hope that people will find it, but you also can’t use traditional media to tell people that you have a blog.