Social Network Positioning: “New Age Solutions to Old Economy Problems”
Alan Wilensky at bizcast has graciously commented on my blog lately. His post on social networks is full of insights- here are a couple:
“Strategies for Social Media, in particular, have been a challenge when soft pedaling my services in the outreach phase. Companies want to just jump in and create systems from whole cloth, offer white box services, or create Facebook apps – all without a thought as to what interactions they are trying to foster, who they are endeavoring to connect or enable, or what model they are trying to exploit. Forget any reality checks for monetization, even in the soft sense of labor savings or process streamlining.
No, when an organization has made up its mind, the strategic issues are often put aside, and the project proceeds apace to implementation. Bad for me, good for the latest crop of Social Media systems designers; all power to them. We will see how it shakes out, long term.
But I am a staunch advocate of applying New Age solutions to Old Economy problems.”
I interpret this as creating technology projects that are NOT aligned to a company strategy; i.e., they should not be created in the first place, or if underway, should be disbanded because no strategy is linked to the project.
Alan’s comment about New Age solutions is fantastic. Recently a support manager in my software firm told me how much time Webex (an on-line capability that allows sharing of computers) applications have saved her and increased customer satisfaction. Prior to Webex they would fax screen captures back and forth to solve problems. Same problem but now a technology has enabled a process that solves it. I think the social networking phenomenon should be looked at in the same way- how can social networking enable your company to satisfy your customers?
So, watch out for doing social network projects with no link to company strategies. Make sure that an “old economy” problem is being solved. Let me know what you think. Should technology like social networking simply be implemented because all the employees want it? Why is it a waste of money to implement technology without a link to a strategy?
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I agree that if a company is going to implement social networking, it should be related to strategy. Otherwise it’s just “fun.” Before implementing social networking, it’s important to analyze how it can help the company. And if it fits, it can be a great tool.
Hi Miranda- thanks for commenting. Glad to see someone agrees with the strategy link. I think a lot of firms are considering enabling social networking within their work forces just because they feel that “this is the new way” of communicating. I don’t think this is enough- there MUST be a strategy that is fulfilled. Brings to mind an old post about how blogging assists project management at http://www.projectmanagement411.com/why-didnt-i-think-of-that/ . Do you have any specific examples of companies that have wrestled with this (don’t have to name names just the situation)? Thanks.
Hey Bob,
Correctly pointed out. Social networking needs to be combined with strategy thinking. My view is that it can be a great HR tool. It can really drill down company values et al due to constant interaction. And this can only happen if its strategy focussed. A firm should want to control and direct conversations in an environment that is relatively open. I think what Social Networking does for business is that there is one large macro message; you can then break that macro message and give it a 1000 forms using micro messages on SN -this then supplements company vision which can then make your task force address consumers better. Thats just one way – there are millions of other ways.
Aditya- thanks again for commenting. If only strategies were focused- it would eliminate many of the communication problems of corporations. There is an element of “big brother” in your statement, which is fine by me since, after all, we are talking about promoting social networking on company time. Watch for my post on how Google manages innovation- i.e., they let people “do what they want to do” for 20% of the time- the catch is that you’ve got to tell them what you are doing.