TechWag

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Reading the Livingston Buzz this morning about how companies and organizations can become a “Socialprise” in that how does a company overcome the silos and organizational barriers to becoming a true adopter of social networking.

We see this all over the internet, some companies get it, and bloggers will respond, while some companies do not get it and people around them have a hard time responding or developing a relationship that has value with the organization. Even I have discussed the idea that overlaying social networking on an organization is not going to really work unless you can change the internal organization that will be using the system.

We are not talking about the never adopts, really to catalyze social networking to develop a true “socialprize” as the Livingston buzz proposes here you need to change some of the deep seated institutional issues around power, control, belief and process that accompanies the way that the organization actually works, or in some cases does not work.

There are so many case studies and books now about the power of social media, and the results it can achieve. No, now it’s really a question of whether the C-suite is willing to embrace the painful change to become a socialprise. The C-suite needs to take responsibility for moving the cultural bar towards openness. But a decision means nothing without the ensuing action. From a CxO perspective, how does one move an organization into the social, collaborative web? Source: The Livingston Buzz

This is where leadership within the organization comes into play, it is not enough to want, it is not enough to force through changes, you have to socialize the institutional players along the way and show them that they will not lose anything by adopting a more social conversation with people inside and outside the organization. Moving the organization is a slow process, it is not something done overnight, and even if you could build out something in an afternoon that would work, it does not mean that you should build out something in an afternoon.

One of the hardest things for the jet set technical folks in an organization is waiting for the organization to come to terms with the radical and in some cases painful changes that social networking will bring to an organization. This is not an easy thing, the technology is easy, the socialization is hard, and admittedly in some instances social networking is going to fail, because the organization as an entity will kill it through non adoption and non use. Social networking for some people is a consummate threat to everything they have built or done in relationship to the empire/silo that they have built. The initial reaction is going to be kill it first, ask questions (if they get asked at all) later.

This is where leadership has to come into play, and this is also where the early adopters in an organization have to come into play. People within organizations are familiar with and in some cases comfortable with bypassing blockages or stop points within an organization. We see this every day in technology organizations when the IT shop says “no” and the business office goes ahead and builds out the system off the mainline corporate network. Social networking is no different, depending on the organization and how tightly controlled it is, you will already find your employees blogging, twittering, and using other social systems to talk about the company.

You not only need a good social networking plan, you need leadership to carry it out, support from early adopters and you have to show value in terms of increased visits, more buzz about what you are doing, or increased sales based on what the early adopters have been saying online. There is one other reality that needs to be dealt with in social networking, not everyone is going to participate, people will choose to participate or not participate. That is one of the realities that anyone building out a social networking program must also address. Some folks will never touch the systems, and in the longer run, that is also ok.