I’m a late convert to the world of Twitter, but now I’ve woken up to the beauty of alerts to my mobile of news stories, opinions and research. It’s making a huge difference to the way I work. I have to admit, I’ve been sceptical for a while and I wasn’t at all engaged in the debates about using Twitter and Facebook at work. Why would anyone need Facebook at work, I thought. And besides, we hear all those scare stories about sharing dodgy data (and the risks of exposing different aspects of or lives to the ‘wrong’ audience). But now I’m perplexed about why businesses wouldn’t want to promote use of social media, not ban it…
Even Theo Paphitis came out against allowing his staff to use Facebook at work – I’d probably say the same, if there are customers to be served in his Ryman shops. But many managers are taking advantage of the fact that familiarity with social media is rapidly becoming a key competency. Gartner have predicted that by 2012, Facebook will be the hub for social networks integration and web socialisation – already 15,000 websites and applications connect to it. So fair enough, it’s a key route to market – but why would you need to access it at work?
It’s all part of the changing relationship between technology (and the IT function) and the business. Social media applications are great ways to engage consumers (do you remember the social media ‘campaign’ to bring back Wispa?) – so it’s not surprising that creative and ambitious marketing staff are keen to take advantage of low-cost and very effective ways of increasing reach and customer loyalty. It seems that allowing employees to use social media as part of their work is a great way for them to build insight into their customers’ point of view, and develop their own competence in what works and how. It also demonstrates that the business trusts them – is even empowering them to reach outside their job description and be innovative and creative. Perhaps you have to set some ground rules, but it’s tremendously liberating to be given freedom to innovate. Maybe that’s the nub of it – allowing staff to feel a sense of ownership of the innovation process and that they have a real part to play in it.
It may make life more difficult for the IT department – they lose some control and are perhaps no longer the technical experts or gate-keepers, but perhaps it’s a valuable lesson in the need for real partnership between the business and IT, if productivity is to grow and value created?
