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Evolving to adopt Social Media…

Written by: Brian Beehler

Article Overview: For my company it’s no longer a nice-to-have. Within the next five to 10 years, our younger workforce will expect us to match the pace of the Internet and deploy social media tools. If we don’t our messages will not be heard.

Evolving to adopt Social Media…

For my company it’s no longer a nice-to-have. Within the next five to 10 years, our younger workforce will expect us to match the pace of the Internet and deploy social media tools. If we don’t our messages will not be heard.

Although social media tools have been around for a few years, Social media (Web 2.0) only exploded in 2006. Not surprisingly, the corporate intranet has been slow to adopt social media tools. However, steam is building and social media adaptation is beginning to gather speed. A recent social media study conducted by Melcrum found that 40% of the 2,000 organizations in study are testing, piloting or evaluating blog and WiKi applications. The study also showed that 80% of the organizations would have some form of social media in place by 2008.

Over the past few years I have slowly introduced social media applications that aided in the day-to-day activities of our operations community. These tools have been accepted by employees, but more tools are required to make their jobs easier. With this experience I have identified 4 reasons why we should be adopting a social media strategy within the next 12 months:

1. Enhanced communication vehicles to support corporate initiatives to allow people to converse with others on messages.
2. Younger workforce within the next 5 – 10 years
3. The promotion of a cooperative and collaborative environment to increase productivity.
4. Giving our employees social media tools to connect with one another to promote employee engagement.

Some of the Social Media tools that we will be considering to help us achieve our objectives are: an internal Facebook application, YouTube, Twitter, Forums, and blogs. How will these tools change the way we communicate with our employees?
• Messages will be better TARGETED.
• Social media tools will give us the ability to LISTEN to our employees, customers, and stakeholders.
• Communications between employees and senior management may occur in REAL TIME.
• Employees will be CONNECTED to each other.
• Employees will be able to COLLABORATE on work activities.
• Productivity will increase through a COOPERATIVE approach.

These are some of the direct benefits that I have identified however, I feel many new ones may surface over time. Social Media is organic. It needs time to ferment and grow and become ingrained in corporate cultures before we realize its true benefits.

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Article Tags: 10 years, 12 months, adaptation, collaborative environment, communication vehicles, corporate initiatives, corporate intranet, employee engagement, media applications, media strategy, media tools, media web, melcrum, operations community, productivity, senior management, steam, time employees, wiki, workforce



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Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Marketing 2.0 - What Are Your Thoughts - Hi Shri, Thanks for posting this. I also read it and I believe Social Media is here to stay, until the next best thing comes up. Social media proved to be useful for me many times and I think everyone should use it for their business.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - [quote="vbn411":7qciluxl]Social Media is space that you have to be in to succeed in our current climate. People are going to be discussing your brand / product whether you like it or not, so you might as well join the conversation and add value. [/quote:7qciluxl] I think that's probably one of the most realistic way to think about it. There's no real textbook way of understanding Social Media, it's the networks of people and their interactions that will exist with or without your input. As for Jennifer, You can always have 2 Facebook pages. Many people do. There is also LinkedIn, which is like a professional networking version of Facebook. The only way to know is to try it.


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