Comments on: What Online Communities Will Expose in 2010

By: Twitted by BridgetMOBrien

Twitted by BridgetMOBrien — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:32:30 +0000

[...] This post was Twitted by BridgetMOBrien [...]

By: Rachel Happe

Rachel Happe — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:25:26 +0000

Hi CV –

Thanks for the comment – I love that analogy! There are usually a lot of dust bunnies under that bed. I actually think that most enterprises have a lot of internal voices that try to push for investing in Swiffers (i.e. fixing operational issues) but that they don’t have enough support to make head way. For those champions, social media can actually be a fantastic way to get the rest of the organization to recognize and address the dust bunnies. But, if that is the initial purpose, it is much better to recognize and prepare for it then to treat it as an extension to traditional PR or marketing. It will change how and where you execute and who is responsible (i.e. don’t give that stink bomb to an intern who is completely incapable of handling internal politics).

Larry –

Thanks for the comment and link. I think the linkage to strategy really depends on 1) what strategy – i.e. corporate, functional, or group and 2) Goal of the social initiative which is not always collaboration. So yes, definitely a lot of issues there and my point really is – the better one understands context (strategy), the better one can determine how social initiatives need to align in the organization and what role they should play. Social initiative do not replace all collaboration or knowledge management and they shouldn’t.

By: Larry Irons

Larry Irons — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:16:09 +0000

The tricky issues you outline involving business and operational inconsistencies are old questions in the study of organizations, as I’m sure you are aware. The risk in linking social media too tightly with strategy is that leadership may conflate collaboration with goal seeking. As you recently noted regarding serendipity, “Serendipity does not happen if you are so busy that you don’t recognize the opportunity or worse, if you actively dismiss it because you are too busy or too focused.” As I understand your point, shared experience, not just shared information, is fundamental to the social networks underlying collaboration and community. It takes shared experience to minimize formal process with informal practice and social media can help. I noted some similar insights myself a while back.

http://skilfulminds.com/2008/09/18/social-software-community-and-organization-where-practice-meets-process/

By: CV Harquail

CV Harquail — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:03:08 +0000

Rachel,

Great topic for starting off the (business) new year… I’m thinking that you may be *understating* the importance of ‘business and operational inconsistencies’ as the focus of social media efforts.

When organizations get engaged with social media, it’s as though an organization dedicated to deep cleaning has lifted up the dust ruffle. It exposes all the dust bunnies under the bed, which appear there in spite of our best efforts at deep cleaning … (frightening and amusing at the same time).

What I hear you arguing for is more recognition of social media as a strategy-driving process, at best putting into practice the core competencies of the organizations. But the next best scenario — of social media exposing the dust bunnies- is not so bad either, as long as organizations are willing to get out the swiffer.

I’m looking forward to more of your insights on social media as a strategic tool for the core business, not simply for outreach …

(And yes, I’m making a feminist statement with the domestic metaphor over a more obvious sports one. New year’s resolution… )