Sean R. Nicholson

For the last few years, I have been using this blog and my @seanrnicholson Twitter account to provide information about Intranets and their impacts on organizations. Looking back of the relationships I have built, lessons I have learned, and responses to the blog articles and tweets, I’d say it’s been a resounding success.  But, things change…and in the digital world, sometimes things change quickly.

Last year, I was offered a unique opportunity to leverage my extensive experience building internal networks outside of the corporate walls, building relationships with online communities and helping companies build their social media strategies. It was a big decision to move beyond my Intranet/ECM focus to broader social communities, but I decided to take the plunge and haven’t regretted it for a moment. My experience building internal communities, identifying ways for employees to share knowledge, and developing measurement plans for Intranet and ECM solutions has translated directly to the world of social media.

As part of my new role, I have been tweeting at @socmedsean and blogging at SocMedSean.com about trends and new opportunities for organizations to leverage the power of social media. What I have found, however, is that the world of social media community building is very similar to the world of Intranet community building. In fact, I continue to recommend to clients that they engage their Intranet professionals when developing their social media strategies.

After all, many of these folks have been building communities for over decade and understand the opportunities, challenges, and risks involved with online engagement. Both are tasked with identifying their target communities, listening to their needs, and then finding ways to meet those needs through engaging and sharing, so it only makes sense for them to collaborate. Unfortunately, I have noticed that Intranet Managers and Social Media Managers often don’t connect and share their strategies and experiences. What this leads to is a lot of re-inventing the wheel. Yech!

In an effort to bridge these communications and find ways to connect professional community managers (both internal and external), I have decided to create a new community at WithInFluence.com focused on sharing community-building thoughts, best practices, and experiences.  This community is a closed-community, available by invitation-only to professionals who manage communities as their primary responsibility.

The community is a work in progress and I am currently looking for a few brave souls (aka “beta testers) who are interested in participating, sharing, and providing suggestions on how to tweak the functionality and grow the community.  Interested? Send me a DM via Twitter at @socmedsean and I’ll send you an invite .  I’d also be interested in hearing your thoughts/comments about this kind of community in the comments.

Cheers!

–Sean

Sean R. Nicholson

2010 has been a great year for Intranets. Web 2.0 finally came out of its shell and the explosive growth of Facebook,  Twitter, and YouTube brought social tools to the mainstream. This, in turn, helped many organizational leaders understand that capturing and sharing information inside the enterprise had a lot of potential, when social tools are leveraged.

In some cases, the same leaders who, in 2009, claimed that social media was “just about people sharing what they ate for breakfast” or “just for kids” finally began to understand that their employees wanted to engage in social media in the workplace and use it to share their work knowledge. As a result, Enterprise 2.0 took some great strides as organizations either added social components to their existing intranets or “ripped and replaced” them with new, social offerings.

The intranet-focused conversations in 2010 were beyond great. When I look back at my 2009 post, it’s great to see that most of the same folks that were blogging and tweeting in 2009 continued to share their valuable knowledge and experience in 2010.  To capture how great 2010 was, I looked back at the blogs of some of my favorite Intranet tweeps and thought I would share the posts I really enjoyed one more time.

In July, 2010 Carolyn Douglas (@carolyndouglas) gave a great breakdown of critical elements any organization should consider when determining whether they should buy or build an Intranet in her blog: When Looking at Intranets: Should you Build or Should you Buy? If you’re considering implementing a new Intranet in 2011, this is a great place to start.

One of my very favorite posts of 2010 came from Elizabeth Lupfer (@socialworkplace), who authors a blog called The Social Workplace. Check out her  article Will The Real You Please Stand Up?. This great article focuses on the need to be authentic in who you are, online and offline. This article is as important inside the workplace as it is outside.

My favorite Intranet series this year came courtesy of Rachel Lai (@rachellai83) in the form of  her series detailing the activities that occur each day on an Intranet. The series, entitled  A Day in the Life of an Intranet is a must read for any internal communicator or Intranet professional.

In an article he wrote for CMS Wire in October, 2010, Toby Ward (@tobyward) explains that enterprise social media has become a necessity.  The article does a great job clarifying the need for a social Intranet, as well as some of the barriers that may be encountered during the implementation.

One of the biggest fears that executives face when it comes to a social intranet is that of open communication. What if an employee says something they shouldn’t? What if private organizational information is exposed erroneously? In his September post, Open Communication – Skepticism and Fears, Bas Zurburg (@BasZurburg) exposes this fear, amongst others. A great read for anyone trying to convince their leadership of the value of a social Intranet.

In his October article, Beware of simplistic rules and strategies, James Robertson (@s2d_jamesr) did a great job explaining the dangers of setting arbitrary limitations on your enterprise because it’s easier to define a simple strategy and stick to it, rather than understanding what would really work best for your organization. The article caught my eye because I see these limitations time and time again within organizations, and rarely is there a sound business reason for some of the strategies and tactics.

I’m a sucker for a good game, so when Alex Manchester (@alex_manchester) wrote an article called Enhancing the intranet with game theory and gaming mechanics, I was hooked. In the article, Alex explains how multi-player online gaming and virtual environments are potential tools for developing employee collaboration and engagement within the enterprise.

I hope you enjoy and here’s to a great Intranet 2011!

–Sean

Sean R. Nicholson

Ahhh…reinventing the wheel. It’s an age-old tradition for a lot of organizations, especially when it comes to changes in technology.  Some new class of productivity software comes along and the entire IT organization has to come to a grinding halt while a new strategy is defined. Remember stopping to define an ECM strategy? Or maybe it was an ERP strategy. Or could it have been an CRM strategy. Don’t even think about that amount of time and energy devoted to developing a .com or eCommerce strategy!

Sound familiar? Ever been locked in the “paralysis by analysis” situation where you can’t get anyone to decide because there are just too many so-called “experts”, “gurus” and “SMEs” guiding the conversation? Ever felt like you’d rather just DO something rather than sitting in yet another, non-productive meeting discussing what might happen?

Unfortunately, many organizations are living this situation right now when it comes to defining their social media strategy.  So many new tools, so many new rules, so many unknown risks…where to begin??  But the reality is, the questions being asked aren’t that different from those that have been explored in the past.

For instance, these are some of the questions/concerns facing the enterprise with respect to social media:

1) How do we engage our customers?

2) What tools should we use to listen to our customers, capture information, and interact?

3) What do we do if a customer says something bad?

4) What do we do if a customer says something good?

5) How can we best learn from our customers to create new products and services?

6) How can we make sure that we’re communicating effectively with our customers?

7) Are there experts out there that can help us engage our customers?

8 ) Do we need to put policies and guidelines in place setting expectations for how we interact with our customers?

9) How do we keep our customers coming back and engaging with us?

10) How do we measure the Return on Investment (ROI) on customer engagement?

Sounds about right…Right? Now, flash back 10 years and see if these (slightly modified) questions sound familiar:

1) How do we engage our employees?

2) What tools should we use to listen to our employees, capture information, and interact?

3) What do we do if an employee says something bad?

4) What do we do if an employee says something good?

5) How can we best learn from our employees to create new products and services?

6) How can we make sure that we’re communicating effectively with our employees?

7) Are there experts out there that can help us engage our employees?

8 ) Do we need to put policies and guidelines in place setting expectations for how we interact with our employees?

9) How do we keep our employees coming back and engaging with us?

10) How do we measure the Return on Investment (ROI) on employee engagement?

Sound familiar? These are the questions that organizations found themselves facing when they were analyzing the value of a corporate Intranet portal and the additional of Web 2.0 components like discussion forums, knowledge bases, and (more recently) wikis and blogs. Seems like very similar questions have been in front of organizations for a long time and, in most, serious time and energy has been devoted to answering the employee engagement questions.

My point isn’t to say that employees and customers are the same and the same rules should apply. Having worked extensively in the Intranet space and currently being very involved in defining organizational social media strategies, I will tell you that employees and customers are very different. My point, however, is that if you are in the process of developing your social media strategy and you haven’t invited your Intranet Manager to the table for the discussions, you are missing out on some potentially useful experience and input.

Maybe, by involving your Intranet Manager, you won’t have to reinvent the wheel….just modify one that already exists.

Sean R. Nicholson

First, let me start off with a bit of a disclaimer. I’m not an anti-Facebook zealot and my goal isn’t to discourage the use of Facebook by companies and organizations. To the contrary, one of the biggest roles of my job is to explain how social media channels can be used effectively by organizations and within organizations. So, with that said, my goal with this series of posts is to educate anyone considering the use of Facebook as their corporate Intranet to seriously reconsider. Using Facebook for a corporate Intranet is like using a hammer to loosen a nut. It can be done, but there’s a lot of risk involved.

So, to help you understand why Facebook shouldn’t be considered when selecting the platform for your Intranet, here are 10 more reasons why it just doesn’t stack up to the competition out there.

10) No integration with organizational LDAP – Your employees are going to want to login using a “single sign-on” with your company domain. Facebook does not provide this type of integration, meaning that your users will need to manage separate accounts. Not a huge problem (because they probably already do), but most platforms built for Intranets will include this functionality, reducing the number of logins your employees require.

9) No document sharing – Don’t be confused by the recent announcement that Groups will allow the sharing of documents. That’s a bit of a misnomer. Facebook does not currently allow for the storage/sharing of documents and the new  “document’ functionality will simply allow members of the group to create a “document” (think Notepad) and share it within the group. You won’t be able to share PowerPoint decks, MS Word docs, or Excel spreadsheets. This means that your employees will be using local drives or shared network drives to save information, which can turn into an IT nightmare. Retrieving lost documents or dealing with document versions without a system designed to handle the complexities will consume a lot of IT bandwidth.

8 ) Search isn’t designed for Intranet purposes – If you have an Intranet right now, ask your employees which functionality they wish worked better. My bet is they’ll say “search”.  Facebook’s search is designed to find people and pages, not information. Even if Facebook did add document storage and sharing, the chances of your employees actually finding anything would be slim to none.

7) Facebook is architected as an entertainment platform, not an organizational Intranet – Ever build an organizational information taxonomy for your Intranet? It can be incredibly painful, even with the right tools. Facebook doesn’t offer you the flexibility to build your Intranet navigation structure in a way that will work for your team. Instead, you’re stuck with what they give you. Also, you’d better hope they don’t change it in the future. Also, would you really want your intranet competing for resources with the likes of Farmville and Mafia Wars?

6) Changes that might not be in the interest of your organization – Facebook is in the business of making money…for Facebook. They aren’t really interested in making your organization successful and if they need to add or change functionality that is adverse to your organizations needs, there’s likely nothing you can do about it. Facebook will do what’s good for them and their future, not yours. If Facebook feels it’s more important to their pocketbook to place your competitor’s ads on your private group, they’ll do so.

5) Groups are limited to 250 members – The recent enhancement of Groups functionality has spurred additional interest in Facebook as an Intranet platform. Keep in mind, however, that in the announcement of the new Groups Mark Zuckerberg continually mentioned the 250 member limitation and that these groups are really intended to be used on a smaller scale.

4) Discussions and walls offer no pre-moderation options – Although many organizations don’t want post moderation in their intranet discussion forums, there are some that do. With Facebook, there is no pre-moderation of wall posts or discussion posts.  That means when an employee posts it, it goes live. This makes some Intranet managers uncomfortable.

3) Employees may not like the “forced” blending of work/social – Many of your employees may view Facebook as their personal social network and may not like the forced blending of their personal and professional lives. Before setting your mind on Facebook as your Intranet platform, you might want to get the input of your HR executives. They may feel that what’s out there on Facebook isn’t really the business of the organization and blending business/personal poses a potential risk.

2) No integration with your other enterprise applications – While Facebook does offer an application platform, it is definitely not geared toward integration with a corporate Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool or an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system. Your corporate Intranet should be the place where your employees work and where they can access their timecard apps, PTO management system, online form builder, ECM system, and ERP applications. Facebook just doesn’t offer the service-oriented architecture that is required to serve as a centralized portal.

1) Privacy, privacy, privacy. Facebook was not developed with privacy in mind. In fact, the concept of Facebook is pretty much anti-privacy. Share everything…and restrict access to those things you don’t want shared. A corporate Intranet should be exactly the opposite. Share nothing, and decided what you want shared with the outside world. Can you imagine sensitive documents being shared on Facebook and someone accidentally forgetting to set the right restrictions? For a private company, it could be a nightmare. For a public company, under FTC regulation, it could be full-blown Armageddon.

So there you have it….10 more reasons that Facebook shouldn’t be considered for a corporate Intranet. Have suggestions for the list? Feel free to add them in the comments!

Sean R. Nicholson

The launch of the popular Social Network movie coupled with Facebook’s recent enhancements to their Groups functionality has fueled the requests for my opinion as to whether Facebook is becoming a viable platform for an organizational Intranet. I’ll be writing a blog post this weekend detailing the technical/functional reasons that Facebook still isn’t a good choice, but in the meantime I wanted to share this funny video pointing out that many employees just don’t take Facebook seriously.

One of the most difficult hurdles for any Intranet to overcome is adoption and if your employees don’t take the Intranet and the content that it hosts seriously, then adoption will never follow. So, in light of that….is this how your employees feel about Facebook?

I’m not saying that Facebook will never be a suitable platform, it’s just not ready right now.

Sean R. Nicholson

Let’s face it, new employees who come to your organization right out of college are probably pretty familiar with social media. Most have been on Facebook since its inception and some have been Tweeting nearly as long. The question is whether they understand the business acumen and fundamental principles of social networking to do it correctly in the workplace.

Recently, Andrew McAffee wrote an outstanding article on two common mistakes that Millennials make at work.  The article emphasizes the fact that Generation Y has been trained to overshare their personal information, which can result in the first mistake of creating informational clutter in the workplace. The second mistake comes from a lack of an organizational hierarchy and the appropriate channels and communication practices to be used in the workplace.

For instance, posting a message on an executive’s social Intranet Wall saying “That preso was just 2 cool! I’d luv to wrk on the project if you need a hand!” may not impress the executive and may end up damaging the employees reputation. The reality is that Millennials need assistance in understanding the workplace and the difference between sharing information on Facebook and leveraging the social Intranet at their company. Any training focused on Gen-Y needs to help them understand the rules of the workplace, any policies that are in place, and the difference between social sharing and workplace sharing.

The issue of training isn’t limited to the Millennials, though. Take a look at the Baby Boomers and you may run into highly-efficient employees who are heavily reliant on phones and email and have no understanding or desire to learn about social media. “The Facebook” or “The Twitter” are just toys that kids play with and may not have any perceived value in the workplace. These social media ostriches require a different approach for training on the value of social media.  Often, the value needs to be tied to workplace productivity, return on investment for the effort, or furthering a business goal. Often, tying proposed social activities to customer service or call center activities can provide them with the frame of reference to demonstrate that social media isn’t just people talking about what they had for breakfast.

Gen-Xers aren’t immune to the issue, either. Although Gen-Xers grew up around computers, email, and the Web some have a tough time seeing social media as more than just an activity for connecting with old high school friends. Educating them on the value of collaboration and the cost savings that can be associated with it will be required to get buy-in on a new social Intranet.

The fact is, social media brings a new style of communication into the workplace and social Intranets that offer features such as status updates, wikis, threaded discussions, and microblogging also require a new level of training to help employees understand the new tools, leverage it to the fullest in their daily activities, and share only what is business appropriate.

Have a great story about a success in training your organization on the use of a social Intranet? Feel free to add a comment and let others know about the approach you took or success/failure story.

Sean R. Nicholson

About a year ago, I had a conversation with a then SocialMediaphobe who tried to convince me that social media was a fad that had no future in the workplace. His argument was that Facebook was too personal and Twitter too truncated to ever offer any value to business culture. I tried to convince him that, like all emerging technologies, social media was still finding its place in the workplace, but it was slowly, almost imperceptibly changing the way we communicate. His response was to try to dissuade me by saying “it’s just a bunch of people talking about what they ate for breakfast.”

As I look back the amazing strides social media has taken in the last year, even I’m amazed. The importance of short, meaningful messages tugged at my heartstrings as major news outlets like CNN and MSNBC relied on Tweets from survivors of the tragic earthquake in Haiti to keep us informed. YouTube has become the second largest search engine in the world (arguably the largest content engine), and Facebook continues to grow at astonishing rates, becoming one of the largest photo repositories on the Web.

Yet, somehow….corporate executives continue to ignore social media like it’s going to go away. These social media ostriches often argue that Social Media is a “B to C” (business to consumer) activity, meaning that businesses can only use it to market directly to consumers. They argue that companies selling “B to B” (business to business) can’t effectively leverage social media, because it’s the wrong market and businesses don’t pay attention to social media.

Little do they understand that businesses are not faceless organisms that make decisions without human input. On the contrary, business decisions are influenced by people and made by people, making “B to B” marketing almost irrelevant in a world where social media dominates the conversation. Executives need to understand that consumers of all type rely on product advice gained from other consumers, and the value of marketing Web sites that expound on the value of their product is diminishing. Need more convincing? Take a look at the Answers section of LinkedIn and you’ll find thousands of professionals (working for businesses) asking for recommendations on ECM, CRM, Intranet, and back office software. Yes…they even ask for advice on what blogging and social media platforms to use.

A shining example of a “B to B” corporate executive leveraging social media is Carolyn Douglas, the CEO of Intranet Connections. Her passion about Intranets, collaboration, best practices, and social media are evident in her blogs and tweets. Her thought leadership in the Intranet industry influences her peers, colleagues and customers on a daily basis. She demonstrates that although her business is technically “B to B”, her social media communication is aimed at interacting with people.

Great examples of executive leadership can be found in the “B to C” markets, as well. Just look at leaders like Marc Cenedella of TheLadders.com or Bill Marriot of Marriot Hotels. Each has established a meaningful blog and/or twitter presence that educates the public on topics ranging from interviewing tips to downtown revitalization efforts. Both activities are ancillary to their business, but provide meaning to their readers. The effect of the trust they earn from their readers is often carried over to the brand the represent.

And product marketing is just the tip of the iceberg when looking for social media opportunity. The value of collaborative activities inside your organization can justify an investment relatively quickly. You see, your employees are people, and people like to share. They share their stories, experiences, and knowledge. They talk around the water cooler, at the coffee pot, and at their cubes. At work, they feel valued and important when another employee is able to use a past experience to solve a problem. They get frustrated when they discover that the knowledge in their head could have been useful to another employee in a previous experience.  It’s the age-old knowledge management problem. How do you get the knowledge out of your employees heads and into a media that can be shared and leveraged by other employees?

The answer is social media. Give your employees and platform and they will share. Sure, they’ll share personal information, too…but mixed in with stories about their weekends, cats, and World of Warcraft are valuable nuggets of corporate knowledge that can help you solve problems, produce new products, and deliver a higher level of customer and employee satisfaction. It’s up to you to find ways to filter or segment that information to uncover that which is valuable to your business, but once you do…you’ve unlocked the potential of your employees.

In summary, social media is not about people eating oatmeal. Well…actually it is. But it’s also about people solving problems and people serving customers and people buying products. Social media is about your employees and your customers. It’s about your friends and colleagues. It’s about what they want, and what they want to offer. It’s a valuable tool that will provide insight to markets, products, and ways of doing business that you probably never thought about.  It’s up to you to get involved and show leadership. Good luck!

P.S. I’d love to hear from Execs who have taken the plunge and how your efforts are proceeding. Feel free to comment or email using our contact form.

Sean R. Nicholson

Continuing with my posts on great Twitter resources, this is a followup to my 99 Great Internal Comms Resources,  99 Great Intranet Resources and 99 Great ECM Resources posts. Below is a link to my list of 99+ great SharePoint Resources on Twitter. If you’re looking for the folks who tweet about SharePoint as an Intranet platform, ECM solution, and a collaboration tool…these are your folks! Pay careful attention and you may see folks who are also providing links to some valuable SharePoint alternatives, as well.

Sean’s list of 99+ Great SharePoint resources on Twitter

Know someone that I missed from the list? Definitely let me know. Shameless self-promotion is also allowed if you think you should be included, just make sure your tweets back up your request.

You can check out the list below, and feel free to leave a comment if there’s anyone else I should add.

Sean R. Nicholson

Imagine, for a moment, that you have accepted a new position as a corporate executive tasked with figuring our how to make your company work better, faster, cheaper.

Along with the details of your position, you have been informed that you have access to a wealth of competitive intelligence, product experience, and innovative thinking at your fingertips. Sounds like a recipe for success, right?But what if you had no means of capturing, storing, and retrieving that information? Bad situation.

It’s likely, however, that it would be easy to justify an investment in a tool that would allow you to leverage the information. But what many execs don’t realize is that they actually have the potential for this exact type of information at their disposal…if they were to invest in a social Intranet platform.

Classic Talent Management Systems vs. Social Intranet

For years, Intranet and HR professionals have been working to implement successful “Talent Management systems” with very little measurable success. The difficulty with legacy Talent Management systems is they required manual updates of employee history, competencies, training, and certifications and they rarely provide the employee with an opportunity to share their experience.

One of the  biggest shortcomings of these systems was the method used to capture and maintain the information. The process of updating employee records usually occurred (if at all) once a year during the employee annual review process. Managers would discuss employee competencies at the review and either update the system themselves or ask the employee to provide the updates. Unfortunately, a once-a-year update doesn’t provide the timely information required to operate a business and since the system was rarely referenced to identify subject matter experts, employees had no motivation to keep them up to date. As a result, these Talent Management systems quickly became outdated and useless and future investment in these types of tools were difficult to justify.

As Social Intranets are becoming more commonplace, however, a unique phenomena is occurring. Employees are sharing their previous experiences, subject knowledge, and expertise with fellow employees, management, and executives each day, providing a huge resource for internal knowledge that changes by the day, hour, and minute.

The Engagement Experience

To see how Social Intranets can play the valuable role of a Talent Management system, imagine a situation where a Sally Sales, a Sales Executive, creates a post on the Intranet forum asking:

Sally Sales: I am traveling to SmithCo Enterprises tomorrow to show them a demo of the latest version of our ERP  software. Does anyone have information about their culture, personnel, etc…that they can share?

Sam Support, a customer support rep – a role that isn’t traditionally engaged by Sales for input – posts back stating:

Sam Support: FYI, I used to work at SmithCo and you need to be aware that they are wary of “vaporware”. Be prepared to show the software in action and provide them with references of other customers who are using the latest version.  Also, I worked as a contractor with the team that implemented their existing BigCO ERP system and they have some serious limitations that need to be addressed relating to the accurate matching of POs, receipts, and invoices. If you can show how well we address that requirement, it will go a long way.

Able Accountant, an invoicing specialist chimes in with another post stating:

Able Accountant: I have used both our new version and the BigCO system they are using and the difference is night and day. Our automatic invoicing abilities are significantly better than BigCO and our implementation timeline averages 12 months, where BigCO’s implementation at my previous company took 36 months and was almost $1M over budget.

…and the conversation goes on.

While this type of dialog obviously helps the Sales Exec know how to refine their sales pitch, approach their prospect, and hopefully win the deal, there is a secondary benefit that is occurring behind the scenes. Employees are identifying what they know, where they have worked, what skills they hold, and whether they can be leveraged as subject matter experts on a specific product or topic.

As a result, the next time any Sales Executive is selling to SmithCo or any company where BigCo is implemented, a simple search of the Intranet for the terms “SmithCo” or “BigCo” will identify Sally Sales, Sam Support, and Able Accountant as resources that have information and experiences with the BigCo product. This is the exact result that Talent Management systems have sought to accomplish for years.

Through this one interaction, employees have reported to the company that they have valuable competitive information and the fact that they respond to posts like these frequently keeps their information up-to-date. While neither Sam or Able were hired into a position specific to tackling BigCo as a competitor, the fact that they both have and shared previous work experience potentially helped the company make a sale.

As the newest executive looking to improve processes and drive revenue through employee productivity, you now have a gold mine waiting to be tapped.

Sean R. Nicholson

Okay…I have to admit that I find these types of tweets mildly humorous:

or

It’s not that I find the pain of employees funny, but the shortsightedness of companies in their efforts to ignore new technologies always makes me wonder what they are thinking. Over the course of my career, I have worked for companies ranging from small boutique shops all the way up to Fortune 500 and 100 companies and my experience has been that the bigger the shop, the more resistant to new technologies the decision-makers are.

Case In Point – Email & Internet Access, And A Fortune 100 Company

Flashback to 1996, when I was working for an up and coming division of a Fortune 500 company. I had a pretty heated argument with my Manager because I had requested external email access and Internet access, both of which required Vice-President approval. I was in the initial  stages of a company-wide asset audit and need to email third-party vendors. I was spending so much time on the phone with them going over spreadsheets on the phone that I need to be able to send email back and forth. But no….this particular company was nervous about email, Internet access, and how much time employees would spend wasting their time if everyone was able to email and/or surf the Web.

Flash forward to 2009, when every company realizes that email and Internet access are key tools for most back-office employees in the company to do their job. This same company issues laptops, email, and wireless access to all of their employees. Hmmm…slight change in position, eh?

What Generates The Resistance To New Technologies?

It would be easy to chalk this type of resistance up to age, but I think that would be short-sighted. I have found plenty of “more experienced” (the PC term for older) Directors and Execs that are interested in leveraging new technologies. I have also found plenty of younger (and not necessarily “less experienced”) folks who still tell me that they “just don’t get it” or that “social media is just about people posting high school photos or talking about what they had for breakfast”. Based on these experiences, I’ll attribute the failure to embrace these new mediums as either lack of education or fear of change. Some folks just don’t like the idea of trying something new. Instead, they’ll let everyone else try it and, if it works for others, they’ll give it a shot. Others, just haven’t had that light bulb moment when they realize the value. Now, don’t get me wrong, not everyone needs to be on the bleeding edge…but I firmly believe that organizational decision makers should strive to be on the cutting edge in order to stay ahead of their competition.

Every time I hear of companies blocking Blogging Sites, Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Media sites, it makes me wonder what curmudgeon or poorly informed leader is calling the shots and what experience drove them to make the decision. Obviously, these folks don’t realize that a new generation of workers is entering the workplace and expecting to leverage tools like text messaging, Twitter, blogs, and Facebook. Why not just sit them in front of a typewriter and say “be productive”.

Messages like the following make me wonder just what IT Manager or Director made the sweeping decision that there can be no useful information in blogs, so let’s throw the baby out with the bathwater and block blog access:

Okay, okay…so I admit that by making sweeping statements like that, I’m being a bit hypocritical since I don’t know why this particular company blocked the blog, but my point is that there are too many stories of companies making sweeping IT and HR policies banning social media, instead of embracing it or encouraging their employees to use it responsibly.

What the executives at these companies are failing to realize is that more and more of their employees are reading and contributing to the Websphere via blogs, microblogs, forums, etc… and they are often shaping their decisions at work based on the most up-to-date analysis that they get from these interactions. In addition, by allowing their employees to position themselves as thought leaders and expand their sphere of influence, they could enhance their organizations position in the market, have happier employees, and maybe…even open up some new markets that might not existed without Social Media. Just look at Zappos as an example. An online shoe retailer that has blown the door off marketing and expanding their sales opportunities  and customer support through the use of Twitter.

In short, by ignoring new technologies like Social Media and Social Networking, companies are not only burying their proverbial heads, but are actively engaging in hypocrisy regarding their messages to employees.

My Five Hypocrisies Of Blocking Social Networking Sites

1) Smoke breaks are okay, but blog breaks, tweet breaks, and Facebook breaks aren’t

Just to be up front, I am a non-smoker. My goal, here, isn’t to throw stones at smokers, but to point out that employers allow employees to take breaks from work so they can breath toxic fumes into their lungs, so I’m not quite sure why employers would have a problem with an employee updating their Facebook status or reading the tweets/blogs of their favorite netizens. Short breaks during the work day energize employees and give them a break from their daily duties. Sometimes, employees use those breaks to learn something new that actually might relate to their job or the industry.

Even if they’re not learning, maybe their taking time to catch up with a friend or family member. I’d be curious if those same employers would prohibit employees from reading a book or calling their family on their break. Seems a bit illogical, right? Catching up on Facebook or reading a few tweets can be just as energizing to an employee as a phone call, a good read, or for those who prefer, a smoke.

2) Make good quality decisions using competitive information, but don’t leverage your online networks or intelligence tools

Imagine being in touch with news about your company, customers, or markets before the news breaks. There have been quite a few situations where folks on Twitter have reported news before the local or national news outlets. Earthquakes, plane crashes, even (ironically) the closing of the Rocky Mountain News are all news items that are being scooped by Twitter before being reported in traditional media.

As more news and events are reported first via social media, employees who have access and actively monitoring social media sites are going to be able to react more quickly. If employees don’t have access to these sources, they’ll be two steps behind their competitors.

3) Be a happy employee, but don’t be a social employee

Everyone wants to enjoy their job and, for some employees being social is part of being happy. Not just around in the break room or at the coffee pot with employees that they see every day, but also being social with peers and thought leaders in their particular line of work. Each day, I enjoy reading the updates of employees that I currently work with, as well as previous co-workers and even employees at competing companies. Many of these interactions broaden my understanding of the industry that I work in and eventually will come back to benefit my employer.

By blocking social media sites, employers are limiting their employees ability to collaborate with others in their industry. There is a lot of good information being traded through blogs, tweets, and forums. Each of these venues allows employees to learn more, share their perspective, and grow as an employee, all without a single dollar being added to your training budget.

4) Be creative and innovative, just use the antiquated tools we have given you

Often employers challenge their employees to find new ways to do things better, faster, and cheaper. In some cases, you don’t have to invent the tool that makes the change, you just need to determine how to make it work for you. Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile or the assembly line, he just figured out an innovative way to combine the two to redefine the industry.

Now, imagine two companies. One allows access to Social Media sites to its employees and the other does not. Company A has a marketing department that has come up with new ways to announce product launches using Twitter and Facebook and, in doing so, has increased product awareness by 5% over the last year. In addition, their product support team has begun interacting with customers in a whole new way using Twitter, Facebook groups/discussions, and LinkedIn discussions to identify suggested enhancements to their products and help resolve customer issues. In doing so, they have impacted customer satisfaction and increased recurring sales by 2% globally.

Company B, on the other hand, has blocked employee access to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and their leaders are scratching their collective heads trying to figure out why Company A is beating them to the sales opportunities and stealing their customers.

5) You are an adult and a professional, but no Facebook for you!

There are two excuses I hear most frequently when it comes to the reasoning behind blocking social media sites. The first is the protection of Intellectual Property or organizational intelligence and the second is that employees will just “waste company time”.

When it comes to protecting intellectual property, if a company is seriously using this as an excuse then they better have confiscated all cell phones and digital cameras from the workplace and ensure that all laptops are heavily encrypted in case they get lost or stolen. One company that I am aware of that blocks access to some social media sites also allowed their entire employee list, along with Social Security Numbers, to be transmitted via an unprotected MS Excel spreadsheet over email. The problem, here, wasn’t that the employee was trying to harm the company, but that they didn’t understand that doing so exposed the company to risk. The answer isn’t to remove their access to Excel or email, but to better educate the employee on the proper method of protecting corporate information.

In response to the “wasting time” argument, there are really two approaches. First, let your employees have a little fun. Let them explore new information, personal or professional. Teach them to use social media responsibly…just as you did with email. If you do, they will continue to grow as employees and professionals. Second, if they’re wasting excessive time on Twitter or Facebook, they were probably wasting excessive time on something else before social media came along. The way to address it is to remind them that they are employees of the company and, while some Internet usage is allowed, if it interferes with their duties, it might become an issue.

So to those of you who work for these Social Media Ostriches that choose to ignore the opportunities being presented and stick their heads in the sand by blocking your access…my condolences. I count my blessings each day that I work for a company that not only embraces Social Media, but actively works to develop its employees as thought leaders and encourages them to blog, tweet, and Facebook in a responsible manner.

To the Executives of the Social Media Ostriches…I’d shoot some snarky remark at you, but you couldn’t read it anyway, because this blog and my tweets are probably blocked from your network.