This blog is about the relationship between organizations and the people who work for them. And, it’s dedicated to the millions of people around the world who go to work every day wanting to do a great job.

Social media

“Resistance is futile”

by Deborah Hinton

At first glance social media is pretty alien.  It’s another technology getting in the way of face to face relationships.  And, as communicators we know in our hearts this is not a good thing.

And yet this is the irony of social media.  This technology that on the surface seems to dehumanize in the end enables us to accomplish one of the most human of all needs – to connect with each other.

In the past week or so I’ve been reading about how GM management believe that giving employees access to social media “humanizes” the company with their clients and potential clients.  But, I’m afraid this misses the real power of social media:  The power to “humanize” institutions internally.

The organizations that embrace social media on the inside are enabling their employees to connect with each other across:

  • time,
  • geography,
  • function, and
  • level.

They’re helping employees access the information and expertise they need, when and how they need it to do their work.  They’re energizing not just the formal organizational networks, but the informal as well.

Today the number of  organizations who are giving employees full access to social media inside and out are few.  Tomorrow they will be many.  “Resistance is futile.”

What will this change mean for the Corporate Communications or Internal Communications functions? Not only what we do, but how we do it. I’d love to hear what you think.

By the way, as predicted by my social media mentors – Michelle Sullivan, Julien Smith, and Mitch Joel - I’ve learned that social media doesn’t get in the way of face to face relationships.  In fact, quite the opposite.    And, that’s a very good thing.  Thanks you guys.

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Deborah Hinton Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
Permalink Communication, Internal communication No Comments

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The good. The bad. And the ugly

by Deborah Hinton

The good

Some organizations are doing interesting, innovative and effective things with social media inside their organizations. Thanks to Montreal’s Third Tuesday gang, I saw an inspiring case study presented by Nathalie Pilon about her experience introducing Intranet 2.0 at Canam, a very conservative 50 year old business in the construction industry.  She and consultant Claude Malaison have over the past few years successfully transformed Canam’s Intranet from a something very basic to facebook to a fully integrated Intranet 2.0 that is still evolving to better serve the needs of their 3,000 employees in 18 factories delivering 12,000 projects a year.  Her presentation is in French and available on SlideShare or on webcast.

The bad

Some organizations are not according to a head line in today’s Montreal Gazette: “Companies put leash on social media”.  The article reported on a study of Chief Information Officers by Robert Half Technology which found “…many companies are tightening their grip on how employees use these channels at work.”

The ugly

Most stand squarely in the middle.  Neither in or out.  Strange.  In Nathalie’s presentation she referenced a study that found 92.9% of organizations either block or do not have policies for social media.  Blocking social media is one thing [discussed frequently and at length by Shel Holtz and others].  Not blocking and not having policies to guide employees behaviour on the web is clearly irresponsible.

Even more strange is that many of these same organizations are experimenting and successfully using social media to advance their goals and build relationships externally.  To be clear, I’m not advocating the mindless introduction of web 2.0 tools and tactics internally.

I am wondering, if social media are now being built into external strategies, why aren’t they being built into internal strategies?

Are web 2.0 tools and tactics part of your internal communication strategy?  If not, why not?  If yes, tell us more.

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Deborah Hinton Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
Permalink Communication, Internal communication 1 Comment

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