Social media tools help people easily (and virtually) connect with peers, friends and families to help answer questions like “how are you you”,”have you seen this video” and “so, what are you doing”. As Marcel LeBrun, CEO of Radian6 puts it social media is like a new phone. (credit Chris Brogan).
Moving forward, we can’t help but consider the opportunity to use this new form of social connection on the job. Your average employee has been using email for everything and for a very long time, and it is time to figure out best way to incorporate these tools with your team and organization. A lot of you out there are probably already doing this via grass roots.
Networks are exercises in structured informality.
The key principle of networking is focusing on what you do best and delegating other activities to your allies. – Heather Creech and Terri Willard | Strategic Intentions
Why bring social media tools into your organization and what is the best way? Groundswell, written by two analysts from Forrester Research, tells us to walk through Peope Objective Strategy Technology:
- People – What is your employee and/or customer technographic profile?
- Objective – Select one (yes only one) objective (Talk, Listen, Energize, Support or Embrace).
- Strategy – What will be different when you are done? Do you want a closer, two-way relationship with your best employees or create a knowledge support groups and self-serve community?
- Technology – NOW select your tool of choice (user-generated video, blogs, social network)
Let’s compare two technographic profiles. Do you see any differences? Notice the difference between critics, creator, joiners and inactives. Which group would be easier to talk to vs. listen to? Which group would be conducive for building an online community?
Profile A
Profile B
badsquare 
Hi Mark,
As you point out, there is certainly a higher degree of online participation by younger people generally, but I think the technographics profiles can also vary greatly by dimensions other than age, location & gender. I prefer to look at things like personal interest-based segments rather than traditional age/gender/etc.
For instance, it would be interesting to see similar technographics profiles (to the ones above), but for an interest based segment such as “sports enthusiasts” (across all ages, regions, and genders) or “health care professionals”, etc.
Great post,
Marcel
Excellent points Marcel and thanks for chiming in. Interest based technographic profiles would be fascinating to look at. Does anyone out there have suggestions for resources or any other thoughts?
I think following POST would lead you the right solution regardless of technographic profiles of the group. The point is to focus the strategy on the people. Pick the strategy that works for your people. Sure, not every solution fits every person exactly, but the strategy should fit most people.
I think about the technology tools I’ve used or seen in organizations I’ve worked in, and by and large they are dropped in and people are told they have to use them. In other words, the tool is forced on the people with no regard for technographic profiles. Those are the tools that often become a burden to use.
I’ve resisted eLearning 2.0 to a certain extent because I’m not sure those tools/solutions will work for the target audience I deal with. I will be trying things out because I think having a mix of options for learning is the right thing to do. Up front analysis is necessary, and POST looks a good method to use.
Thanks Mark.
Gary Hegenbart
Thanks for your thoughts Gary. It is easy for users to get overwhelmed with tools and technical details. Hopefully, all tools adopt the WordPress, Jing, Twitter model…just make it easy to use…don’t make me think!