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Tue, Nov 10, 2009 13:45 EST

The CIO and Social Media: Social Police?

CIOs should be trying to police social applications through policy and training.

Topic: IT Organization Management

Blog: Forrester for CIOs

Current Rating: 5 Comments: 3

http://www.mozami.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/iphone.jpg

What is the CIO's role in driving social media into organizations? Listening to many of our clients it seems that it is often that of "social police" - IT gets asked by legal to block any and all social media applications. While in some cases security concerns drive the decision, in others it's deemed a compliance issue.  There are also those who believe blocking social media improves productivity.
 
The trouble with this approach is that it assumes social media can and should be stopped with technology. The fact is many people are already using web-enabled social applications in the workplace on their own personal smartphones (see "SmartPhones and Telecommuting: Workforce Adoption 2009"  by Ted Schadler). 
 
Perhaps the problem is we are thinking of social media interaction in the same way we think of all other   digital communications. What if we were to think of social interactions on applications such as Twitter or Facebook in the same way we think of conversations; both are transient in nature. Girl with phone

I personally agree with the suggestion of at least one CIO I heard last week: we should be trying to police social applications through policy and training rather than using technology. Just because we have the ability to record every phone conversation doesn't mean we should. Shouldn't we take the same approach with social? By setting clear policy on the use of social media and training employees are we not likely to have an equally effective approach to blocking breaches? At the same time it would allow our organizations to benefit from social media.
 
There is also the risk that by blocking it we are giving a huge advantage to our competitors who figure out how to embrace it. Like many others, I believe social media is going to have as big an impact on society and business in the next decade as the Internet did in the 90's. Remember all the IT people in the 90's who said there was no role for the Internet in business? What about all those people in IT in the 80's who said there was no role for the PC in business? These waves of technology transformation have a way of becoming inevitable no matter what we do to try and block them.

Police car_clip art The thing is, cocial media is too big to block. Sure, we can put in place technology to plug a leak in one place, but it's likely our creative colleagues will simply find another way to access social technology covertly.
 
Am I being deliberately controversial? Maybe. Here's the thing … If you agree, share your opinion on why and examples of what your organization is doing with social; and more importantly, the role of the CIO in driving social adoption. If you disagree, share your thoughts and opinions on why and what you think the answer is for your industry.

I’m currently researching this topic for an upcoming report on the role of the CIO in Social Computing, so if you are a CIO and have examples of how you have helped your organization embrace social computing please post your comments on this blog or

You do not have flash or javascript support.
Average (1 vote)
5
 
 
Tue, Nov 10, 2009 18:29 EST
Anonymous user
Posted by: SSneath
Rating:

Although I am a fence sitter when it comes to "social media" being as big as the internet" I do agree it will and can have an impact on B2B organizations. Blocking/banning usage is shortsighted. Defining goals guidelines, and providing training for how it can help (or hurt) the company is the key.

The fact is that marketing and sales organization are figuring out how to link social media engagements to their CRM systems. It takes work and requires infrastructure but it can make money.

Today most customers claim that they found the company through their own investigation.

Harnessing social media can help you find them, but they may think they've found you.

So don't fight it, just consider it another way to learn about and engage with customers and prospects.

 
Wed, Nov 11, 2009 12:57 EST
Posted by: Bill Wood
Rating:

There is also a second issue that is missing from the equation--, social
media as a key business tool within the organization.

Most companies do at best only a modest job of capturing employee knowledge,
know-how, etc., and translating that into solutions or other items to address
competitive pressures or enhance their value proposition.  Properly
implemented internal collaboration tools can dramatically alter the corporate
dynamic and enhance market position.  It can improve innovation and
aid in process improvement as well.

See this article I wrote about specific steps for transforming an organization
into a "learning organization":

SAP,
ERP III, SOA — Learning Organizations through Social Media Collaboration



Bill Wood - President
R3Now Consulting
Results Oriented SAP Solutions
http://www.r3now.com
(704) 905 - 5175
wjwood64 (at ) yah oo ( dot) co m
http://www.linkedin.com/in/billwood

 
Thu, Nov 12, 2009 16:03 EST
Anonymous user
Posted by: Nigel Fenwick
Rating:

Great comments all - you can see the second part of this blog post when it is published on Nov 13 at http://blogs.forrester.com/cio/

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