Why You Shouldn't Agree to Internal Social Media

If you aren’t already, you need to start some serious thinking about what internal social media can do for your business. Your employees are hungry for it, solutions are becoming increasingly mainstream, and the day is coming when an organization not using employee-focused social media will have trouble attracting talent.

Yes, there are some very good reasons for a leader to embrace internal social media.  There are also some really crappy ones. Here are three:

#1: To get the communication folks off your back. Now that social media is widely used in marketing and external communication efforts, corporate communicators are turning their attention inside. Rightly so--social media may promise even greater benefits within a business, in the form of collaboration, engagement and productivity. Before you give the thumbs-up, though, ask for clarity on the aims of the social media effort, how it aligns with strategy, and what your role as leader looks like. Ask how it will empower employees to drive the success of the organization. Ask how it will help you, as a leader, do your job better.  

#2: To reduce the effort you put into communication. Not so fast--you are still the leader after all. Your responsibility to align your management team and employees around the company vision, priorities and ways of working doesn’t go away. Social media can be another valuable tool in generating conversation around your organizational journey, but it doesn’t diminish the need for you to set the tone, articulate a compelling story, create focus and clarify expectations.

#3: To declare your company a “social organization.” Uh yeah…Remember the whole George W. Bush “Mission Accomplished” fiasco? A single assault doesn’t win the war. Being a social organization is about a mindset, a philosophy, an approach. Every leadership word and action--every employee experience--must demonstrate a commitment to the belief that everyone has something to contribute and that there’s power and velocity in connecting people, their insights, ideas and knowledge. Having an internal Facebook page does not mean you’re a social organization.

Social media is a tool, a means to an end. It can be powerful if it's a purposeful part of a broader strategy for employee alignment and engagement. Make sure you’re using it for the right reasons.

Comments

[360 Degree Feedback]

Well in my opinion we cant ignore the importance of social media in this era of modern age. it has a drastic impact within the organization

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