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Why Should We Care About Social Media?
By mcampbell | October 10, 2008
I’ve always felt that we’re all connected in one way or another, and ever since the rise of “Six Degrees of Separation” in the early-90s I’m increasingly convinced that it’s true. This play, and the subsequent movie, by American playwright John Guare, revolves around the idea that any two individuals are connected by, at most, six others. As one of the characters states,:
“I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find it A) extremely comforting that we’re so close, and B) like Chinese water torture that we’re so close because you have to find the right six people to make the right connection… I am bound to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people.”
SixDegrees.com was an early social networking site based on this concept. Now, with the advent of newer social media and networking tools like LinkedIn and Facebook, it’s possible for everyone to see and track these connections. I’ve been a member of LinkedIn since 2004, and find it to be an invaluable tool for keeping in touch with colleagues and friends— especially in Silicon Valley, where people tend to switch jobs often. The intelligent features of these tools also show you who you might know based on your past positions, education and contacts. Facebook has also been a great way to find people I haven’t seen since graduating from high school in the 80s (gulp!), and finding out, if somewhat vicariously, what people are up to.
Why should we care?
So why should we, as communication professionals, care? After attending the Ragan Summit on Social Media in Chicago last month, I’m even more convinced that we really don’t have the option not to care – social media is the future of communication, whether we like it or not! For “Gen Y,” the largest generation entering the workforce since the Baby Boomers, social media is not just a fun diversion. It’s a productive way to collaborate and keep in contact with people that eliminates the need for email.
One of the biggest roadblocks against using social media technology within a company is that it’s hard to demonstrate a quantitative business case. Things like information overload and productivity loss are hard to measure, but when you look at tools such as wikis, which enable people to store, edit and access documents in real time without the need for email, you understand the impact these tools could have if implemented on an enterprise level. Through the research of ROI Communication, and after hearing the opinions and observations of social media experts such as Steve Crescenzo and Shel Holz, I’d like to share some of the top reasons communication professionals should pay attention to and embrace Social Media:
Ten good reasons to care about social media (in no particular order)
- Social media is the way that Gen Y communicates – companies are at risk of losing this critical segment of the workforce if they do not adopt social media technology and allow its use by employees
- Social media enables greater collaboration of global teams by creating shared workspaces that are accessible 24/7 from anywhere in the world
- Many social media tools are low-cost/no-cost and web-based – this means they can be used by everyone and do not require downloading or paying for applications
- The ability to easily collaborate and communicate virtually at no cost can also reduce the need to spend money on travel and communicating via long-distance phone calls – this can result in companies saving a nice chunk of change
- Social media democratizes content and gives everyone the chance to participate – the old “top down” communication model no longer works to engage employees, and it’s more about a conversation than pushing down “corporate speak”
- Social media helps meet the need for human connection in an increasingly virtual world – it enables people to collaborate based on interests and can lead to greater creativity and productivity by connecting larger groups of people and their ideas
- Web 2.0 has raised the expectations of our employee audiences – they’re used to seeing different types of media, including video, audio, blogs, polling and comments on the web, and we must meet their expectations to keep them engaged
- The wisdom of the crowds. One of the largest examples of Social Media/Web 2.0 is Wikipedia, which taps the collective knowledge of thousands of experts. This technology is already being used within leading companies to create rich knowledge bases that enable employees to quickly find information on virtually anything
- Enabling people to choose the way they “pull” the information that’s important to them, and providing it in a variety of social media channels, reduces information overload and increases engagement
- Engagement is the top driver of employee loyalty according to research by Hewitt – Social media and Web 2.0 change communication from a one-way message to an engaging, two-way conversation
Just do it!
There are many, many other reasons why social media makes sense. The one thing I can recommend to my fellow communication professionals is to get out there and try it! Start small by joining a social media site like LinkedIn or Facebook, and see where it takes you. Download Skype,buy a $20 webcam and start holding video meetings with your colleagues. Once you start using it and see how easy it is, you’ll begin to see how social media can really work within a corporate setting to provide a richer and more engaging way to communicate with employees, and for employees to communicate with each other.
Additional Resources
ROI Communication will be facilitating a three-hour workshop on social media and Web 2.0 technology at the upcoming “Social Media for Internal Communications” conference Nov. 17-20 in San Francisco, CA. As a contact of ROI Communication, you can enjoy a $200 discount on registration fees by mentioning the email code “SPK” when registering. For more information, or to register, please visit the Advanced Learning Institute Web site.
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