Social media is not dangerous or “just a consumer thing” for businesses, according to Gartner analyst Carol Rozwell. Social has turned the corner from “interesting” to “imperative”, letting you “search out good ideas, and adapt them to make them work for you”.
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Upper management in their 30th-floor, wood-panelled offices have yet to understand the “upside of social media” — and many are unwilling to explore the benefits their organisation will receive. While many are business and social media savvy, some are still making ludicrous statements such as “social media is dangerous”. This is crazy in the age of Facebook and Twitter given the influence these social networks play in our everyday online lives.
So what are the top ten signals that upper management does not understand social media? Here are ten points to consider:
- They start telling you anecdotes about how their children use social media, then start shaking their heads.
- They get somebody to ghost-write their blogs.
- They ban access to social media because people will waste time or “someone might say something bad about us”.
- They say, “Our customers are over 40, so they aren’t on Facebook or Twitter.”
- They put a summer intern in charge of the social media “project”.
- They ask: “Why do I need input from social media? All the really smart people already work for us.”
- They say: “Show me an enterprise that increased its revenue by using social communications.”
- They don’t define the purpose, but want to try “something” to “see what happens”.
- They insist that every communication be approved before it’s posted on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, or other social networking site.
- They think that creating a Facebook fan page is a social media strategy.
Hearing the above statement in your place of business is a worrying sign, but persevere past these misinformed sentiments.
Social media integration in your business is an inevitability. Only the continued education of your staff, as well as the head honchos in your organisation about social media will lead to breakthroughs in the business.
Do it. And do it well.
Image: Upwardreaction.com
