CIOs should go primitive in communication

This recent post on CIO.com highlights that even though social media tools like Facebook, YouTube, twitter, email, technorati, and various other collaborative technology is popular now, it might not be the best choice for communication and messaging. Loraine Antrim mentioned that going "primitive" like a simple phone call or in-person meetings can give CIOs a strategic advantage for many critical situations.

Going "primitive" allows the CIO to engage in a more personal level. Here are some examples as detailed by the post when CIOs should go "primitive".

1. When body language can make a world of difference in your communication. At times a simple gesture or a shrug of your shoulder can really aid in communicating your point. Also, when the tone of voice is important CIOs might want to make a live phone call instead of tweeting or emailing.

2. When attempting to persuade or influence. Any type of persuasion is best done in person and in live delivery. Social media communication is best for expanding on data points.

CIO's and Business Strategy

Michael Idinopulos discusses in this post in the Transparent Office that CIOs are still fighting for a seat at the strategy table when it comes to improving the way their company does business. IT is strategically important but most line managers fail to see that IT for more than just back-office support functions.

Enterprise 2.0 has changed all of this. Managers outside of the IT industry are figuring out that blogs, social networks, micromessaging, and other forms of online collaboration are changing the way that people interact with one another within a company. As an IT manager, companies will be looking at you to teach and explain the benefits that these social media outlets can have in an organization. That is why it is every so important to have IT managers on board discussing strategy with teams early on.

Browsing the web I came across this presentation from Shiv Singh, the VP & global social media lead at Razorfish entitled Web 2.0 and the Enterprise: A Symbiotic Relationship. Early in the presentation he notes 5 reasons why it is a symbiotic relationship, and his 1st reason was “Facebook enters the Enterprise.”

This does not shock me as Facebook has been around for quite some time, and only now does it seem that the enterprise is finally beginning to realize the business benefits of social media. What are your thoughts?

Web 2.0 and the Enterprise: A Symbiotic Relationship

View more presentations from shivsingh. (tags: timeshifting trust)

Government Interest in Social Software

I recently came across Michael Idinopulo’s latest post on Transparent Office in which he mentions that there is a lot of buzz and interest in social media in government. One of the first attempts at launching a community within government was Intellipedia, a community based forum that was used for sharing information across different intelligence agencies.

It’s come a long way since Intellipedia, government officials are now using blogs, social networks, and wikis to collaborate within agencies. I’m interested to see if the Obama administration will make social software go mainstream in government.

Web 2.0: An Asset and a Liability

There is a reason why companies are still hesitant in adopting web 2.0 technology within the enterprise. This post on ZDNet discusses how even though there is potential ROI from using social media in organizations, there are also pitfalls.

Security remains the main reason why companies are still skeptical. Information can still be breached if there is not a secure enough server, and for companies this can lead to malpractice and lawsuits. Privacy issues will play a major factor in the adoption of social media in the enterprise.

Tribalization of Business

I came across this presentation “2008 Tribalization of Business Study” which details the findings of a study conducted by Deloitte and Beeline Labs about forming social networking and communities within the enterprise. The presentation goes over everything from reasons for setting up communities within organizations to measuring progress and success to community effectiveness. Take a couple of moments to go through the slides. Do you think that social media in the enterprise is changing the nature of business practices?

2008 Tribalization Of Business Study

view presentation (tags: metrics measurement beelinelabs deloitte)

Social Networking: Is the Enterprise Truly Ready?

Nowadays, we constantly hear praise about how social networking can boost productivity and collaboration within an organization, but Barb Moshe gives another perspective in his latest post on CMS Wire.

Barb points out that most employees still do not truly understand what Enterprise 2.0 really is. Most employees view social networking simply as “cool technology”, but they are still confused on how business value can be derived from social software. Towards the end of his post he mentions, “Organizations do recognize that they need some way to share knowledge internally.” Even though companies understand this need, they are still hesitant before venturing into adopting web 2.0 apps. So I ask again, is the enterprise truly ready?

Get Rid of Email

This latest post on The Workstreamer Blog argues whether Twitter and Basecamp rely have any business value. It is true, email is going out of fashion, and it is being replaced by social media.

The post mentions that the real value of Twitter comes when you follow over 200 people and have just about the same number of people following you. Although I agree that following people on Twitter means you are genuinely interested and trying to learn more, being followed on Twitter does not bring much value to the Enterprise, it just means that you are popular. Nevertheless, the combination of tweets mixed in with work provides effective communication within the work environment, thus eliminating much need for email on a daily basis.

Basecamp is workplace oriented since it eliminates the social components Twitter has, and it allows employees to concentrate on work solely. But should social apps in the Enterprise be solely used for work purposes? Or should there be some leeway in allowing employees to have some fun and “poke” their employees?

Embrace Social Media in the Enterprise

According to article on Computing, a study conducted by Gartner has found that businesses should make more use of social media and web 2.0 applications within the enterprise to better communication with their employees.

Nikos Drakos, a research director at Gartner and a supporter of social media in the enterprise, mentions:

"With websites such as Facebook and other web 2.0 technologies such as blogging and forums, businesses have an open opportunity to promote themselves amongst their employees, and more importantly to customers. For example, if there was a Facebook group about a certain company or a product, they could intervene against negative postings or use the positive postings as a marketing asset."

Companies are slow to adapt to this trend though, and most organizations are still very skeptical about adopting social media practices within the enterprise. We’ve discussed how blocking access to social media sites like Facebook could actually decrease worker productivity. The premise is that by balancing job and life responsibilities at work, employees can focus more on job tasks at hand. The question still lingers, is there true business value? Only time will tell.

The Evolution of Enterprise 2.0

At the Ribbon Farm blog, Venkatish Rao drew out his theory on how Enterprise 2.0 formed:

From the beginning bubbles that start out as beginning social media, to the fall of Enterprise 1.0 to the new organization where organization is in the clouds. What do you think of this interpretation? Would you change anything?

Portal 2.0 and Beyond

Over the last few years, we’ve seen the evolution of portals within the enterprise to become more personalized to specific information needs of users, but what does the future hold in store for the portal universe? I came across this post on builder au in which Lana Kovacevic notes a couple of points from Gene Phifer in a recent conversation about the direction that portals are heading into.

Here are several characteristics Gene lists that the “portal of the future” will have:

1. Portals like iGoogle and MyYahoo already aggregate content, but portals of the future will facilitate content aggregation making it even more personalized.
2. Portals fabrics will evolve to the idea of the “follow me portal”, in which the look and feel of the portal will transform based on your location. This especially will be increasingly popular as the enterprise is experiencing a surge in mobile browsing on smartphones.
3. Social Web 2.0 functionalities are here to stay. Portals will continue to make use of technologies such as social networks, wikis, forums, and blogs.
4. Portals will fully integrate with all social networks. Plaxo is a good example of an integrated portal that aggregates updates from sites like Flickr, Twitter, and Digg. The “portal of the future” will be able to aggregate updates from these social applications as well as other networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Xing.
5. Collaboration is key in the enterprise; portals will play a part in improving the overall user experience.
6. The ability to aggregate mashed up content from more than one individual websites will be facilitated by future enterprise portals.

So you’ve seen Gene’s description of future portals, but what components and functionalities will your ideal “portal of the future” have?

Power and Social Media

In a recent post at IT Project Failures, Michael Krigsman makes an observation that social media wishes to make a democracy for all those who are involved in social media merging with the enterprise. Social media’s goal is to spread the knowledge throughout an enterprise so everyone knows the maximum amount of information. The problem with this is that the CEO will participate in the applications in the same way that lower level managers will, therefore blurring the lines that create the power structure.

Michael Krigsman believes that social media will truly take off when there is a way to distinguish the roles of upper level management with the rest of the organization.

Spaceo.us: A Social Enterprise

Enterprise architects are developing a social collaboration platform called Spaceo.us, where Web 2.0 tools like wikis, tagging, blogging, and enterprise search will be available within organizations in a corporate setting. Users have long been using web 2.0 in personal perspectives, but Spaceo.us aims to help mesh this collaborative software in the enterprise. Here’s a clip of what Spaceo.us has to offer. What collaborative feature do you feel will best improve organizational agility?

Tips to Communicate Benefits of Enterprise 2.0

So upper management still doesn’t recognize the huge disadvantage that the organization is in because of their lack of involvement…What do you do? I came across this list of preparation tools on Enterprise 2.0 Evangelist that can help any employee before giving the “social media can benefit our company” speech.

Here’s a recap of those tools, first off things you should avoid:

1. Tools will always need someone to look after itself, so don’t claim that it will not need an additional resource.
2. Don’t plan on getting rid of old systems and replacing them with social media apps…Web 2.0 tools should assist other systems collaboratively and aid in communication, not by replacing them.

Now on to communicating benefits of Enterprise 2.0 to dreaded management:

1. Relate current practices and existing processes that social media tools can take over. Show them how much easier and effective the process is made by switching to Web 2.0 tools.
2. Look for Enterprise 2.0 success stories within your industry. After corporate execs see this, it might ease their mind in adapting to social media technology. After all, no one wants to be behind competitors in what they are doing.
3. Think of creative ways to bring forth all of your ideas. You must be able to convey the importance of social media apps, and the difference it can bring to the table. Lame PowerPoint presentations and standard pitches have all been done too often. Stand out!

If this can’t get people to see the value of Web 2.0 tools within the Enterprise, then I don’t know what will…What other tips have you used to persuade management?