The value of social media

In harsh economic times, organisations exercise tighter control. Control over costs is the obvious example. However, the means by which tighter control is exercised can often(but not always) be more centralisation, and consequentially less freedom. This can in turn impact the amount of freedom people are given to engage in social media activity, or can create an environment where they are afraid to. This scenario means it is even more compelling that we are able to articulate the value that an organisation can derive from social media. Otherwise we’ll be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Accepting that there is value in social media is one thing, but unless we can articulate and quantify that vlaue, the days are numbered.

Dissolving boundaries.

I’ve written about blending before, so here’s a quick reminder.

o business & personality

o inside & outside

o home & work

o collaboration & fun

They’re all going to be blurred in future. That’ll impact technology, our work lives, our home lives, and attitudes to work in general.

Work really is no longer a place, it's just one of the things we do during our daily lives. And it's mixed in with all the other things.

Organisations think big.

Organisations think big. They think in terms of enterprise solutions, signing enterprise agreements with big vendors. Organisations also like to claim agility. Are these two things compatible? As we move to smaller devices, like the iPhone, with consequentially smaller apps, will this have a knock-on effect in the way CIOs view their technology platforms and procurement choices? Not for a long time I predict. Which is unfortunate as lots of small steps often brings benefits much faster than waiting for one big step.

Why would you do that?

I just bought a book off Amazon.co.uk. It cost 1p. I paid £2.75 for postage. The book arrived this morning and the postage label showed the sender had paid £2.25 to send it to me. Plus the cost of the jiffy bag, and the ink to print the label. And the time to take it to the Post office.

Why bother?

Pace of change 2

Change is constant. We all know that. But in a fast moving world, change takes much longer than we expect. I remember in the mid-1990s talking at conferences about how, with intranets, the paperless office was almost with us. Yet today, for many organisations that is still not reality. When social media started to gain traction three or four years ago, we all said it was going to have a fundamental impact on business. But when? In my experience, what we think will happen quickly, takes much longer.

Not long ago adoption of technology used to lag behind the technology – we’d have a new system, but persuading people to use it was often the hard part. However, now we often find the technology we want is struggling to keep up with the way we use it. Which is great because it gives us the opportunity to drive technology developments from real, not imaginary, demand.

Well I suppose it had to happen

I was knocked off my bike on the way home from work last week. Quite a nasty incident. I was riding in a cycle lane on a downhill stretch, probably doing about 15mph when a car pulled through a line of traffic right in front of me. I was too close to be able to take any evasive action and I ploughed heavily into the passenger's door. With a heavy impact like that I don't remember too much about it. I know I was knocked into the air and came down heavily on my back, banging my head on the ground in the process. It took me a few minutes to come round, and then I started to assess where it hurt. Which was pretty much everywhere! I do also remember clearly going limp when I realised impact was inevitable, there was no instinct to put my arm out or anything like that. Just let the body go limp.

Eventually I was on my feet, exchanging details etc. and checking my bike for damage. My new bike that is. The front wheel was buckled, but I couldn't see much other damage, so I limped off home.

The next morning, following a very restless night I paid a visit to the casualty department of the local hospital where various x-rays and tests showed damaged tendons and joints in the shoulder and a possible cracked rib, but no fractures. In addition I had scraped my knees, badly bruised my wrist and thumb and was quickly developing a sore back and neck.

A week on, and after another visit to the fracture clinic I am about to start on a programme of physiotherapy to assist the healing process in the shoulder.

And the bike is back from a crash assessment at the local shop which concluded there was no damage to the frame or the fork, but the front wheel needed a new rim and spokes as part of a re-build. Unusually, I was commuting on my steel framed Audax bike. I think the strength and quality of the frame prevented any more serious damage. I'm convinced my usual aluminium commuter, or a more expensive carbon bike would not have fared so well.

All in all, it could have been a lot worse. A second or two earlier and the car would have hit me, instead of me hitting the car, or I could have gone over the top.

It's not going to stop me riding though, and I still have my sights on Lands End to John O Groats in 2010.

A final thought. I hit my head hard, and I am very grateful that I was wearing a helmet. I see a lot of people cycling in London without one. They are fools! Wear your helmet.

Social media adoption curve

A while back I read a report from Gartner which outlined three phases of social media adoption – denial; don’t ask, don’t tell; embracing. It made the assertion that the mid stage – don’t ask, don’t tell – is the most dangerous place as organisations hadn’t banned social media (therefore couldn’t stop worrying about it), nor had they embraced it (so they weren't getting value from it). However, I feel there is an additional step between stage two and three, which I call ‘reality/recoil’. This is characterised as a knee jerk reaction once the organisation is on the way to acceptance. I think this moment is short term and transitory and comes when the reality of the change becomes clear to individuals and they start to realise there are implications that will affect both them as individuals and their organisation.