Comments on: Social Media | Is Marketing the “Tip of the Spear” in a Corporate Cultural Revolution? http://mlcwideangle.exbdblogs.com/2009/12/14/social-media-is-marketing-the-%e2%80%9ctip-of-the-spear%e2%80%9d-in-a-corporate-cultural-revolution/ Broaden Your Perspective with the Marketing Leadership Council Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:10:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Warren Thune http://mlcwideangle.exbdblogs.com/2009/12/14/social-media-is-marketing-the-%e2%80%9ctip-of-the-spear%e2%80%9d-in-a-corporate-cultural-revolution/comment-page-1/#comment-133 Warren Thune Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:20:24 +0000 http://mlcwideangle.exbdblogs.com/?p=647#comment-133 CIOs would say that Haniel’s comment that “CIOs looking to ‘firewall’ people out rather than creating a channel for the outside to come in” is a bit of a generalization. We see that, although more than 70% of organizations plan to increase their investments in social media in 2010, the full potential of social media has not been realized, as efforts are often uncoordinated and piecemeal across a company. However, the rate of change in this space means that developing a formal, well-defined strategy for social media may be premature. What is most needed now is a plan for social media experimentation that has direction and a plan for success. As social media cuts across functional boundaries, CIOs should help to provide the environment to allow social media to be successful. We see five principles for effectively experimenting with social media and for quickly capturing business value from the experiments that work: 1. Adopt a Test-and-Learn Approach. Rather than jump into the most popular social media platforms, adopt a hypothesis-led approach toward social media experimentation to maximize learning for business alignment and impact. 2. Orient Toward Meaningful Business Objectives. Tie social media experiments to activities such as deepening relationships, acquiring new customers, or recruiting employees that will derive significant business value. 3. Organize According to Intent and Maturity. As organizations progress through social media maturity, their managerial needs and opportunities change. Match your management model to your maturity level, moving from loose to tight central control and then back again, to ramp up on social media quickly. 4. Provide Baseline Policies and Education. Put in place baseline policies to protect the organization against social media usage risks while fostering innovation. Educate employees about effective use so that they can understand, relate to, and articulate company policies and practices. 5. Redirect Capital to Growing Sources of Enterprise Content. Social media already accounts for a fair share of content creation within organizations and this share will grow rapidly. To capture value from this content without being overwhelmed, consider shifting investment and mind share away from systems and processes that manage structured data toward lightweight capabilities to capture, filter, and disseminate unstructured information. To read more social media related materials that are geared towards actions a CIO can take to drive value, go to: https://cio.executiveboard.com/Members/ResearchAndTools/Abstract.aspx?cid=100158574&fs=1&q=social+media&program=&ds=1 CIOs would say that Haniel’s comment that “CIOs looking to ‘firewall’ people out rather than creating a channel for the outside to come in” is a bit of a generalization.

We see that, although more than 70% of organizations plan to increase their investments in social media in 2010, the full potential of social media has not been realized, as efforts are often uncoordinated and piecemeal across a company. However, the rate of change in this space means that developing a formal, well-defined strategy for social media may be premature. What is most needed now is a plan for social media experimentation that has direction and a plan for success.

As social media cuts across functional boundaries, CIOs should help to provide the environment to allow social media to be successful. We see five principles for effectively
experimenting with social media and for quickly capturing business value from the experiments that work:
1. Adopt a Test-and-Learn Approach. Rather than jump into the most popular social media platforms, adopt a hypothesis-led approach toward social media experimentation to maximize learning for business alignment and impact.

2. Orient Toward Meaningful Business Objectives. Tie social media experiments to activities such as deepening relationships, acquiring new customers, or recruiting employees that will derive significant business value.

3. Organize According to Intent and Maturity. As organizations progress through social media maturity, their managerial needs and opportunities change. Match your management model to
your maturity level, moving from loose to tight central control and then back again, to ramp up on social media quickly.

4. Provide Baseline Policies and Education. Put in place baseline policies to protect the organization against social media usage risks while fostering innovation. Educate employees about effective use so that they can understand, relate to, and articulate company policies and practices.

5. Redirect Capital to Growing Sources of Enterprise Content. Social media already accounts for a fair share of content creation within organizations and this share will grow rapidly. To capture value from this content without being overwhelmed, consider shifting investment and mind share away from systems and processes that manage structured data toward lightweight
capabilities to capture, filter, and disseminate unstructured information.

To read more social media related materials that are geared towards actions a CIO can take to drive value, go to: https://cio.executiveboard.com/Members/ResearchAndTools/Abstract.aspx?cid=100158574&fs=1&q=social+media&program=&ds=1

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