Do companies need social media? Ever notice HR leaders shying away from this question, typically being led by the Marketing or IT group? Why is that? Why do our HR leaders focus more on the risks vs. the potential rewards of implementing this technology within the enterprise? And when HR leaders DO chime in, the conversation is shifted to the organization’s social media policy or lack thereof, the HR handbook, or some other compliance topic of little strategic benefit to the company. It’s almost like HR dumbs down the conversation or ignores it altogether.

It seems every day there is a new article, blog post, tweet, and other commentary questioning whether companies “need” social media. It’s akin to asking, do companies “need” a website, email, PC’s, or mobile phones? The answer is obvious. Of course no company “needs” social media, although many will likely turn to Facebook’s Marketplace when looking for a buyer for their failing business.

As Human Resources professionals (and learning coaches―a.k.a. instructional designers), one of the things we’ve learned is that the medium is not the message1. Just as we've been learning for years without all of the technology at our disposal today, companies have been conducting business for years without social media and will be conducting business for many years to come without it. So, stop fussing about whether your company needs social media- the answer is... it doesn't need it. As a profession, we should stop obsessing over hypotheticals and focus our energies on the needs of our companies we can meet―via social media or otherwise. This is where our greatest opportunity for impacting the bottom line lies.

Here’s a list of what companies do need, and by all means feel free to add more to list with your comments below:

a productive and engaged workforce able to compete and succeed in today’s global market,
a means with which to attract, recruit, communicate with, and provide challenging work to the digital natives entering the workforce,
a dynamic intranet, where employees can connect and quickly locate information, expertise, and each other to collaborate and execute the organizations plans,
to stop mass marketing their products and services via mediums where their message is lost in a sea of useless noise, and to engage their customers in a very personal, authentic and focused manner,
a “new and improved” vision for their learning management system, one that can accommodate learning events and opportunities not conceived of in the HR department- but born in “the field”, informal learning, and enables employees to learn from one another up, down and across the organization―geographical boundaries be damned,
a means with which to capture some of the knowledge that’s about to walk out of their doors when baby boomers accelerate their retirement after this economic malaise we are currently in, and finally
a good dose of leadership from their head of Human Resources to collaborate with their IT department, and educate the c-suite on how social media can and should be considered as part of their talent management strategy―and not just their marketing mix, to meet some of these needs

Social media technology has the potential to transform the enterprise and how we work, but only when implemented as part of a larger human resources strategy, with clear goals and objectives, and when applied to needs it can effectively meet. When implemented in pursuit of one of these goals above, and tracked with appropriate metrics, HR leaders will be able to demonstrate the value of implementing these systems, and not simply the risks which are so prominently written about that make the news headlines every day.

Clark, R. (1983). Reconsidering research on learning from media. Review of Educational Research 53(4), 445-59.

- Alex Santos
Alex is a co-founder and Managing Member of Collabor8 Learning, LLC, an instructional design and performance management consultancy. His firm collaborates with organizations to enhance the way they develop and train their people. To learn more about Collabor8 Learning, click here.

Alex can be reached at 786-512-1069, alex@collabor8learning.com or via Twitter@collabor8alex.

Simon Sinek has a fabulous speech that he gave at one of the TED conferences discussing his philosophy Start With Why. Nothing could be closer to the truth when looking at ways to incorporate Social Technologies into the workplace. Web 2.0 tools are almost ubiquitous in our personal lives. We live, learn and play with these tools at home, and the generation entering the workplace will be demanding these tools to make their jobs easier and more fulfilling. In order for your employer brand to remain competitive, you'd be well advised not greet this new workforce with "oh, we have a policy against that here". You need to convene your Training, HR, and IT heads and strategize how these technologies fit, or not, with your culture's values. Then ask yourself, looking at your firm's goals-could adopting one of these technologies accelerate achievement of your goals or maybe even help you blow past your goals and into performance territory you never even dreamed possible? What stakeholders in your business would benefit the most from the use of these tools? Could your supply chain be streamlined or accelerated by better connecting your staff to your suppliers?

Look for KPI's in your organization that could be positively impacted by the introduction of one of these tools. It's important to do this in order to select the right tools for your culture, and to establish some baseline from which to measure benefits to your business. And I'm not just talking about ROI. Also, look for workflows or communication channels that could be streamlined by the introduction of one or more of these tools.

After you have defined your Why's for incorporating these tools, it's time to narrow down your selection... and boy what a range of possibilities you have available to you. We'll take a look at some of your options and their use in the business world next week.

Alex can be reached at 786-512-1069, alex@collabor8learning.com or via Twitter@collabor8alex.