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ANA/B2B Magazine Survey
A rise in social media use among marketers also was seen in a survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers, BtoB Magazine, and Mktg. released on August 3, 2009. The study found that social media and viral video marketing showed the largest jumps in adoption, with 66% of marketers saying they used social media in 2009, compared with 20% in 2007, and 50% saying they employed viral videos, vs. 25% in 2007.
According to the study, the marketers' chief problems centered on metrics-an inability to prove return on investment (45 percent) and to allocate a mix of traditional vs. digital media (43 percent).
For the coming year, the study found that blogs (34 percent), mobile (28 percent), and social media (23 percent) topped the list of new media formats to be embraced by marketers not already using each respective platform.
Social Media Infiltrates Intranets
A study released by The Nielsen Norman Group in August 2009 examined social media adoption within corporate intranets. Entitled "Enterprise 2.0: Social Software on Intranets: A Report From the Front Lines of Enterprise Social Software Projects," the findings were based on a study of 14 companies, including AXA UK, Agilent Technologies, American Electric Power , BT, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, Officenet Staples Argentina, Portugal Telecom, Philips Healthcare, The Rubicon Project, Sprint Nextel, Sun Microsystems, and Telecom New Zealand.
On his Alertbox blog, usability expert and co-author Jakob Nielsen asserted that "Social software is not a trend that can be ignored. It's affecting fundamental change in how people expect to communicate, both with each other and the companies they do business with."
Nielsen said his studies showed that "successful social media initiatives at many companies emerged from underground, grassroots efforts." These efforts, he said, were being driven by the young "frontline workers" who use social media tools at home and naturally incorporate them into their work.
"One of the dirty secrets of enterprise 2.0 is that you don't have to teach or convince younger workers to use these tools; they expect them and integrate them as easily into their work lives as they do in their personal lives," said Nilesen.
When the underground social media efforts of the young workers prove valuable, they are officially recognized by management, said Nielsen. "Companies are turning a blind eye to underground social software efforts until they prove their worth, and then sanctioning them within the enterprise," he said.
Reasonable Views
While many naysayers continue to see social media as wasteful and discourage its use among workers, there are scores of social media proponents singing the praises of social media.
Reporting on Robert Half's social media blocking survey, Urvaksh Karkaria said in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, "There is, however, a school of thought, that social networks (more Twitter, than Facebook) are the new way of doing business. Consider how corporate America has infiltrated once geek-only Twitter. Everyone from AFLAC (@aflacduck) to Zappos (@zappos) uses the micro-blogging site to get new customers and help satisfy existing ones."
As Jakob Nielsen and other observers have noted, younger workers who are familiar with social media and recognize its value are gradually changing the mindset of companies. Michael Masnick on techdirt.com wrote that "many start using social networking and other online tools to help them work. After all, despite what naysayers say, these tools can be very useful in many different jobs." Moreover, said Masnick, "it appears that as a younger generation who grew up on this stuff enters the workforce, they're starting to convince companies to change their ways."
In this same vein, Philip Gordon wrote in "Is Employee Web Surfing During Working Hours Really a Problem?" on his Workplace Privacy Counsel blog on September 15, 2008:
"Let's face it, nearly everyone surfs the Web at work at one point or another. Perhaps more importantly, the first generation to spend adolescence surfing the Web is starting to move into middle management and even senior management. This generational shift is rendering obsolete - in practice if not in form - corporate policies that forbid employees from using corporate electronic resources, i.e. Internet access, for non-business purposes."
In his take on corporate blocking, Farhad Manjoo in "Unchain the Office Computers! Why corporate IT should let us browse any way we want," published on August 25, 2009, on Slate, wrote:
"So why not lock down workplace computers? Here's why: The restrictions infantilize workers-they foster resentment, reduce morale, lock people into inefficient routines, and, worst of all, they kill our incentives to work productively. In the information age, most companies' success depends entirely on the creativity and drive of their workers. IT restrictions are corrosive to that creativity-they keep everyone under the thumb of people who have no idea which tools we need to do our jobs but who are charged with deciding anyway."
A similarly reasoned approach was offered by Sarah Perez in her article "Facebook At Work: Helpful or a Hazard?"on readwriteweb.com. Said Perez:
"At the end of the day, though, this isn't a simple black or white issue. Sometimes using Facebook may be productive for employees, sometimes it's not. Either way, the knee-jerk reaction from organizations shouldn't be to simply block access to the social network. Perhaps businesses should just focus on rewarding the employees who perform their jobs well and disciplining those who don't do their work? That seems like a more reasonable way to stimulate employee productivity, don't you agree?"
Said Liz Wolgemuth in August 2008 in an article entitled "Why Web Surfing at Work Is a Nonproblem" on usnews.com:
"I'm not sure we should be concerned with this, except on a case-by-case basis. If an employee is unable to determine decent boundaries and isn't getting his or her work done, an employer obviously needs to address the issue….Internet surfing likely increases the awareness (political, social, commercial) of employees and gives companies a better competitive edge and a better sense of trends, tastes, and the sorts of things that drive future growth."
Said Ken Kadet on touchpointcity.wordpress.com, commenting on "Social Media and Workplace Productivity: On a Collision Course?" by Vince Giorgi on August 20, 2009:
"Blocking isn't the answer, any more than banning personal email made sense…this is how people keep in touch with each other and, if they're good employees, how they stay happy at work. I have a client with a firewall that bans most social networking sites…and personal blogs. But aren't these often sources of intelligence for people in any company role?"
As we said in the beginning, this issue has been raging for a decade. In a May 2000 article on employee surfing at work by Julene Snyder for IDG, a Microsoft spokeswoman was quoted as saying, "We recognize that a certain amount of personal tasks will get taken care of at work. It's expected that people will use e-mail and the Internet for business purposes, but we realize that people have lives."
Finally, said Amy Chulk on careerbuilder.com: "The way I see it, it comes down to mutual respect. Give your employees the opportunity to blend their personal and work lives, and realize that although they may be shopping for that last-minute birthday gift at work, they are also likely responding to work e-mail at home and taking care of business matters on their off-hours. Accept and embrace the merging of these worlds - because with or without you, it is an inevitability."
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