This was originally posted on InfoBoom. Reposting here for my regular readers.
I recently wrote a post titled Social – A Culture, not a tool that describes a “light bulb moment” that a friend of mine had when thinking about Social media’s use in marketing and PR.
In that post, I outline how a friend of mine came to the conclusion that social media is much more than just a tool to use to blast a message out to customers.
There’s a message in that story for everyone in business…but even more so for IT.
The message is this:
Social media is changing organizations. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but sometime in the future, organizations are going to have to be much more open to the outside world.
Is this a good thing? Maybe…maybe not. But I think its coming (if its not already here).
What do these changes mean for IT?
It means more governance to manage data that shouldn’t be open to the public. It means more processes in place to ensure proper people have the proper access to the proper data. It also means a ton of headaches for IT security personnel.
Lots of headaches in social media, right?
Perhaps you can look at it that way…or…you can take a different tack and look at social media as the future of IT.
Social is driven by technology…why not be the driver of social within your organization? The Marketing organization is driving social. The PR team is driving social. Why not put the full force of the IT group and help drive social adotpion throughout your enterprise?
Social is driving change within organizations…IT can help driver that change and ensure social technologies are implemented correctly and proper governance and security are in place.
Or…you can sit back and do nothing and wait for the inevitable question of “what is the value of our IT group?”.
Adapt and drive change today. Or be forced to change tomorrow. It’s your call.
8 responses to “Social Media – Driving changes for IT?”
Nice, I agree RT @ericdbrown: Published: Social Media – Driving changes for IT? http://bit.ly/eNZ4hS
RT @ericdbrown Published: Social Media – Driving changes for IT? http://bit.ly/eNZ4hS | Should be a marriage between Mktg & IT
It seems that information security or information assurance field will be expanded in the future because of social media.
Social Media – Driving changes for IT? From @ericdbrown http://ow.ly/3uMoF
Social Media – Driving changes for IT? From @ericdbrown http://ow.ly/3uMoF
Can’t agree with you on this one Eric. Social Media can’t change anything. Social business leadership does. SM is about tools. Tools can give you an advantage but sooner or later you have to deal with people to accomplish anything. This is where the difference between the use of tools and the actual inculcation of the culture with communication, expectations, openness and context mean the difference between doing it and putting up a good facade.
I think we are saying the same thing here.
Social is a cultural mindset that drives a more open mindset. It has to. To be more social means being more open to communication and change.
IT has historically been a closed culture driven by process and control. I believe the adoption of social platforms into the enterprise is driving change throughout the organization, especially IT.
I hope so. But it takes more than the adoption of technology to bring about the kind of change necessary to replace such an entrenched culture. While it may pry it open, it will take leadership that embraces and champions that level of openness and engagement.