When talking about social media within companies, one of the most common objection is “I don’t wan’t my people to waste their time writing and discussing, where’s the ROI”.
Of course there are strong arguments to explain the possible benefits. Arguments that are more than tangible because communicating and exchanging is key to perform in knowledge economy, because intangible assets support value makin processes, because… the list is long and can be read on every blog dedicated to this field. One only thing is needed : logic. That’s to say find what helps creating more value, adapt the way people work, and the provide them with the tools that support this new way of working. A very relevant approach because it doesn’t justify tool’s adoption but helps choosing those who are really useful, so companies won’t get social software because it’s social software but because it meets their needs.
We can also say that it’s the trend of History. This argument is to be taken for what it’s worth, it won’t be enough to make decisions but it may help decision makers to stand back and see things from a different perspective. Remember what we’ve already heard about new tools.
Email has no place at work (1994)
Internet access has no place at work (1996)
eCommerce is too high a risk for our company (1998)
Instant Messaging has no place at work (2002)
Social Software has no place at work (2005)
Remember also what was said about computers, phones, cell phones…
Tags: Communication , email , Entreprise 2.0 , social-media , social-software
