after doing some reading it seems as though informal social networks are considered bad things in the workplace. few if any have set out to embrace the newest of technologies that support this more comfortable environment and it just seems to me that ignoring this type of evolution is not the way to go.
just because the elderly white-haired man (who is your boss) has never had a chance to experience this new outlet before does not always mean that he is not willing to try something new, especially now. although most are not open to technology as much as the younger generations are, there are few that fall in this category that recognize that to move forward changes must be made.
advertising...promotional items...penetration of markets...these are all things that have been shown to have benefited by the communication through informal social networks...this shows that there is no reason why a business that is has had a rep for being conservative or old-fashioned cant create a linkedin group page so that it compliments the individual pages of employees from their company on linkedin already...
it all comes fullcircle
Skyscrapers, Powerpoints and Hispanic Marketing
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I've spent the last four months interning for The San Jose Group, a
multi-cultural Hispanic marketing and advertising agency. It has been an
eye opening ex...
13 years ago
i absolutely agree that even a company that doesn't see itself as technologically savvy has room to spice things up with social networking devices. fortunately for students, the slow corporation realization of the importance of these Internet networks should keep our generation of college students amply employed as unpaid social media interns.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you too.Social network at company usually considered not important or bad things but I think many companies are trying to have good social network these days. I think nowadays they know social network is important.So, I think our generation, wich is little more aware of the internet, should work little more hard. (I'm not sure I got your point right, if not, just let me know :) )
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post, and fortunately so do most companies at this point. Even more conservative companies are realizing that social networking tools are not to be avoided but need to be leveraged to remain competitive. Social media is becoming a larger and larger part of most companies marketing budgets and agendas.
ReplyDeleteI thought you had a lot of great points Becca. I believe that it is essential for every company to recognize the power of social media whether they are old fashioned or not. If they hope to not be behind the eight ball they will need to embrace social media like you pointed out.
ReplyDeleteGreat point. Another point is that social media is an aggregator, not a panacea. You cannot just have a 21st century, savvy social networking plan and expect your business to grow. Social Networking can amplify the already apparent popularity of a product of political candidate. Look at Candidate Barack Obama (before election) and Senator-Elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts. Both ran very savvy campaigns, but also successfully amplified their success in both media mentions and fundraising by strategically employing twitter and partnerships with partisan online communities.
ReplyDeleteafter thinking about this topic a little more and relating it to the idea of people being connectors in the workplace, it's become apparent to me that the value of an informal network could really be damaged if it was to be formalized. while most want to take advantage of the opportunities that come along with this type of network, doing so needs to be done carefully. if some type of formalization was to occur it'd have to be gradual, and closely watched.
ReplyDeletean example of this has come up in my life, my mom works for ProBuild which is a lumber supple company that took over her old mom&pop company. at work she has a lot of salesmen who aren’t very technologically savvy but the company gives them new technologies that would increase their productivity and just make their tasks easier to handle. the problem is they don’t know how to use them and their IT department doesn’t do anything about it. they’ve outsourced their IT help to colorado and so the salesmen find other ways to get help. this is where my mom comes in, she becomes their go to connector to get help for their hardware and software issues. this all started when one guy had a problem with his computer and she helped him troubleshoot the issue, since then it has grown to her being their “Little Toni Technology”. she talks all the time about how it not her job and this informal network issue is making it a little harder for her to do her own job. (this is just one issue with her company and recently she has stopped doing her salesmen favors because it’s not included in her job description.) in the same issue though, it creates a disconnect between her and the men, so here is a live issue of how to formalize the informal network of go-to connectors so that they don’t create a bigger problem for logistics.
personally i think it’s a management problem and lack of communication between levels of upper authority, however i think there is a way she can micromanage a solution where she is happy helping while getting the salesmen what the need as well..it was just something that i thought of to link these two topics together…