Social Media in Business

Slowly social media is being recognized in business as a powerful tool for management, collaboration and interaction. Why it is taking so long is a mystery, except that management is often reluctant to risk losing control over corporate communications. There may be some risk of that, but is it really a big loss? The benefits may more than offset the risks. At least that's the message in a recent white paper by Ziff Davis Enterprise, sponsored by IBM and published in  IT World.

For years, decades even, there has been wide acceptance of the proposition that silos in organizations don't work - that they need to be broken down. While some companies have managed to do that, many have not.

But as the white paper points out, social networking can do a remarkable job of destroying those silos. In addition it can facilitate interaction between personnel at a human level, getting away from corporate-speak.

Companies need to move into social media. Of that there is no doubt. The place to start is with developing a social media strategy, so as to define the objectives, structure and policies governing its use. For the white paper, click on this link.