By now, IT professionals know full-well they must work closely with department managers and business users, some of whom have tasted the autonomy of implementing rogue cloud, analytics, or big-data solutions.
And one tool designed to streamline and enable communication, as well as forge new and cement existing relationships, is already at your disposal as something you probably support, day in and day out: social media.
CIOs may regularly write a blog, tweet, or share items on the company's Facebook page, but it's valuable for the IT department as a whole, and you as individual IT professionals, to leverage this technology to increase corporate awareness of your capabilities, interests, and, well, that personal brand we hear so much about.
When you break it down, social media -- through closed Facebook groups, enterprise content management, or other tools -- is all about real-time collaboration between different people or teams. As the Harvard Business Review said last month: "Organizations' IT departments can use social media to communicate with the engineering department as it works on new products, often creating a tighter feedback loop than previously existed."
Online Presence, Real-Life Value
Adding social media to the tools you use as an IT pro can build your visibility among business users, department heads, and corporate management.
Technologists increasingly are using, not only supporting, social networks. Constellation Research's report, "Introducing The 43 Use Cases for Social Business," determined that about 70 percent of IT departments used social media in some capacity, with incident to resolution garnering the biggest impact.
Lower costs and faster resolution may provide immediate ROI, but there are other high-value uses. If you're not fully leveraging your corporate use of social media, you may be selling your opportunities short.
IT can work more closely with sales to find, customize, or write a mobile app for the company's sales reps; with the marketing team, to determine which additional social networking sites are of most value to the organization; with finance, to figure out which data can be destroyed, archived, and stored, and distribution, to pilot a new web-based GPS solution that integrates with the expense-reporting system. In fact, for every department, there are countless ways that social media interaction can eliminate many of the email and voicemail threads that plague IT professionals' busy lives.
Embracing social media gives IT a bigger opportunity to test different platforms. If marketing's interested in Tumblr, a joint initiative between the two departments may be in order. If sales thinks Pinterest will help them, perhaps a pro from each division can explore this option, connecting via social media according to their personal schedules.
It's not quite the same as using social media for internal communications, but NASA tapped the power of this technology last year when it debuted the crowdsourcing International Space Apps Challenge, which attracted more than 2,000 participants from around the world. Entrants tackled one of 71 challenges in one of four categories: open-source software; open hardware; platforms for citizen-science contributions; and data visualization. At the end of the contest, NASA received 100-plus contributions, seven of which won awards. You can envision a similar project taking off at many other tech-focused organizations, even if participation is restricted to employees.
Bonus points
There is an additional benefit to IT's expanded social media presence. Instead of being seen by some solely as a troubleshooter, someone they turn to only in times of crisis, your visibility increases and is shown in a positive, proactive light.
From offering insight into potential technology solutions to common business problems to sharing a joke, social networks offer us the chance to humanize ourselves beyond our office personas. That ability to convey our love of the Yankees, our hobby as a bassist in a band, or our fascination with Downton Abbey can be the foundation of relationships that extend far beyond, "My computer crashed," or, "Why I can't get on the VPN today?"
And that can only be a good thing for both our companies and our careers.
Our company blocks facebook. I'm am the one that had to do it and didn't think it was necessary but the order came from the boss... It wasn't worth challenging.
More companies are getting on facebook and it's becoming a tool to keep your eye on a big customer or competitor. One day I think we will lift the ban but for now, no FB for us.
mpouraryan - If the folks at Facebook, Twitter, Sulia aren't aware of it, then they're not paying attention. But they are smart folks so I'm sure this has already occurred to them. And that it keeps them up at night, because it's the chief challenge to their business.
And now I need to look up Sulia, because I have never heard of it!
Social media is: Sharing content and information, and participating in conversations.
We're doing social media here and now.
I sometimes say that I've been active on social media since 1989, because that's when I became active on Usenet, GEnie and CompuServe. I'm half-joking when I say that -- except I really am not joking at all.
Yes! When I look at the "social network" apps on my iPhone, my head spins; there are just so many of them out there, and I haven't heard of quite a few of them, despite being immersed in tech for so much of my day! It's got to be challenging for those charged with deciding which platforms to support. In some industries you need to be on the leading edge of adoption -- but spending a lot of resources on the wrong platform/s is expensive and wasteful. There obviously is a tipping point, depending on your market, at which a social network is attractive for your brand.
I agree, @SarahP, and it's an area where IT can really lead by example. I've heard a few anecdotes about various IT departments using social media, but would love to find some good case studies about organizations' IT pros who are really making a name for themselves internally through social media. It seems such a natural fit. Anyone got one?!
In the future though, looks like we are going to have a lot of one-season wonder social networks. the type that get hype and people for a few days and then sink into dormant accounts soon after.
I doubt social media is going anywhere, so more companies should be active on it. It makes me sad to see so many companies still leaving behind their social media accounts, when that is key to good customer service. I wonder what is holding back so many? Is it the lack of hiring those who know how to work it or are they concerned what it could all bring with it?
I'll be quite curious to see what you think.....It is an evolutionary trend that has transformed our World beyond our Wildest dreams--that's for sure. But I have a sneaking suspiciion that the folks @ Facebook, Twitter & Sulia may take issue w/your Cryptic thought.
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