Overwhelming, isn't it?
Executives still don’t know what to make of social media. They understand its value. They see its potential. But they’re still reluctant to give employees access.
That’s the gist of a study by ad agency RussellHerder and Ethos Business Law, both of Minneapolis.
The geniuses at MediaPost blogs extracted great nuggets from the executives surveyed, like:
- 81 percent believe social media can enhance relationships with customers/clients
- 81 percent agree it can build brand reputation
- 69 percent feel such networking can be valuable in recruitment
- 64 percent see it as a customer service tool
- 46 percent think it can be used to enhance employee morale
Yet 51 percent of executives fear social media would hurt productivity. And 49 percent think using social media can hurt their company’s reputation.
As humans, we fear what we don’t understand. We throw ourselves at the tasks we do understand to the point that we’re too busy to learn anything new. Our busy-ness makes us safe. But we will never be able to utilize the social media tools available to us if we don’t at least experiment.
We want to know what we’re doing. Our knowledge makes us safe and there is comfort in that safety. But we should never fear something that has such great potential in order to placate what essentially is fear.
Here are a few tips:
- Watch a company that you think does social media well
- Find an application (Facebook, blogging, Twitter) that isn’t too intimidating
- Learn how to use it by using it
- If it has applications for your business, develop a policy for its use
We would choke if we tried to digest all that social media has to offer. But taking it in small bites makes it easier to swallow and even enjoyable.
