Facebook / LinkedIn – Day 5 – Why you SHOULD be Using Them at Work

(Warning – this is a longer post – but it is worth it.  I promise.  It makes the case as to why we should use social networking sites not only inside of organizations, but also why we should not block employees from accessing outside sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.)

Before we get to the topic of using Facebook and LinkedIn at work, I want to tell a story which was prompted by the comment yesterday from @LisaMeece108.  Hopefully this will give you one example of the many benefits of these social networking sites.

When I first joined Facebook I also joined my high school’s graduating class Group that one of my old classmates created.  From that point on, I felt I was inundated with friend requests.  Some were old friends I had lost contact with and I was excited I knew where they were.  Others, to be honest, I barely remember or had not even thought about since the “good ol’ days.” If I accepted their friend requests, their updates started showing up in my “stream.”  I started learning a lot about people I really didn’t know any more and I was skeptical about the value of these updates.

Fast forward to my beautiful cousin’s wedding.  We were living in Portland at the time and she was living in the area of our home town, a couple hours south.  At her wedding there were a number of people she worked with who came that I had graduated with – AND, I was ‘friends’ with on Facebook.

One particular person was Janice.  In high school we didn’t hang out together.  We knew each other and would talk every now and then, but we didn’t know each other very well at all.  She was a great person, we just hung around in different social circles.

When we met again for the first time in 20 years, we started off as if we were great friends.  We immediately launched into our families and the activities we are in – all because we saw each others’ updates and had a background – in reality, we were just picking up where we left off on Facebook.  Our visit skipped past the awkward “Hi, remember me from 20 years ago?” stage where we would have even less to talk about than we did in high school.  Instead, it was a very pleasant experience.  For me, it was very eye opening as to the potential power of  social networking.

Now, on to FB/LinkedIn at work…

It is my plight, but one that I willingly accept.  Most of my professional career has been spent alone.  I was hired by companies to do something that no one else in the company could do.  It was me and me alone who performed these functions as I evangelicize (is that word?), educate, try to get others to help me and take up the cause for which I have been hired.  There were not any peers to work with and bounce ideas off of. My learning and growth was limited to my personal education.  Although I feel I was good at what I did and knew more about it than anyone in the company, it was as if they were held hostage by my limited knowledge and skills.  Honestly, I felt badly, but could only give them what I knew, products of learning and experience, knowing that if I only knew more I could take them further.  “If only I had a team” I would cry to myself, “then we could learn from one another, bounce ideas back and forth and go beyond my limited nature.”

For this reason I became very active in different local associations of similar people.  From them I was able to learn new techniques, perspectives and skills.  Yet, this was still very limiting.  At most we only met once a month for about an hour.

Then came online social networking…

No longer did I need to wait until our monthly meeting.  NAY! I could throw away the shackles of time and geographic location!  Now, if I need to ask a question, I can now do it immediately, when I am in the moment working on that specific task.

For example, I am joined to a great group of peers through social networking – the E2.0 Adoption Council. None of them work at NASA.  They all work at different companies, yet we all do the same thing – we help large organizations (10K people +) implement what is termed “Enterprise 2.0.”  We are connected by a social networking site and by Yammer (which we will talk about next week).  If I have a question, I can post it to one of these places and get several answers and join in on great dialogue.  Their perspectives are unique and invaluable. And when they ask questions, I am there to share my experiences and thoughts, helping them. We don’t share confidential or proprietary information – they are all professionals.  If this network were blocked it would be to the detriment of the organization I am working for.

Even if I did have a team*, just think: I could be connected to tens, hundreds, even thousands of ‘peers’ with an infinite amount of experience is a FREE benefit to me and the organization.  I would have to be CRAZY to not allow my team to tap these resources.  Then why do some organizations?

Fear.  Fear that it will be abused.  Fear that employees will 1) waste time and 2) post inappropriate or confidential information in an open space.

You only have to go as far as the back of the cover jacket of the book Enterprise 2.0 by Andrew McAfee, the originator of the term and a leading expert and researcher of organizational use of these tools.  It says that the book will “reveal where the real risks and roadblocks are with Enterprise 2.0, and why most concerns are unfounded.”  Inside the book he states, “I have noticed an interesting pattern: before an organization begins an  Enterprise 2.0 effort, its leaders typically have a consistent set of concerns about the negative things that could happen.  But most of these issues are not real or serious risks… After an organization begins to deploy (E2.0), its leaders’ concerns often shift to one simple issue: How can we go faster” (p.145)?  Later he writes how he tries to collect horror stories of these fears incarnate, but  “…my collection is almost empty. I have yet to come across any true horror stories – scenarios that make me question whether the risks associated with deploying (E2.0) actually do outweigh the benefits” (p.146).  (BTW – go buy the book. Now.)

Is your organization not networking from within?  Why not?  If it is not, it is limiting the ability for employees to be more effective through networking.

To be fair, Facebook is not an E2.0 application.  E2.0 refers to using these tools inside organizations.  Yet we have to ask: Have employees put out information on Facebook that they should not have? Yes.  Does it happen often.  No.  Does the risk outweigh the potential benefit? Not even close. What is the stepping stone?  Simply: TRUST.  If you have it, you are on your way.  If you don’t, you won’t see these tools any time soon.

I could never be as effective as I am without this E2.0 group.  Period and without question.  There are a ton of professional Groups on Facebook and LinkedIn which bring together people who do what you do, who support each other.  Join one or two or three or more. Do more than join – get engaged in them.

If you are blessed enough to work for an organization which does not block Facebook or LinkedIn, take advantage of it to connect to peers – learn from them, share with them and become a more valuable employee.

* In reality, I do have a great team. But this team is not dedicated to my field of work.  They have their own responsibilities and E2.0 is only a part of what they do.  They have not done this before, and so they are learning and doing at the same time – and doing very well, I might add!

Tagged as: e2.0 Andrew McAfee, Facebook, LinkedIn, social media challenge, trust