Social Media is not everything for everybody and I have seen to often organizations start with social media while the prerequisites weren’t in place. Either if you roll it out internally or externally, it requires a certain level of maturity and a shift in mindset. Plus it only makes sense if you target audience (employees or customers) can handle social media (face it: not every can) and want the organisation on social media.

So saying no to social media can be the best thing for organisation otherwise it might kill itself while using social media. For example: why would you even want to think about customer interaction via social networking while you have a customer contact centre that is a complete failure or while your internal organization is loaded with politics and cannot even take the most simplest decision in less than two weeks?

Some CIOs know very good what is going on in their organization and why a ‘no’ to social media might be less harmful than a ‘yes’, that is not because they are ignorant, but because they can oversee the implications of their decision.

In ten years there will be still organizations that are not using social media. For the very simple reason because their stakeholders don’t have the need for it, because it doesn’t solve a thing for the organization nor the stakeholder. Therefore: first think if the organization will benefit of the use of social media, don’t call it a big mistake if an organization doesn;t start with social media, sometimes it is the best thing they can do.

I think, from having worked with C-suite folks over the past 15 years, the reticence often stems from having to ask the “business objectives” question and assuming that the business objectives aren’t going to be achieved through [insert new thingy here].

We’re all in the business of educating – I think your quadrants will definitely help those of us who are educating the C-suite to be able to figure out how best to start.

In terms of Trey’s question, there are two parts: the Twitter and CIO Dashboard and blogging. I have made some time each day to review specific Twitter searches for the #CIO tag and a few specific Tweeters. On the blogging side, it certainly take more time. I’ve tried to write 2 posts per week based on issues and questions I am getting from our clients and teams, which makes things a little easier since the topics are top of mind. Certainly don’t have it all figured out!

-Chris

One thing that may be of interest is how you have organized your life to include this communication and the analysis around it. We all know how busy the CIO is; finding additional time to blog would initially appear to be a drain of resource time. What are your thoughts?

One thing that may be of interest is how you have organized your life to include this communication and the analysis around it. We all know how busy the CIO is; finding additional time to blog would initially appear to be a drain of resource time. What are your thoughts?