The 3 Stages to Becoming a Social Media Enabled Organization

When social media “works”, it changes how an organization is governed, how people work together, how employees approach their jobs.  How do organizations achieve the necessary change?  How do they evolve? 

Most organizations already have functioning, and often successful, business models when they begin to consider social media.  Employees have roles and responsibilities that are defined and on which they are measured.  How do “old-line” companies shift their operating style?  Creating the new environment takes time and intent.

I have found that most organizations go through 3 stages of transition, evolving from their established cultures and structures to more open, engaged, “social media” organizations over time.  Companies start with limited experiments (like single seeds in pots), expand to larger and more formalized efforts (plots with rows and cultivation plans) to engaging a whole plantation (end-to-end enterprise changes).

·        Pots – This is the first stage, when organizations test and learn, experimenting with diverse and separate initiatives.  Everything is contained in a separate pot.  Investment requirements are low.  The focus is on distinct activities – a Facebook page, a live chat on-line support function, a blog…  What seems to fit best with the organization?  What drives results? 

·        Plots – At this stage, the new activities that individually fit best begin to be accepted, and management begins to include them in broader planning.  Formalized structures and processes, along with increased investment, begin to take hold.  Culture change becomes more deliberate through new hires, employee training, and shifts in roles and responsibilities. Performance measurement begins to include “social media” factors such as buzz and the impact of ambassadors. 

·        Plantations –Social media activities and thinking are integrated into the core business and aligned with the strategy; the organization has reinvented itself without losing the essentials of its business.  Social and digital media are no longer distinct from the overall strategy.  The entire plantation has evolved to a new way of operating.

Companies can and do change.   Test and Learn.  Formalize and Change.  Integrate and Reinvent.