Social Media-The Human Factor

Having read literally thousands of articles, blogs, opinions, comments, several books on Social Media and had many face to face conversations on the topic I recently began to think more in depth about the human factor in using Social Media in Organizations. This may seem like an obvious aspect to think about yet when I review everything so far one thing becomes clear, most of the information talks about how to use the tools, how to apply the tools to further your business, how one should think, behave, brand and represent yourself and your organization in the realm of Social Media networks. In other words like so many introductions to change, it is all about how, what and why you ‘should’ use Social Media but largely skims over personal preferences in how we interact with others and how we learn and teach.

Information that discusses Social Media purely from the human perspective is almost non-existent. So, what do I mean by the human perspective (factor)? Essentially it is the same perspective that often gets too little attention in any change in organizations, knowing how and why one should adopt the change is rarely the problem when people fail to do so. People don’t adopt some changes because despite being ‘told’ why they should, they are not able to see any real benefit in their day to day work life. Some bloggers have suggested that adoption of Social Media tools is a generational issue, but it isn’t, it is a preference issue which crosses all generational groups.

Perhaps the collaborative, relationship building aspect of Social Media use has created a new imperative for organizations to pay attention to the human perspective when adopting new technology. If the people in your organization do not see the real benefits of using the tools in successfully reaching their goals they are not going to use them. If the people in your organization do understand the potential for using the tools to share and gain knowledge regarding their jobs they might half-heartedly use them once in awhile, but they will choose the face-to-face option more often, because that is their personal preference. You can inundate people with the whys and musts of using Social Media, much like organizational leaders do with any change they introduce, but can you change their personal preferences?

The answer is likely, ‘to some degree’, you will not change personal preferences but you may be able to engage them in some useful adoption of Social Media if you offer opportunities and uses that provide an actual benefit that makes sense to them. Leaders in organizations can also maintain some important balance in the adoption of Social Media tools in the organization by listening to and employing the perspectives of those who prefer face to face interactions. Social Media means we have expanded our ability to build new relationships in new ways but it is important to maintain face to face interactions as these interactions remain a very valuable means of keeping strong communities going. Face to face interactions can also be more efficient – if you have ever found yourself engaged in an endless email string that could have been resolved in a short 5 minute face to face conversation you know what I mean.

What personal preferences affect your decisions as to whether you will enthusiastically embrace social media tools in your day to day work life, reluctantly and half-heartedly try it out because you keep hearing you ‘should’ or avoid it as much as possible? Does all the rhetoric about Social Media simply turn you off? Have you tried some tools and simply disliked the forum?