Question of the Week October 9, 2009
Posted by Meg Sewell in question of the week.Tags: facebook, Inovis Education Services, LinkedIn, Robert Cannon, Social Media, Twitter
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Over on the Inovis Linkedin group, Robert Cannon of the Inovis Education Services Team has posed an interesting question on resistance to social media in the workplace. Robert writes:
I attended a conference session recently on “Resistance to Social Networking”. The facilitator of the session presented several reasons why companies and their employees might resist the newly popular social networking- LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
After reflecting back on this session, I had a couple of thoughts:
1. Perhaps resistance has to do with the word “social”. We are not supposed to be socializing at work – we should be working – being productive.
2. Social networking has been around for a long time – for example, before all the technology to facilitate social networking we had “water cooler” chats – very social networking. Some companies have smoking areas where a lot of social networking occurs. Many companies have user groups that network via the internet or email.
So I came to the conclusion that perhaps it is the technology that people resist rather than the concept of social networking. We older folks have had so much technology to learn and master in our work history that it seems overwhelming at times. I just don’t want to master any more gadgets! It was hard enough mastering the computer and email.
Why do you think there is resistance to social media in the workplace?
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I think the resistance is to ’social’, not the technology. Yes, people used to meet at the water cooler, but you could control that more easily than you can somebody spending an hour on Twitter. And don’t forget the people use to get real breaks and eat lunch somewhere other than their desks. The current climate is that you are at work to work and to do nothing else.
David,
I always enjoy your opinions both on LinkedIn and here because you never fail to provide a different perspective. Despite the fact that lots of great business networking and collaboration occurs through social media, you are absolutely right that most organizations view these sites as ‘time wasters.’
Do you personally think that this attitude will eventually change or in the end be the downfall of professional social media?
Back in the water cooler days you could have put guard dogs where the cups were and people would have just brought dog biscuits.
People are social creatures and they are going to find a way to express that. I’m embarassed to admit this but every morning one of the first things I do is check Twitter to see what ‘Running with Tweezers’ and ‘Carrots ‘N’ Cake’ are up to.
I don’t know if professional social sites liked Linked In will survive. I think they are still searching for how to make themselves relevant and a lot of people like myself are waiting to see. I got on Fast Pitch a couple of months ago but probably won’t continue. I just don’t see the benefit.
In the final analysis, I wonder if a lot of people in the business world really aren’t that interested in talking to someone about their job. I mean for most business people it’s a job, not the realization of a dream. The people I know in the social fields (health care, social work, etc.) seem to do a lot more social media stuff at work than business people do.