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Social networking opportunities in the workplace
When the web emerged as a much faster alternative to find information than, say, paper-based archives, employers had no other choice than to provide their employees with access to this vast information network.
Spin doctored by the accountants and other flavors of bean counting nuts, employees started metering the time spent by employees online. That led to the enforcement of ridiculous “web access policies” which severely limited an employee’s options, when searching for information, online.
As such, while employers saw a drop in web access within the workforce, that was accompanied by waves of frustration, protest and a nasty combination of lower productivity and morale.
Once again, the bean counters had destroyed a model which wasn’t perfect but which had proved its merit.
Over time, smart bosses evolved from the backward thinking accounting logic to a progressive marketing logic where more windows to the world, if used to their full potential, mean many more opportunities for growth.
This is where social networking comes in.
Networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Orkut (to name only those) have changed the way people keep in touch.
Forget that afterhour lunch with the local chamber of commerce. In most cases, such gatherings now represent the epitome in unproductive use of one’s time. Hanging out at these meetings, luncheons and conferences serves little to no purpose, other than to blabber useless sales lines to generally untargeted “contacts” who, more often than not, simply throw away their stack of “acquired” business cards, after the event.
In other words, the world of human networking has changed and the companies which fail to look online for new leads risk missing out on all sorts of opportunities.
Employers who understand that finding motivated customers online is both faster and cheaper than in any other “traditional” way have unlocked all web access, including the much discussed social networks.
In the end, if companies focus on managing outcomes and goals rather than attempting to manage people’s time, everything feels more “natural” and the business can grow out of the severely limiting accounting rules which are designed to stiffle anything which thrives, instead of encouraging it.
Bosses with limited insight on how business happens will continue to downplay the importance of the web but these proverbial dinosaurs are being phased out and replaced with people who know one paying customer a day is better than ten “leads” which take forever to “convert” — if ever.
Tags: social networking, web access, online searches, e-business, e-commerce, doing business online, finding new customers online, networks of business people, chambers of commerce, meetings, e-meetings, social mixers, business cards
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