Learning
about how to use social media depends on the reference point and
knowledge the learning is grounded in. Today the market seems consumed
in following what others are doing and creating “benchmarks” of what is
or isn’t working for the current market. While it may seem that this
is a good basis from which to learn it may in fact be the wrong basis
to build knowledge aimed at creating innovation. After all innovation
is something you create from knowledge and doesn’t usually come from
existing practices that others are following.
Business.com — the
Web’s leading ally for busy people interested in making more informed
and effective business purchasing decisions – unveiled results of its
2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study. Based on insights from
2,948 professionals across North America, the study provides extensive
information on how businesses and business people use social media in
the workplace.
Both companies and employees are scaling a massive learning curve with social media.
- The average company in this study was planning, developing or
running seven different social media initiatives; 65% of respondents
staffing those initiatives, and 71% of companies themselves, have less
than two years of experience with social media for business.
- Building brand awareness and brand reputation are two of the
top social media success metrics, but nearly two-thirds of companies
focused on these metrics have little to no insight into performance via
standard or easily accessible reports.
Notice this statement “the study provides extensive information on how businesses and business people use social media in the workplace. Both companies and employees are scaling a massive learning curve with social media”. Information
put into proper context can lead to knowledge. However information
about how businesses and people use social media today may not be the
right context if the aim is to go beyond today’s value proposition.
If the context of learning is based on what are current social media practices what will the market learn? The
market will learn what the crowd is currently doing rather than
knowledge of what an organization could and should do to stand out from
the crowd.
Where Do We Find Valuable Knowledge?
Information can lead to knowledge but information alone is not knowledge. Knowledge
is defined as (i) expertise, and skills acquired by a person through
experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of
a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts
and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience
of a fact or situation.
Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning, communication, association and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject with the ability to use it for a specific purpose.
Knowledge Management (KM) comprises a range of practices used in an organisation to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organisational processes or practice.
Knowledge Management efforts typically focus on organisational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, and continuous improvement of the organisation.
The Business.com report suggest “Building brand awareness and
brand reputation are two of the top social media success metrics, but
nearly two-thirds of companies focused on these metrics have little to
no insight into performance via standard or easily accessible reports.” Social media’s impact on an organizations brand awareness and reputation reflects the quality of the organization.
Just maybe businesses would be better served to gain the knowledge
necessary to understand and improve their organizational quality first
before that “quality” is exposed to the market via social media. What
would your organizational quality report look like?
Just an opinion, what is yours?