Social Media at Work: How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE 183

Social technologies serve as a ‘‘marketplace’’ for the exchange

of information. In this market, the key medium of exchange is

knowledge, and the ‘‘wealthiest’’ traders are those organizations

that are using the knowledge to improve their products and

service offerings. Social technologies enable multiple simultane-

ous connections between groups of people, so that the potential

value of the network is not just n + n, but n

n

.

7

By capitalizing on

these connections and linkages in a virtual trading marketplace,

organizations can combine in multiple ways the various insights

provided by thought leaders.

•

Social media will facilitate participation in a broader

community. Formal organizational boundaries will continue to

blur, and new ones will become more defined by the organization’s

sense of community, rather than by its formal legal structures.

In the blurring of boundaries, we will all more clearly see that

we are each other’s customers. Organizations will begin to realize

that totally separating the internal from the external is a false

dichotomy. In other words, one cannot divorce the internal from

the external because internal uses and applications can drive

external results, and vice versa. A common misconception is

that an ‘‘organization’’ is a formal legal entity (a corporation,

a nonprofit, a government body). As discussed throughout this

book, many in the field of organization development tend to

take a broader view of organizations as (sociotechnical) systems.

We’ve advocated here for systems that are more open rather

than closed. The use of social media will help redefine traditional

views of organizations not as closed systems but as open entities

that participate in a larger ecosystem.

How Social Media Itself Will Change

We cannot foretell the future, but we do believe we can see

around the bend. Organizations all over the world are beginning

to integrate social media into everything they do, and this is

184 SOCIAL MEDIA AT WORK

changing the way large and small organizations accomplish their

goals. The use of social media is the next catalyst for huge change.

Consider the evolution of music from vinyl to cassette to 8-track

to CD to downloadable tunes. With the arrival of each new tool,

the music lover’s behaviors and norms shifted. We anticipate

that social media will yield the same transformational impact.

In the very near future, we will witness a continuous launch

of new forms of social media technologies. Their inherently

collaborative nature and the availability of open source software

will accelerate their improvement to meet the changing needs of

users. Here are just a few of the ways we see social media tools

evolving.

•

The variety and availability of social media will continue

to proliferate. Remember when cell phones hit the marketplace

years ago? One size fit all. Today we see cell phones and digital

recording media of every size, variety, color, and capacity. Over a

short period of time, social media has proliferated in type, reach,

and capacity. The options are abundant. We see this potpourri

of options continuing to grow exponentially as creative, tech-

savvy developers improve on existing tools and invent solutions

that meet our every need. Our thirst for helpful conveniences

will keep the innovations coming in a continuous spiral. Just

as ‘‘pervasive computing’’ spread in the late 1990s, social media

will be everywhere, in both developed and developing countries,

silently helping to transform our global socioeconomic landscape

and redistributing social, financial, and intellectual capital. Social

media will permeate everything we do—everywhere, all the time.

•

Users will demand simplicity. The bubble-up process we

described in Chapter Six is occurring globally, as organizations

are embarking on the exploration phase, experimenting with a

wide selection of tools to suit every need and preference. But indi-

viduals and organizations will eventually become overwhelmed

with choice, and people will demand more integration. Rather