Recently, Gartner posted a very provocative article on five social software predictions for 2010 and beyond. One of their predictions is through 2012 over 70% of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail. While this seems extreme, it highlights the need for a strong partnership between business and IT to make social media work. In that regard, social media is not different than BPM, data warehousing or business intelligence.
As we have built our social media platform our focus has been on communities, influencers, sites, topics and forums. The underlying technologies have not necessarily been an afterthought but social media strategy was conceived first. Technology options then helped us shape our final approach. In some cases the available technology enabled us to create more advanced tactics while in other cases technology was an impediment. For example, some technologies enabled us to post to multiple sites from one interface saving considerable time and reducing our error rate. On the other hand we needed help from IT to modify some network policies that prevent employees from visiting social media sites at work.
Processes are critical as well. It's easier to keep up with the volume and pace now that we have standard posting processes. Now, the most critical element is our agility and flexibility to incorporate new technologies, platforms, forums and elements into our integrated marketing approach. Google Buzz, Salesforce.com Chatter, it seems like everyone is getting into the game from a slightly different angle.
Our close partnership with the technology has been a real asset. It's been the "give and take" between the two that has really made it work.
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