Perspectives & Strategy

In my article “Don’t Set Aside the ROI in Building your Social Media Solution” a few days ago I was talking about the importance of building relationships and collaboration within the new and evolving Social Media. In reading my article a network connection suggested that I take a look at a recent article on The Global Human Capital Journal (GHCJ) called “Realizing Value from Social Networks: A Life Cycle Model“, which certainly contained some interesting points, none the least of which was the sub-heading “IOR Before ROI”

Obviously IOR (invest on relationships) is a play on words being the reverse of ROI and in reality, with the use of proper English, it should read Investment In Relationships, but we will keep with the theme here to allow poetic justice.

There is a clear value to be gained from improving collaboration within the workplace. Organisational Development experts have been encouraging corporations to be more collaborative during much of the past 30 years, and possibly longer. We have all made great steps to improve our teamwork particularly for those who work in a project environment, yet teamwork is only a small part of the collaborative environment which is possible today. Adding Social Media into the mix adds a whole new dimension, even if you just involve people within the workplace. We work with some amazing people and you never know what knowledge they possess. That knowledge when applied to a problemcan take the organisation forward in leaps and bounds.

It is possibly easier for a person who has spent his entire life in a project environment  to say this than it is for parts of the organisation that seem purely operational. Yet everyone has competencies they bring with them from their social life or prior workplace. GHCJ is right in saying that “Firms need to define their USPs and be honest: how many clients map closely to the USP?” and “How long does it take to find and develop a prospect with a unique buying need (UBN) that corresponds?” Of course we are in business to make money. But my proposition about Social Media is that we do need as a first step to expand our spheres of collaboration, as shown in the following diagram:

If we take one person we can look at their collaborative sphere as starting with themselves, they can expand that by working with another person. It can be further build through teams, out through their department to the company as a whole. Each step of this process is bringing in additional expertise. Ultimately our individual spheres of influence touch customers and suppliers, they may also touch various third party partners like haulage companies.

Each of the elements of this value sphere bring in distinct expertise and specialities and each helps one individual complete their job. This process happens with or without Social Media. Social Media is simply providing tools that can make this collaboration happen at the speed of the web.

Obviously this example provides a simplified corporate structure, but at the end of the day the model still holds true for a large multi-national corporation, there are simply more layers within the sphere of influence, yet we are still investing in relationships.