Intranet managers who have to consider using social media and 2.0 features are in a similar situation as farmers who were considering whether to buy a tractor or not in the 1950’s.
Why should you? Is there anything you can not do without it? Is there any real advantage in having one?
Obviously not – there is nothing new in real life, you can do everything you want to do, everything works out. The tractor does not do anything different then what you can do with your horses or your cows.
My uncle’s uncle ran a big vegetable farm. In the 1950’s, he decided to buy a tractor. He did not even believe in that stuff, he just had some money left and a lot of people were saying that this was the new hot stuff.
The tractor was standing around idle for a while, then they started to use it.
- It did not get tired.
- It did not get ill, it did not need a vet.
- It was not that hard work to work with the tractor as it was to work with horses.
- They gained a lot of time using it.
- They earned extra money while also working on other people’s farms.
- They rented additional land from those who did not have a tractor and could not work it anyway.
- Now, they are still the biggest farmers around.
That’s pretty much how a social media success story in the enterprise could sound like:
- start small, out of curiosity
- notice your successes
- build on them
- enjoy your new powers and enlargen your projects, your social focus…
kbex 