Don’t get me wrong. I love hanging out with my social media buddies. They keep me informed and they are a ton of fun. Their enthusiasm and generosity has facilitated viral growth in the leisure time use of social media.
Unfortunately, their enthusiasm is not quite as infectious as one might hope. It appears that corporations in this country aren’t totally sold on social media. To be fair, they have made some progress — many of them now admit that they have heard of social media. But, what are they doing about it? Not much.
According to a recent AIIM report, while organizations seem to know more about how Enterprise 2.0 works and how it might be helpful in their organizations, it appears they are having trouble translating that knowledge into action. Apparently, only 25% of the corporations that participated in the study are actually deploying social media tools behind the firewall. To be fair, that is twice as many as last year. But it still is just a drop in the bucket and doesn’t constitute a workplace revolution.
But is the revolution happening elsewhere? It would be interesting to compare the performance of the private sector with that of the public sector. Is there anything to be learned from government social media use? According to recent reports, the Government 2.0 movement is definitely picking up steam. How does it compare to social media adoption by corporations?
Back in the private sector, social media advocates have to be honest about the slow adoption of Enterprise 2.0 (i.e., social media behind the firewall). Are we on the cusp of real change? Or is it still all talk and no action? There may be some clues in the rate of growth. If it continues to double annually, we should soon see a material change in the way corporations work. So here’s a question for social media advocates: what can we do to maintain (or even increase) that rate of growth?
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For more information on what’s happening with Government 2.0 in the U.S., see GovFresh. It offers “Gov 2.0 news, ideas and live feeds of official U.S. Government social media activity, all in one place.”
[Photo Credit: fatboyke]
Above and Beyond KM 
What I am seeing in my (global) organisation is that the tools are slowly being rolled out, but local divisions are not getting any focus on the tools with no local support. It's up to social media evangelists to ensure people are aware of the tools and how they might use them. Better than not getting any tools I guess./craig.
Craig -It's interesting to see how important the social media evangelists are. Itappears that this isn't exactly the grassroots movement we were led toexpect.- Mary
I'm surprised to see 25% have implemented an approved social media tool. I would have expected a much lower figure.
It sounds like you're a real Enterprise 2.0 skeptic! Why would you expect amuch lower figure?- Mary
Another issue I've observed in larger orgs is the establishment of several unconnected e2.0 projects operating in isolation. This demonstrates a real interest in the concept, even if a bit uncoordinated.
Paul -This is actually a great development. It demonstrates the value of thetools in the context of your organization. Suddenly, it just isn'ttheoretical any more. You now have data on how it works for people youknow.Over time, management will undoubtedly try to coordinate these efforts. Butit's important not to try to do this too early at the risk of squelching thegrassroots efforts that are so critical to Enterprise 2.0 success.- Mary
Paul -This is actually a great development. It demonstrates the value of thetools in the context of your organization. Suddenly, it just isn'ttheoretical any more. You now have data on how it works for people youknow.Over time, management will undoubtedly try to coordinate these efforts. Butit's important not to try to do this too early at the risk of squelching thegrassroots efforts that are so critical to Enterprise 2.0 success.- Mary