Thinking About Social Media

One thing about Social Media is that new technologies claiming to be a new form of Socail Media are being introduced almost daily. To help determine if a new technology qualifies as Social Media or not, Li and Benoff (2008) in their book Groundswell created a list of questions to consider when determining if technology should be included as Knowledge Media.

Ask these questions when evaluating how effective a new piece of software will be in terms of enhancing the exchange of knowledge within an organization:

• Does it enable people to connect with each other in new ways?
  
• Is sign up effortless?
  
• Does it shift power from institutions to people (within the institutions)?
  
• Does the community generate enough content to sustain itself?
  
• Is it an open platform that invites partnership?

When considering implementing any new Social Media technology for learning, these questions should be considered and answered affirmatively for the Social Media implementation to be successful.

Also keep in mind that social media is being used by groups whom you’d never think would use social media because of security concerns or because you might think they are too “low tech” for social media. Not true, check out the list below:
These include:

• The United States Intelligence Community
  
• A major pharmacological company
  
• The United State’s FBI
  
• The US Department of State
  
• Kohl’s Stony Hill Tree Farm (yes, a tree farm goes high-tech, my favorite example and a great place to get a Christmas Tree)

So what is the excuse for your organization not using social media?