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Top 5 Social Media Myths

by Matthew Hodgson

September 20, 2009 at 2:42 am · Filed under Talent Management, Web 2.0, social media, social tools

Social media holds great advantages, whether for improving internal collaboration, communication and social learning, or for building and enhancing trust through more responsive communications with key stakeholders and clients. Unfortunately, some organisations still hold onto a number of fears that hold them back from utilising these tools:

1. Employees will waste time

Fear: Employees will waste time regardless of whether social computing tools are available to them or not.
Fact: Research from MIT notes that 40% of employees productivity is directly explained by the amoung of communication they have with others to discover, gather and internalise information. Employees with the most extensive digital networks are 7% more productive than their colleagues. [1]

2. Social media is for kids

Fear: Social media is used by a lot of kids, therefore it is only a toy and not to be taken seriously for assessment as a business tool.
Fact: Use of internet technologies has its highest penetration rates in the 15-17 y.o. demographic — 83.9% in Australia. The next highest usage is by 35-44 y.o.’s with 74.1% penetration, followed by 18-24 at 72.8% and 25-34 at 71%. Overall, 76% of Australian adults use social media at least monthly [2]. Age demographics from the world’s hottest social media platforms also support this finding.Overall, the use of Web 2.0 technologies internationally has grown rapidly in the last few years with an increase in from approximately 0.5 billion to 0.67 billion participants between 2007 and 2008. Research by Nielsen in 2009 [3] showed that use of Web 2.0 websites is now more popular than email with an estimated growth three times as fast as the pace of general online growth. Importantly, the survey shows that rather than the province of the young, the biggest increase in use of Web 2.0 websites in 2009 comes from the 35-49 year old age group – an increase in 11.3 million people.The highlights from Nielsen’s report:

Global share of time accounted for by people using social media increased by 38%.

Men and women aged 65 and above moving to social media websites grew by 7 per cent

The 17-and-under category dropped by 9 per cent

3. We will lose control to the ’nutters’

Fear: If allowed to interact freely online, people will post spam and abuse online forums
Fact: In the wiki forum FutureMelbourne, the Melbourne city council in Australia engaged citizens to discern their view of the city in order to contribute to planning for the future. Their results may surprise some:

“We received over 7000 individual visits to the site and several hundred edits to the plan by members of the public. Not a single instance of spam, offensive or off-topic content was recorded during the consultation period. We employed a process of direct community management, directly engaging with citizens as edits were made, answering questions, referring them to the appropriate area of expertise or correcting formatting errors should they occur.” [4]

Developing a clear social media strategy and plan is the best way to achieve success. Rather than automatically implementing a program on the four major social media avenues — blogs, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn — it’s important to first step back and see what makes sense to reach your stakeholders and customers. Ultimately, because social media is about relationships, it is important to thoroughly understand what matters to them, rather than what is easiest for you.

In the end, having good, simple, and easy-to-understand policies for managing online communities with dedicated, trained people, is key to ensuring control remains with you. The policy should also encompass how your employees should interact with clients. If everything has to be vetted by legal and corporate comms, though, before a conversation can take place, though, you’ll be dooming the venture before it begins.

4. Social media is a security risk

Fear: Employees will share the organisations IP or say something that could land the company in legal trouble if they depart from their traditional editorial control processes. A study from Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law finds that 81% of companies believe social media is a corporate security risk. As a result, many organisations place a blanket ban on all social media platforms.
Fact: [find the WW2 posters]Despite this fear from corporate heads, the study also found that 69 percent of those surveyed said they did not have a written social media policy in place. Of this group, 25 percent said they were unsure what the policy should include while 9 percent said it was unimportant.

5. There is no clear ROI

Fear: What we’ve done has worked til now, there’s no reason to change!
Fact: With Baby Boomers about to retire from the workforce that leaves Gen-Xs to move into senior management and Gen-Ys into positions of power. One thing we know for certain about these later two demographics is that they’re very technology literate. This, of course, has its consequences for the workplace and how organisations communicate with their stakeholders.The importance of the adoption of these tools within organisations is highlighted by a Telindus survey of more than 1,000 European office workers. The survey found that employees have begun to expect that the Web 2.0 tools they use at home will now be available in their workplace:
- 39% of 18 to 24 year-olds would consider leaving if they were not allowed to access sites like Facebook and YouTube
- A further 21% indicated that they would feel ‘annoyed’ by such a ban
- The problem is less acute with 25 to 65 year-olds, of whom just 16% would consider leaving and 13% would be annoyed

These expectations are generated because individuals use these tools in their personal lives to help them process data effectively and reduce information overload [5]. This need is all the more important in a work context, therefore, where business silos and network drives make it all the more difficult to share knowledge, communicate information, and collaborate. Web 2.0 tools can help essentially because they are designed to enable people to collaborate more efficiently, preserve and share corporate knowledge, and thereby reduce expenses.

No ROI? What price do you put on keeping your workforce?

Proceeding from fear to managing these aspects of social computing as risks is the obvious next step.

- – - -

1. Bulleit, B. 2006. Effectively managing team conflict. Cary, NC: Global Knowledge Training LLC

2. Analysis of ABS cat no. 8146.0 and ABS cat no. 3201.0

3. The Nielsen Company, 2009. Social networks & blogs now 4th most popular online activity, ahead of personal email, News Release. New York, NY. 9 March.

4. Dale Bowerman comments to Atkins, D. 2008. Using a Wiki to Improve Town Governance, 9 Jan. Online at: blog.davewrites.com/index.php/2008/01/09/using_a_wiki_to_improve_town_governance#c886

5. Robert Half Technology, 2009. CIOs Weigh in on most popular communication tools at work, 7 Aug. Online at: http://www.roberthalftechnology.com/portal/site/rht-us/menuitem.8e8f9ba1fb1aaad656932a0202f3dfa0/?vgnextoid=368b9926053d8010VgnVCM1000002d3ffd0aRCRD&javax.portlet.prp_392cb099d6a955fd8bbe7a8902f3dfa0_request_type=RenderPressRelease&javax.portlet.prp_392cb099d6a955fd8bbe7a8902f3dfa0_releaseId=2301

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[...] de social media fans onder ons, het artikel Top 5 Social Media Myths is een absolute must-read. En altijd handig om bij de hand te hebben om een scepticus te debunken. [...]

Hey Matt
Excellent article, and one that CEO’s of all walks should be reading. problem is, it may well be their own fear that is most holding the space back. The Social Media Space will continue to evolve with or without Corporate Approval

It seems that many CEOs or high level executives are fearful of social media because they don’t want to seem that they don’t understand it, so they pretend that they do, when they really don’t.

it is amazing that once what social media is, and a demonstration o f some good use and bad use case studies are explained, how quickly their views change.

All that needs to happen is a better education from those who do understand it, and the fog will begin to lift.

[...] wordt gebruikt door kids tussen de 8 en 14 jaar. Op dat moment wil ik graag de verwijzen naar de top 5 social media myths en de leeftijdsopbouw van Hyves volgens Ernst & Young. Volgens het laatste onderzoek is 51% van [...]

[...] Top 5 Social Media Myths | The AppGap – 5 idées reçues sur les réseaux sociaux [...]

This is great information to forward on to my clients who are still wary of jumping into the Social Media pool with a splash. Seems most are apprehensive because they think they will lose ‘control’ over their marketing message. To expound on Matt’s comment above, Social Media is happening, with or without you.

I would have liked more meat on myth 4 ‘ Social Media is a Security Risk’ as this is the key issue in my organisation. All the other myths had useful facts to counter with but this one was particularly weak and in many ways is the most important issue of all facing corporates.

[...] Top 5 Social Media Myths | The AppGap – 5 idées reçues sur les réseaux sociaux [...]

This is a great article that I can send not only to my managers but also to my colleagues at senior levels in the company who have these views. I am educating myself in the use of the social media so that we can better use them to our advantage.

Great information! I agree with Anthony – I would have liked to see more on myth #4 – Social Media is a Security Risk.

It will be interesting to see how things evolve as Gen X & Y take over for the Baby Boomers…and yes, I agree, social media will continue to evolve whether corporations join in or not!!

[...] this anarchic new world is perhaps understandable, and common in organisiations. I happened upon this interesting blog post about the “top five social media myths”, actually about the top five fears [...]

RT @alumnifutures: A good look at “top 5 social media myths” http://ow.ly/qGI4

Great article debunking Social Media Myths – follows conversation @ #Melcrum Social Media Workshop yesterday http://tinyurl.com/lxqf5s

You can’t stop the net, friends. Only going to become more integrated with our lives. http://bit.ly/g2HJx

RT @GeoffTinUK Great article debunking Social Media Myths – follows conversation @ #Melcrum SM w/shop yesterday http://tinyurl.com/lxqf5s

RT @GeoffTinUK Great article debunking Social Media Myths-follows conversation @ #Melcrum Soc Media Workshop yest http://tinyurl.com/lxqf5s

RT @GWPStudio: Great Tweet –> Top 5 Social Media Myths : http://bit.ly/11Q3ZF (via @suburbview)

RT @GWPStudioGreat Tweet –> Top 5 Social Media Myths : http://bit.ly/11Q3ZF (via @suburbview)

Great Tweet –> Top 5 Social Media Myths : http://bit.ly/11Q3ZF (via @suburbview) (via @GWPStudio)

RT @alumnifutures: A good look at “top 5 social media myths” http://ow.ly/qGI4

Thx to @braddo for this: Top 5 Social Media Myths. Of interest to #gomedia crowd: http://ow.ly/qUCX

RT @theseboots: Thx to @braddo for this: Top 5 Social Media Myths. Of interest to #gomedia crowd: http://ow.ly/qUCX

RT @TrendTracker Top 5 social media myths http://bit.ly/11Q3ZF RT @evolutionfiles @suburbview [good stats]

Top 5 Social Media Myths | The AppGap: The AppGap: group blog on the future of the office and work. http://bit.ly/TieiX

RT @GWPStudio Great Tweet –>Top 5 Social Media Myths : http://bit.ly/11Q3ZF (via @suburbview)

RT @suburbview Top 5 Social Media Myths : http://bit.ly/11Q3ZF – some excellent stats re: the Social Media in the workplace.

RT @imaginedpm: RT @suburbview Top 5 Social Media Myths : http://bit.ly/11Q3ZF – some excellent stats re: the Social Media in the workplace.

RT @suburbview Top 5 Social Media Myths : http://bit.ly/11Q3ZF ( via @relevance )

@alicia_anderson Let your boss know it can make you 7% more productive than your colleagues =) http://bit.ly/2IQOb

RT @Cataphora 5 myths about #socialmedia for business http://bit.ly/4yRu7k (via @sitruc)

RT @complexd: RT @Cataphora: RJ 5 myths about #socialmedia for business http://bit.ly/4yRu7k

Top 5 Social Media myths. If you think staff are wasting time on social media -http://tinyurl.com/lxqf5s

Top 5 Social Media myths. If you think staff are wasting time on social media -http://tinyurl.com/lxqf5s (via @NetBizStrategy)

RT@Harvard:Top 5 Social Media myths.If you think staff are wasting time on social media -http://tinyurl.com/lxqf5s (via @NetBizStrat.) #yam

RT @markgr: RT @alumnifutures A good look at “top 5 social media myths” http://ow.ly/qGI4

@magia3e AppGap post Top 5 Social Media Myths http://bit.ly/26×7Ox Addresses time wasting, for kids, losing control, security & ROI concerns

Top 5 Social Media Myths – You will be surprised! Much more good than bad. http://bit.ly/g2HJx

@modelthinker @thetappingman Employees with the most extensive digital networks are 7% more productive than colleagues http://bit.ly/2IQOb

@Yammer Thanks for link showing empoyees more productive with more digital networks http://bit.ly/2IQOb

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