Bottom's Up! The Art of Building Social Networks

A colleague of mine asked me this morning what social networking systems I could sell right off the shelf. He was preparing to meet with an organization that is keen on finding ways to connect with their membership, and they think that building a social network will do the trick. It's a very good idea, but one that hundreds of thousands of organizations around the world are doing....and failing at, largely because they simply buy 'off the shelf'.

Social networking is not a simple collection of interconnected applications, or even something you can buy off the shelf (don't tell NING that;-)). Social networking is a way of life. It truly is a paradigm shift that has seen the balance of power and control move from the top of the establishment to be dispersed and shared amongst all the individuals. Progress and success are shared by all, and ideas and solutions come from the 'bottom up'.

The goal now is 'how do I harness this power'. The fact is....you cannot! You have to attract it, and in order to engage with individuals it takes a true understanding of their needs, offering something others are not, building trust and being authentic. Taking 'Off the Shelf' social networking tools and throwing them at the membership does little more than reinforce the 'old ways', or in other words pounding down solutions from the top down.

There is no doubt that social networking and social media are the keys to success for any organization. Just look at what Cisco has done. They have converted themselves into a ‘socialist enterprise’.... with $26 billion in reserves! Check out Ellin McGill’s article in Fast Company’s e-magazine. This transformation took incredible cultural changes that were strategically and methodically implemented and supported fully by the leadership.

In an excerpt from the article, 'John Chambers, CEO of Cisco puts it this way, ‘"We want a culture where it is unacceptable not to share what you know," he says. So he promotes all kinds of social networking at Cisco: You can write a blog, upload a video, and tag your myriad strengths in the Facebook-style internal directory. "Everybody is an author now," he laughs. Blog posts are voted up based on their helpfulness. There are blogs about blogging and classes about holding classes -- all gauged to make it easy for less-engaged employees to get with the program.'

I’m not saying you have to go to the same extent as Cisco to transform your organization, however, recognizing the value of freedom of contribution and identifying ways that make it easier to collaborate and engage can have powerful outcomes....and it all starts from the Bottom Up.