Have Marketing depts retarded Social Learning's growth in Orgs?

The Marketing angle on Social Media seems clearer to most than does the Learning angle I fight for. There has been more willingness for Marketing to expand social networking via Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Organizations launch into SM campaigns as a necessary evil …Social Media use by our potential customers is seen as an unfortunate reality, a consequence of Web 2.0. Social Media is something perceived as being out there, it’s the barbarian at the gate, it could be damaging therefore we must do something! So we reluctantly, cautiously PUSH organizations into social networking and the tools (Twitter, etc).

So with this perception of Social Media it’s difficult to encourage the same widespread tool use for learning within organizations. Here we have a chance to use the tools rather than the perceived having the tools use us.

If we did embrace these tools and approaches for learning we would be in effect pulling the tools in for the benefit of growing our people, increasing productivity, and increasing innovation…. Something we have left up to Training. Training however is not ALWAYS the means to learning … it is one way, however often overused and inappropriate. Learning is the goal not training, so if Social Media can be used to improve knowledge and performance than we need to do more with it today and stop leaning on the training crutch.

And for my next trick - I will control what you learn!

I've seen Lance Dublin present at ASTD and in several Webinars. He typically starts the same way ...telling us what we WON'T be learning today and inviting us to leave now so as to not waste time. Is this the non-objective? hmmm.... Regardless he is showing absolute respect for his participants by saying - if you have better things to do I'm not going to argue with you, go do them. No control, freedom to learn, freedom to leave.

The Harvard business review article on controlling brand in the era of Social Media http://bit.ly/sg6bs Stirred in me the same failed efforts in traditional training and development.

The illusion of control is just that an illusion. For example when we ask that all mobile devices be turned off in F2F training or side bar chat in a web-based training so the participants will listen/learn …who are we kidding? They turn them off but that doesn't mean the audience is now engaged and learning! People’s minds wander and if what you say or teach is not seen as valuable they find other “cognitive” activities to do…aka they check-out… the lights are on but nobody’s home.

We could save a hell of a lot of time on evaluations if we simply told everyone to keep cell phones and computers on; then simply monitor the room. If more people are surfing, then our efforts at training must be weak. Learn from this – build relevant training!

Traditional marketing can be seen also as an effort to control what is learned (about an organization by customers). Social Media tools are an amplifier. The fact is, if we welcome criticism and address it head-on and publicly we ultimately win because if we sincerely make corrections in our business and meet our “customer’s” needs, they will come back for the value, spread the word, and everyone wins. Social Media channels internally do the same - Let staff talk across regions. Surface the errors; take the criticisms head on and if they are valid don’t ignore and sweep them under the carpet, make efforts to improve.

Efforts to control or suppress waste time and waste money, and we ultimately lose our (external and internal) customers. This is the era of transparency, humility and collaboration. Organizations and Training departments must recognize this now or reap the consequences.

Twitter - my take

I just shared this with my CNY-ASTD special Interest group on the heels of an informal meeting last night on the topic. I though I'd toss it out to the world...nothing new here, mostly my ramblings on Twitter understandings...

1. Twitter vs.email: The perception often is that Twitter is 1:1 communication tool and that followers need to be responded to (this comes for years of electronic communication being monopolized by telephones and email). In reality Twitter is micro-blogging (140 characters) and as such people share (ideas, questions, insights, links, etc) and you read/respond if you want; completely optional. Blogging (and micro-blogging) is much like keeping a "public" diary but more and more blog authors are writing some powerful article-like posts that get shared on Twitter via links... So if you think that reading all and responding is a must - think again. Most likely you don't read every single article in your periodical subscriptions and as such you should have the expectation to read every tweet or blog post. Again, the knowledge flows on, dip in when you have time or need...

2. Followers vs. Friends: I think the term follow is not only more accurate for Twitter users its more sincere. We follow people's micro-posts or tweets and we can cease following anytime we feel the value is not there. I would hardly call any of the folks I follow on Twitter my friends as that to me is a term of endearment. I nibble at the little bread crumbs of information they leave before me ...hmmm, maybe the Twitter bird analogy has a new meaning?

3. Public vs. Private: Initially I set my "security" settings to Private and therefore only those following me saw my Tweets. This was good in that initially I was unsure of what would happen if I opened it up, better safe than sorry... What I discovered (for me anyway) was that I really shut myself off from building a network. My Tweets, regardless of value were not making that many connections and thus I was missing out on possibilities. Furthermore I put potential followers (folks that I might have wanted to follow as well) in the somewhat awkward position of gaining my permission to be followed... I must say that felt odd because I don't consider myself to be "all that" and that's how I began to see that setting - one that was setting me apart. Furthermore when I ventured into Thursday night #lrnchat sessions using Tweetchat my Tweets would not show in a public timeline (due to private setting) and I felt a bit handicapped as I was not seeing my own contribution in the flow of discussion.

4. Network - size matters: Drink from the fire hose or take on a steady drip? I prefer the drip. I somewhat keep my network in this breakdown - 90% professional 5% local info 2% humor 2% sports. By far I use Twitter to gather new knowledge that helps me do my job. I regularly visit my followers and purge any that have added less to what i need or want...don't need them clogging my pipeline. This is not to say they present worthless info. Its just that the info doesn't hold value for me.

5. Mobile Devices: I don't think Twitter would hold as much value for me without mobile application. Although I use Tweetdeck at work...my phone (a Blackberry) has an application called Twitterberry that I use to view my Twitter feed quite frequently. This really extends my involvement and useful during any down time. I see my down time as more "learning" time now. And because of Web access on my phone I can forward links to my "delicious" account for future review. If you don't have Web access but do have a text message plan you may want to consider using the SMS text feature which would allow tweets to appear on your phone as text messages.

CAUTION-make sure you have an unlimited texting plan...small network or not some folks are addicted to sharing!