Jeremiah Owyang of the Web Strategist discusses a few of the implications of the copious amounts of personal information that Generation Y publicly shares through social networks. Any open (as in anyone may join) community that serves business executives will face a major challenge managing these implications and the surrounding privacy issues. Most business executives need to be very careful about what information they share and who they share it with.
A community that services business executives will have more success as private community. Conventional wisdom says that bigger is better, especially when it comes to social networks and communities. A greater number of users, a higher the rate of utilization and a larger amount of user-generated content are all advantages of a large, freely accessibly community.
While there are certainly large advantages to an open community, a closed network has two advantages that will trump free networks for executives:
Safety
A closed network of executives is a safe zone for members to learn and share. No need to worry about members of the press or vendors that may act inappropriately with shared information. Executives may share related experience, comment on past projects, and even review the ideas of peers without worrying about misappropriation or misinterpretation of their comments.
True Peers
Restricting a community to qualified members ensures a set of true peers that share similar backgrounds, experiences, and challenges. Responses from true peers will be more relevant and reliable given shared experiences. True peers have been there before and can provide more accurate feedback. Additionally, the commonality of experience shared across the participants will establish mutual trust and stronger peer groups than may otherwise be possible with executives.
Management consulting information media firms (e.g. Gartner, Forrester, Corporate Executive Board) are uniquely positioned to deliver both of these factors. They’ve already built the subscriber base of qualified users—their clients. Simply by closing off access to the outside world, they can create a safe environment to exchange information beyond the walls of an executive’s firm.
{ 2 comments }
Thanks Ivana.
One of my challenges is communicating that to my executive stakeholders. They hear “social network” and immediately think “facebook, myspace, kids, predators…”
Furthermore, their decision making habits are already ingrained. They don’t think to turn to a community to help with decisions.
This is a really insightful post. I know so many “traditional” high level executives that might be more open to social media tools – if they could protect their privacy and their well-earned contacts.
Comments on this entry are closed.