Social Media and the CIO

It may be a surprise to many that CIOs and CTOs have not been beating down the doors to adopt social media for their own use.

 

Some are even hesitant to adopt social media for use for their companies. Some of their hesitation is understandable. And some is not. To be fair, many of their counterparts in the C-Suite haven't been overly excited about joining in the fray either. 

 

But that is changing - slowly.

 

On the individual side, this time last year, you could almost count the number of CIOs actively using Twitter on your two hands. That's changed immensely in the past year, but still, we can't say the majority of CIOs have been early adopters here - although traditionally they ARE early adopters of technology - one reason they are in the field.

 

Let's look at some of the reasons, or excuses, I hear from CIOs for not utilizing social media:

 

"I'm way too busy for that."

"I don't care what people are having for lunch..."

"The Twitter GUI is the worst I've ever seen."

"I only use FB to keep up with family and friends. I don't want to mix up business with my private affairs."

"Privacy issues make me hesitant to get involved."

"LinkedIn is one big advertisement that I'm 'looking' - and I don't want to portray that image."

"The C-Suite doesn't blog or use social media."

 

I understand where you are coming from. I was there re: Twitter and Facebook - until a year or so ago. Although I'm not a techie (as some people mistakenly think), I've have ALWAYS been an early adopter of technology. Twitter and Facebook, however, those were another story for me...

 

I tiptoed in. Like many of my CIO clients, I just wasn't interested in what people had for lunch that day. Twitter just didn't appeal for that reason.

 

And Facebook - I didn't have time or inclination to get involved in 'friending' everyone, telling them all about my personal life and posting pictures to the world. Besides privacy issues were, and still are, rampant, and I have too many IT security experts as clients who warned me about those issues (the majority of which are true, of course.)

 

But mostly, it was a time issue. As if my life wasn't busy enough. I didn't even have the time to even find out if it was even worth the investment of time!

 

Then one day last year, I made the time to look into it. And all I can say is, I wished I had joined in sooner. And here's why:

 

Social Media is richer with content and conversation now:

• It's no longer a place alone for pajama-clad bloggers to spout off vitriolic political messages from their basement computer. They still do, of course, but the field is now much broader, richer, and fuller with more professional people sharing more intelligent content. I've learned so much from so many people in a short period of time. Smart and helpful conversations are going on you might want to be a part of.

Social Media doesn't have to be time-consuming:

• If time is an issue for you, as it is for so many of us, you can choose to use your time wisely in social media, just as you would anything else you decide to spend your time on. You can put a structure in place so that your time is well-used, not over-used, in social media.

User Interfaces for Twitter are more user-friendly now:   

• There are so many Interface options now, you don't have to use Twitter's GUI if you don't care to, you can use TweetDeck or Hootsuite, or other GUI for user-friendly dashboard approaches.

Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs are being used by companies, professionals AND executives:

• With the introduction of Fan Pages (or Business Pages), you can follow, and converse with, companies, executives and professionals of interest. It's not all about Aunt Suzy anymore. (Although, of course, you can still talk to Aunt Suzy on FB). And, of course, for your company or business you can set up your own business pages and talk directly - and often - with your prospects and clients.

• Twitter and Blogs are used as much as business platforms as personal platforms. They are also ideal for career, job search and executive influence. I'll talk about this more in my next post.

Privacy issues are being addressed, finally, by Facebook:

• You don't have to worry about being 'friended' by a business - most won't - and you can keep your private life separate from your professional life, especially if you've got the right privacy settings set (and if FB keeps the privacy holes closed, of course, but that's another post.)
• If you do have various types of people that you have friended, say colleagues, family and friends, you have the option to group them and keep messages relatively separate, if you want to.

LinkedIn has many more options than simply being a recruiting tool:

• With so many additions to LinkedIn's capabilities over the past couple of years, LinkedIn has become just as much as a solid networking, learning and enrichment tool, as it is a recruitment tool. Just because you have a solid profile on LinkedIn does NOT mean you are looking for a job, in fact there are no doubt many more passive candidates -those not looking - than active candidates in LinkedIn. Besides your boss is probably on there by now, so if you do not have a solid profile in LinkedIn yet, you should consider it strongly.

The bottom-line? Know that if you're not even tip-toeing in to see what social media is all about firsthand, you will find yourself way behind the curve ball - and that's not where you want to be.

Now...if you are a CIO, CTO, or other Senior Technology Executive, I invite you join your colleagues and me on Facebook at: The CIO Coach and on Twitter at: CIO_Coach - go on, join us today!

In my next post, I will address the benefits of using social media for your career and executive brand.

Comments

[zhang]

Love this new feature! love this page.

[Kim Batson]

Thank you, Zhang! Glad you like it. Best to you!

[Mona Samar]

Kim, you have made excellent observations about the explosion of Social Media and the necessity of joining the bandwagon, willingly or unwillingly, to stay on top in career or business. I myself eyed this change from the sidelines and have recently jumped in following experienced professionals like you. Great post.

[Kim Batson]

Well thank you Mona, so glad you've joined the bandwagon. Consistency is the key in my opinion (not necessarily volume of interactions, but consistent interactions across different platforms, eg. Twitter, FB, Linkedin). Having said that I need to post more often to this blog! :-)