Why are so many CIOs stumped by social?
- Details
- Written by Dave Carey
In a recent Forbes article, Oracle Corp. Senior VP Communications, Bob Evans, ranked “Lead the Social Revolution: Drive the Social-enabled Enterprise” number two on his list of “The Top Ten Strategic Issues for CIOs in 2013”.
Evans is right about social being strategically important and he’s right again in asserting that “CIOs who fight this trend will be pushed aside by CMOs and LOB heads who understand social’s potential and know they can’t compete unless that potential is harnessed by the company for competitive advantage”.
Surprising, then, that a lot of CIOs find social media about as appealing as a colonoscopy. They know there’s value in it but the mere thought of it causes a vicelike clenching of the butt cheeks.
Even something as simple as blogging is anathema to many CIOs. Granted, many do not have the time to blog, but there are plenty that do and simply choose not to. Those in the latter group are depriving themselves of an effective tool for communicating internally with IT staff and users, and externally with other CIOs, industry experts and possibly even customers.
Another social tool remarkably underutilized by CIOs is Twitter. Lots of great content for IT executives – not to mention a wealth of feedback on their companies from a wide variety of sources, including past, present and potential customers – is floating around the Twitterverse. Yet CIOs with Twitter accounts are as rare as Republicans at an Occupy Wall Street rally.
In a recent Huffington Post article, Vala Afshar, CMO and Chief Customer Officer of Enterasys Networks, listed his picks for the top 100 business, leadership and technology must-follow Twitter accounts. On seeing that list, SAP’s social savvy CIO Oliver Bussmann (Twitter: @SAPCIO) noted that not a single CIO appeared on it. That speaks volumes on the lack of uptake of this important tool by IT executives, who many would argue should be leaders in the social media space, especially when it focuses on technology.
Some CIOs even shun LinkedIn, probably the best networking tool for business professionals, and a place where various groups of CIOs exchange valuable insights and information.
If CIOs eschew the use of social media tools themselves, how will they have the savvy to turn social into competitive advantage for their organizations – or to prevent it from becoming a competitive disadvantage?
I suspect many CIOs shun social media for business purposes simply because it’s not on their personal radar, they’re not comfortable with it, and they’re not all that familiar with many of the popular social media offerings.
If that’s the case, they should borrow a page from Helen Polatajko’s book. Helen, the former SVP and CIO of CIBC Mellon, shared some of her tactics around social with a group of CIOs at one of The IT Media Groups private Master Series roundtables.
Helen would gather some of the company’s best and brightest young people together for an informal gab session around social media and other trends gaining popularity with millennials. She’d pick their brains and ask them to educate her on what was happening in the social space, ensuring that she stayed on top of key emerging trends. Who better to ask about social than the ones that have grown up with it and made it an indispensible part of their lives?
If you’re one of those CIOs who is socially challenged, it’s time to take a deep breath, unclench those cheeks and let social have its way with you.
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