Should A Company’s Size Dictate Its Social Media Use?
Recently, I had a chance to talk about social media use with two very different companies—one with thousands of employees; one with 70. And, not surprisingly, they both had two very different agendas.
Tobi Lütke, CEO of e-commerce software startup Shopify, developed a Twitter-inspired tool called UNICORN that employees can use to communicate internally, collaborate on projects, and even recognize fellow coworkers by nominating them to receive cash bonuses. In other words, they used social media to create their own version of a bizzaro-SharePoint—a collaborative platform that actually empowers employees to collaborate.
During our discussion, Tobi said he didn’t think their solution would work at most other companies. That’s when I had to interrupt. Sans the funky name, most companies would be chomping (or champing) at the bit to have a similar platform.
On the flip side, most of the conversation during my session at Ethicon’s Marketing & Media Procurement Summit and BootCamp revolved around external social media usage (brand building, engaging with customers, etc.) and whether employees should be using Facebook or Twitter for their own personal purposes while they’re on company’s clock—all perfectly understandable.
When compared to Shopify, they seemed to be much more externally focused when it came to the role of social media.
And that’s what got me wondering--could a company like Ethicon benefit from a tool like UNICORN? And if they were able to successfully integrate the platform (and I realize that would be a big if given the size of the organization), would it completely change the way they do business?
For more information about Shopify’s UNICORN system, hop on over to my recent Fast Company post.
For more information on my presentation at Ethicon’s Marketing and Media Summit and BootCamp (including my slide deck), check out my blog for a handy dandy recap.
As a disclaimer, I use affiliate links for some of the products listed. They are all products I absolutely love and trust and would recommend regardless of whether they have an affiliate program.
[Image: Flickr user János Balázs]
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