Maybe it's the New Year. Maybe it's
because I've been recently inspired by a number of great professionals (like
AT&T sharing what they are doing with their TSpace or hearing more about
LinkedIn and Google+ from IABC and The Exchange). Maybe it's just my dumb
optimism. But for sure, I am struck: 2012 is setting up to be THE transformational
year for business communicators.
Why now? Why not 2010 or 2011 (when it
seemed every month there was a new social tool to learn about?) because...
It's clear now a dozen social computing
tools have hit their tipping point. Like blogging,
wikis, polls, social networking, profile pages, blogs, RSS feeds, bookmarking,
and or photo/ video share. These are all now widely
recognized (even by CEOs and HRs). Can you even remember the last time
you had to explain what a blog was?
Secondly, many large companies have
deployed these tools, at least many that I
have connected with... Sure, adoption can be low and in many cases people don't
realize what they do and don't have available to them. But I think that's part
of the opportunity for 2012.
Third in 2012 smart businesses are
ready to evolve from the organic phase of exploration that has held
us for the last two years. In 2012, businesses need more
maturity, more precision in how social tools should be applied. The
trick will be to do it well.
Now its time for communicators and
business analysts to get down to what we are good at:
- understanding the business
- looking at how work happens through
processes
- seeing where & how different
stakeholders connect
The opportunity for 2012 is in helping our
businesses bravery redefine how work happens so that it is more fun, more satisfying and produces
better results by applying social media tools.
