The most famous story of a split personality was written by
Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. Called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it was for its time, a shocking description of what happens to a respected (but repressed) citizen named Dr. Jekyll who drinks a strange potion that causes him to lose his inhibitions and turn into unpredictable and evil Mr. Hyde.
This story often comes to mind when discussing "Corporate Social Media" with corporate clients because many organizations have developed a split personality when it comes to using social media. At work, organizational pressures force most channel managers to behave like conservative and old-fashioned Dr. Jekyll. They are discouraged by corporate firewalls and sometimes the direct orders of their executives regarding the use of social media to achieve business objectives. Then, from a corporate perspective, these same people can quickly turn into a communications Mr. Hyde when they have a little free time and access to their own personal computer or high-tech cell phone.
Recently, I met a friend for lunch. She is a channel marketing executive at a big (really big) technology company. My first question when I was sitting in a company conference room was "Do you guys use social media to communicate with resellers?" Her answer, “Not really. Most sites like Facebook and Twitter are blocked and I don’t have time to stay current on all the most popular business sites myself.” She went on, “The marketing department hired an agency to post some comments and start some discussions – just to have some visibility in social media. But there aren’t any company initiatives or anything to move our channel partners forward on this.”
We eventually went to a local restaurant and talked about her experiences with Twitter. When she has free time, she uses her phone to tweet as often as possible. Then the conversation turned to LinkedIn, and how her profile would have to look if she has to get a new job. She gave me the link to what she described as incredibly useful blog on channel issues. We also talked about Whole Foods on Twitter and Domino’s Pizza on YouTube and so forth. It was all about her using social media at home, at Starbucks, and everywhere else she had access.
We returned to the office and went back to the conference room to talk about channel strategy. We discussed new marketing programs, leads, promotions, training, advertising and all the traditional things companies do with their channel. But she did not want to talk about social media or trying to find new ways to market her company’s products to resellers or their customers through the social web. She didn’t think her company was ready for it.
Over lunch my friend was a social media enthusiast, had great ideas and talked about several ways that social media was enhancing her life . From a traditional viewpoint, she was an uncontrolled and energetic Mr. Hyde. However, as soon as we re-entered the corporate office, this channel manager became an uninspired Dr. Jekyll and reverted to the same old channel thinking of the past ten years.
There are a lot of companies that are wary of social media and are trying hard to maintain Dr. Jekyll standards of communications. They say their company is not ready for social media, and besides they don’t see the business value. The truth is that these organizations are made up of people – and today these people read blogs, connect in social networks, find jobs on LinkedIn, check YouTube for the latest sensation, and tweet just for the novelty of it.
But they are not yet connected to their customers or even to their best partners through the social web.
In the end of the book, Dr. Jekyll kills himself to make sure that the evil Mr. Hyde does not do any more damage to society. Probably, the social media story is going to end the same way. Some companies are going to damage themselves by trying to maintain the status quo while their employees, resellers, and customers move into the future. Human behavior has apparently not changed a lot since 1886.
Mike Dubrall is Managing Director of Gilwell Group, a consulting company that specializes in “Channels of the Future” research. He is a regular blogger in the Integrated mar.com Partner Manager Community and his own “Channels of the Future blog is at http://www.gilwellgroup.com/. Join the LinkedIn Channels of the Future Community.
Major contributions to this blog came from Axel Schultze, founder of the Social Media Academy, Chairman of Xeequa Corp. , and author of Channel Excellence. @AxelS & @MikeDubrall
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