Glenn Beck on social media.

This morning on the Glenn Beck show they were discussing the popular Linkedin.com web site. I thought the criticism is or was somewhat valid. If you click on a link to help a person out you are set up with a default profile. Once the profile is active you are pestered into participating. Plus it is not easy to get out of the site and even close the account.

With social media I do believe that it does help people interact better. However if you have a group of auto mechanics for example that are given this access.. I don't believe you will see the results that you want. The type of job of the non-desk bound person is not going to like to take extra time from existing paid tasks to enter a post for others. Electronic processes are not always viewed the same to the non techie person.

This also brings up some other points of social media in the work place. Is my responsibility to do my job or to educate my coworkers?

Is my responsibility to really type in a daily status report? Sure in some instances people want to know you are making progress on the project. So time reporting, status reports are a nature of the business of good project management.

Educating my coworkers or giving my opinions on current product lines is suspect by the employer. At least the employer is not going to take too kindly the idea that you think the development path stinks. I used to present little tricks that I had learned to help my coworkers. That didn't really bring any thanks but I was trying to share my true experiences.

I also tried to add value to a product a social media program under development. The Vice President of the development of the product just trashed my idea. My idea was to add real value for people participating in social media. Have them maintain their check list of reminders in social media. Have them maintain their contacts in social media. Then the company will own the contacts as they should be owned in a sales situation. My idea was to help the typical person live in the social media site and have them get something back.

Facebook allows you to talk and interact with people you know. LinkedIn helps people gather in the industry that you might be employed in or interested in. Where is the true pay back for using a social media site in a business environment? Do you just structure the thing as a water cooler and a file repository? Is the company truly getting the benefit of the technology beyond email for all the employees?

I can remember a boss of mine years ago that mentioned - "You can send me email. I will not check it." The payback was too slim for him in the late 1990s. I did not think to ask him when I saw him in the American Airlines lounge about a half a year ago how this policy works for him now.