Secret Guide to Social Media in Large Organizations
20March 15, 2008 by Colin
Well, I’ve finished work on it. A handy little guide for exploring the world of social media and building support for social media in a large organization.
I think the advice in this 23 page guide to secretly implementing social media in organizations could be equally useful for any government employee looking to try out new technologies – I’m pretty certain on that point, since I’m a government employee in real life.
You can find the guide at this link, and please feel free to share it with your friends, colleagues and bosses.
Here’s an excerpt, from the introduction:
How do you do it? How do you bring a spirit of innovation and experimentation to the communications shop of a large organization?
I’ve worked in a large organization – the government – for the last ten years. You can find bright, creative and resourceful people around every corner, in every department.
During the course of their careers, many of these people have thought of a move that could improve their work or their environment.
From experience, we all know that small changes in process or presentation are easily won. After all, it’s just another line on an approval sheet, or a tweak on the website.
Large organizations can also be convinced to launch a large-scale overhaul of their systems – whether it’s a supply chain, assembly process or online order system.
But it’s a real pain to get them to rethink their relationship with humans outside the security fence. After all, our customer service reps seem to be doing a good job, right? That sales force really does have a handle on the needs of the community, doesn’t it?
In speaking to hundreds of workers and managers for large organizations (government and private sector), I’ve been asked the same questions, over and over:
• How do you convince your boss to even experiment with social media?
• Doesn’t it mean a lot of extra work?
• Isn’t this sort of stuff blocked by our organizational policies?This Secret Underground Guide to Social Media for Organizations is meant to help you answer some of those questions.
[tags] guide to social media, instruction, dummies guide, introduction, organizations, government [/tags]
[...] Canuckflack / Secret Guide to Social Media in Large Organizations Colin McKay’s excellent intro to social media in a handy ebook format! (tags: social+media guide ebooks) [...]
Great ebook! I just read it in it’s entirety & was pleasantly surprised to see my blog referenced at the end. Thanks so much!
I will link to it from my blog & also at the Comm Mgrs FB group. Thanks for providing such a great resource!
[...] 17, 2008 Guide to Social Media for Organisations Posted by Shane McCracken under blogging, promotional resources Colin McKay, a CanadianGovernment communicator and blogger and social media pioneer extraordinaire, has written The Secret Underground Guide to Social Media for Organisations. It is not a technical guide. More a cultural, managerial guide to avoid the roadblocks set by IT and legal departments. Colin has blogged about it himself. At 23 pages it is a quick and enjoyable read. [...]
[...] See Colin’s blog for his introduction. [...]
Secret Underground Guide to Social Media in Large Organizations…
You may have been asking yourself, Sure, a blog is great for my knitting friends and Twitter seems to work for my neighbour who has a small bike-repair business – but how am I going to get social media into…
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Great content, thanks for sharing!
[...] I also handed out a load of paper, which seemed to go down well. Tim’s social media primers were very popular, as was Paul Caplan’s Social Media Guide, and Colin McKay’s marvellous Secret Underground Guide to Social Media for Organisations. [...]
Please read Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Brain:Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future.
There is symphony is what you are doing.
Keep it up.
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Thank you, fellow traveler, for publishing this useful guide. Wow, it sounds so familiar! We’ve been along this path, and things are finally breaking wide open.
Bev Godwin
Director, USA.gov and Web Best Practices
Office of Citizen Services
U.S. General Services Administration
Great resource! You do a great job demystifying and dismantling perceived roadblocks.
When I met my boss, his first question to me was, “Do you blog?” The fact that I was ready before he arrived and that I had experience with freely available tools allowed my organization to launch a high-profile blog in a U.S. government agency in weeks rather than….., well, you know how long that could be. I am your testimonial!
Just saw this and wanted to send you my thanks for this document. I love your voice and experience. Wish I would have found this a year ago…
[...] program and/or trying to convince your organization to take those initial steps, take a look at The Secret Underground Guide to Social Media for Organizations, by Colin McKay. It is a concise guide that will help you introduce and push social media [...]
[...] Canuckflack » Blog Archive » Secret Guide to Social Media in Large Organizations Be a guerilla for good in your own organisation. Includes tips from UK Gov Webbies. (tags: socialmedia socialnetworking web2.0 learning) [...]
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[...] to Nick that the style reminded me a little of Colin McKay’s wonderful (even after 3 years!) Secret Guide to Social Media in Large Organizations – and it turns out that document helped inspire Nick to write his guide. Good stuff. Share [...]