I would think that very often it is the case that -- by the time your company gets around to having an Official Social Media Platform and an Official Social Media Strategy -- there will be more than a few "pirate" platforms up and running that are already part of the landscape.
Certainly, that was the case here at EMC.
And thinking about these the right way might be helpful.
Why They Did It
It's simple to understand. They had a business problem. There was no standardized capability within the company. IT wasn't able to help them. So they did something themselves.
Perfectly understandable. In the same situation, I would do (and have done) similar things.
The Anxiety That Causes
There are people that I work with on this that are a bit anxious in this regard. Clearly, we should have a single platform for doing this stuff. People should only have to go to one place to find things. And we'll be wasting resources if we allow more of these things to proliferate.
All very reasonable positions, to be sure.
But I've chosen to side with the pirates in this case.
Taking The Pirate Perspective
These people have worked hard to create their own capability, and their own communities. It's an investment that's already been made.
If I were them, I'd want to make Absolutely Sure that -- if I moved my house -- it was a very nice house in a very nice neighborhood. And it takes time for them to build that trust and familiarity with what we've got running. I don't think there's any substitute for time in this regard.
The other major issue is that there's work involved. We're not gonna move their house for them, they're gonna have to do it themselves. That can be a LOT of work, especially for mature platforms that have been running for a while.
And then there's disruption to the community. People have to go to a new place, they see a different user experience, things aren't where they used to be, etc. That has to be considered as well.
Simply put -- if they move, it will be in their own selfish interest, and not sold as part of the "greater good" at EMC.
I'm sure this is not the last time this will come up. It's balancing the need to innovate with the need for standardization and commonality. Right now, I'm more in favor of the former than the latter.
Building Bridges, Not Destroying Them
I'm toying with the idea of creating a presence on our default social media platform that acknowledges their community, provides an synopsis, and sends people over there if they're interested.
I'm sure they'd reciprocate in some fashion. Why not?
This gets back to one of my strategic assumptions: social media is more about skills and behaviors, and less about platforms and tools. Most of us are comfortable with any old email package, why shouldn't the same be eventually true with social media platforms: blogs, wikis, forums?
The fact that these people have been able to create a vibrant, productive community is the valuable part -- not whether they did it with our platform or something else.
Now, that being said, we've got an attractive neighborhood to build in. Clearspace provides a great user experience. We've got Official IT Support. We've got some administrative resources. And -- over time -- we'll have the majority of the EMC user community on our platform.
But I'm not going to force anyone to move. That just wouldn't be the right thing to do.
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