The Four Essential Phases of Social Media Adoption

by Tom Pick Published on January 13, 2011

In this article, you'll learn... (this is the first of four parts)

• The four phases of embracing social media at your organization
• How social media can affect the bigger picture at your company

When discussing social media with business executives, I'm frequently reminded of the fable of the elephant and the blind men. In the story, six blind men, hearing that an elephant has been brought to their village (and having no idea what an elephant is), go to the village square to investigate. One feels the elephant's side and proclaims that an elephant is like a wall. A second, feeling one of the elephant's legs, says it is like a pillar. A third, touching the tusk, describes the animal as being like a solid pipe.

Although each man's description was accurate, each perceived only part of the elephant; none had a perspective of the entire beast.

It's the same with many business executives and their views of social media:

• "Social media? Twitter isn't appropriate for our market."
  
• "Our company already has a Facebook page!"
  
• "We don't have time to maintain a blog."
  
• "Several of our people use LinkedIn."

Such statements reflect perceptions of "parts of the beast"—components (tools) of social media. But using one or more of those tools, with no clear objectives for benefiting the company, doesn't constitute a strategy.

Here is a four-phase adoption model designed to reveal the entire elephant that is social media.

Stay tuned for the next 3 parts of this 4 part