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Chapter 8 Social Media Information Systems
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Figure 8-15
Redesigning Enterprises for
Social Media
Source: Stephen VanHorn/Fotolia

Organizations like Harvard, Microsoft, and Starbucks are concerned enough with SM that
they have hired Chief Digital Officers (CDOs), a position responsible for developing and managing
innovative social media programs. 49
Advance the clock 10 years. You’re now the marketing manager for an important new prod-
uct series for your company . . . the latest in a line of, say, intelligent home appliances. How are
you going to promote your products? Will your machines do SM with family members? Will your
refrigerators publish what kids are eating after school on the family’s social media site? And what
even more creative ideas will you need to have by then?
Think about your role as a manager in 2026. Say your team has 10 people, three of whom
report to you; two report to other managers, and five work for different companies. Your com-
pany uses OpenGizmo 2026 with integrated mobile video, augmented by Google/Facebook’s
Whammo++ Star, all of which have many features that enable employees and teams to instantly
publish their ideas in blogs, wikis, videos, and whatever other means have become available. Your
employees no longer are assigned computers at work; a liberal, yet secure, BYOD policy enables
them to use their own devices, often in their own, unique way. Of course, your employees have
their own accounts on whatever Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, foursquare, and other social net-
working sites have become popular, and they regularly contribute to them.
How do you manage this team? If “management” means to plan, organize, and control, how
can you accomplish any of these functions in this emergent network of employees? If you and
your organization follow the lead of tech-savvy companies such as Intel, you’ll know you cannot
close the door on your employees’ SM lives, nor will you want to. Instead, you’ll harness the power
of the social behavior of your employees and partners to advance your strategy.
In the context of CRM, the vendor might lose control of the customer relationship. Customers
use all the vendor’s touch points they can find to craft their own relationships. Emergence in
the context of management means loss of control of employees. Employees craft their own