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Are Executives Anti-Social Media?

August 3, 2010

Recently, a very interesting blog post caught my eye written by Douglas J. O’Bryon, Nathan Kievman and Randy Schrum. It is titled, Why Executives Hate Social Media. The authors acknowledge the opinion held by many, otherwise brilliant, executives about social media and offer compelling evidence for why it may be justified. In the article, O’Bryon, Kievman and Schrum describe where the wheels fall off for most executives when it comes to social media

Let’s agree, for the sake of argument, that many successful executives have some unique characteristics, drives and thinking patterns that others don’t have. While this is certainly not true of every executive, many high achievers make sacrifices that others won’t, study harder and longer than others, work harder than others and are willing to go to lengths others won’t to succeed. Although they can be very effective when relating to others, in general, executives are less interested in partying and socializing than they are in solving business problems. They are, in a word, outliers. If you have any doubt that this is true, just pick up a copy of Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers.

Because executives are outliers, social media defies just about every principle, system and protocol they have learned to rely upon to get where they are now. The following list offers an explanation for their reluctance. Most executives…

1. Are competitive-social media is collaborative
2. Feel small talk is a waste of time-social media is all about casual dialog
3. Bought into technology-based fads based on hype and got burned
4. Care about sales, costs and cash flow-social media is about relationships
5. Initiate, lead and build; they aren’t followers or joiners-social media is joining
6. Are into control and order-social media is about crowd sourcing and letting go
7. Measure outcomes in terms of results-social media results like “buzz” don’t count
8. Think in simple terms-profit or loss, victory or defeat-social media is complex
9. Are wary of cutting (bleeding) edge and high-risk ventures-social media is risky

So, that explains why most entrepreneurs are so reluctant to get involved in social media. Now, let’s look at the reasons they need to do it anyway. If viewers will pardon the use of the word (Hell) in this short video it will provide convincing evidence that social media is a lot more than hype.

If you want to understand the waves of change and forces that have swept away many of the underpinnings of our lives and converged to produce the incredible phenomenon called social media, I suggest you get a copy of the book, 500 Year Delta What Happens After What Comes Next, by Jim Taylor and Watts Wacker. Written in 1997, the business prophesies in the book are uncannily accurate. The book opens with a quote from Jonathan Larson’s Tony Award winning play Rent and provides our first clue about the undercurrents of social media:

“How can you connect in an age where strangers, lovers, landlords, your own cells betray? Or bind the fabric together when the raging, shifting winds of change keep ripping away?”

Thirteen years ago and at least four years before the illusion that America was safe was shattered on 9/11, Taylor and Wacker predicted that escalating changes in the world and the resulting implications would alter almost everything about the way we do business and live. And, the less certain our world becomes, the more we want to connect with others and achieve intimacy. No, Taylor and Wacker may not have predicted the phenomenon of social media, but they nailed it on eerily accurate tectonic shifts that have all taken place:

• Shift from reason-based logic to chaos-based logic
• Splintering of social, political, and economic organizations
• Collapse of producer-controlled consumer markets
• Decline of victims-increasing authenticity and personal responsibility
• Rise in principles as driving motivational force of behavior
• Age of access making celebrity possible for anyone
• Disappearing borders causing expanded perspectives
• Increasing value of sharing not withholding

In my humble opinion, executives need to catch a plane, take a speedboat, drive or run as fast as they can to catch up with the social media train because it has left the station and they need to be on board. Why do you think executives are so reluctant to get involved in social media?  Why do you think they need to get involved?

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Mike Clough, St. Paul SCORE
View more posts by Mike Clough

Filed under: Leadership,Management,Social Media

Tags: 500 Year Delta, executive use of social media, executives, Outliers, social media