Recently we have been actively seeking stories from clients and other organizations that have used Social Media to enable learning within their organization. In our discussions, it has become apparent that that the big four Social Media sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube) are dominating the conversation, and rightfully so. These four sites illustrate the value that Social Media adds to human interaction – each connects people and creates a means for individuals to share and discuss things that are of personal interest.

Many corporations and organizations are using these sites to connect externally with customers, partners, and supplies. However, in our research and conversations it has become quickly apparent that these four sites are being used limitedly within organizations to enable learning and knowledge-sharing between employees. Many factors could be contributing to this, including the security and legal challenges with exposing sensitive information to the general public. Yet, in the face of these challenges, something that organizations must be careful to avoid is dismissing the value that the Social Media “framework” (established by the big four sites) can bring to the learning and knowledge-sharing functions within organizations.

The emergence of Social Media ushers in a new paradigm or way of thinking about learning within organizations. Traditionally, learning and knowledge management have been viewed as functions within organizations that have staff with direct responsibility for their daily management. Although this paradigm still remains mostly intact, the emergence of Social Media has presented organizations with the opportunity to reevaluate how and when learning can take place and who is responsible for creating the content. In short, Social Media provides organizations with a means for enabling learning to occur in real-time between employees using technology that supports human interaction.

Do you have any stories of how your organization is using Social Media to enable learning and knowledge-sharing within your organization? If so, please contact us. We are seeking stories that can be shared in a series of upcoming seminars and research papers.

Tags: Learning, Social Media

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 11:56 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.