Hermit? Okay, so be it. But even hermits need to find other hermits to be curmudgeons with. This is almost hands down the biggest ROI companies see when they start using social business software. In the past, you had to go to your go-to person with a key question and that person would say “Oh, you need to talk to Betty” and so you run off to find Betty only to find out she retired last week and the you go to the new hire and he doesn’t know anything because no one documented well what Betty did. But her replacement said that Barry in purchasing knows what Betty did because Marketing worked closely with Purchasing on what you needed to find out. The journey could go on and on – and often did.
Now enterprise hermits, analysts, CEO’s and everyone can find the right person around the right topic almost right away. Often times the people who are most reluctant to place themselves out into a social network are quite usually some of the most active. When people realize that they can share what they know and be recognized the ‘fiefdom” syndrome is broken down. I will get more into silo’s within an organization in a later post, but know that being found is an OK thing. Also keep in mind in a company re-org or re-sizing the ones who are most visible and show the greatest value are often the least targeted for redundancy.
So stick your neck out, build a name and profile for yourself, be seen – its OK to be wanted in Enterprise 2.0.
