Enterprise 2.0 Roll-up: Corporate Social Media Efforts Fall Short, As Does Windows Phone 7

By Chelsi Nakano (@chelkano) Oct 14, 2010 Comments

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Corporate communicators have been lacking in the social media department for what seems like forever, and while that might have been okay in the past, there's less and less room for the socially inept in today's work force. This week we explored reasons behind the roadblock, as well as other struggles of giants such as Microsoft (Windows Phone 7, anybody?).

Why Corporate Communicators are Failing Social Media

To put it simply, both large and small — but mostly large — companies are constantly struggling to effectively make use of social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook. The issues behind the blockage have been echoed over the corporate space for years now:

"I actually probably don't want somebody with a communications background," said Amber Naslund around this time last year when SocialMediasphere.tv asked what she would look for if she had to replace herself as the Director of Communications at Radian6. "…the truth is there's a lot of preconceived notions in corporate communications that are very, very difficult to undo, and part of the reason that social media is struggling for adoption inside established companies is that they're having trouble jettisoning old ideas about how and what to communicate to their customers."

Another report from last year indicates that bloggers are no better: “Few Australian blogs are getting the full benefit of publishing a blog and instead seem to have simply ticked the blog box as part of some PR / marketing checklist,” said Salinet Point co-founder Ben Dunscombe.

And finally, we come to today. A survey by The Access Point revealed that 89% of the 80 corporations that participated intend to increase their investment in social media over the coming year, regardless of the fact that the issues remain the same:

"One of the major obstacles communicators face in the adoption and usage of social media is a lack of understanding among internal stakeholders within their organizations," wrote Brian T. Regan, GM New York, and Access Point's Senior VP, Michael B. Young. "Most feel they have mastered the social media basics (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn) and are seeking to take social to the next level."

What happens when you mix a big pool of corporations with an increase of a concept they don't understand? Probably something really, really bad.

We hope this will open up a conversation for what you all consider the next step in social media, as well as some input about today's understanding of what a community manager should and shouldn't be doing. Read on and hit us with your two cents here.

Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7, Will it App-eal to Enough People?

These days it takes a lot of backbone to compete with companies like Apple and Google in the mobile pool, but Microsoft is one of those players that has a lot of backbone. In what is being perceived as their last shot to stay in the mobile game, the company has launched Windows Phone 7.

The phone is made to appeal to the hard working executive, showing important boxes to check such as next appointments and a count of unread emails on the lock-screen. Outlook integration is also featured, as well as PowerPoint presentations that can be edited and previewed on the go.