Where Is Your Organization in the Twitter Life Cycle?

Snippet from the article:

Stage 1: Ridicule. The executives initially think these technologies are silly. In the 1980s when I started using email, one of the executives in my company made fun of me, because email didn’t provide (he thought) a permanent record. “Besides,” he said, “Not everyone has it. It will never catch on.”
Twitter is similar. When I first heard about it, I thought it was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard of. “Why do I care what you had for lunch?” I protested.

Stage 2: Control. The executives grow concerned about abuse of the technology and try to control it. With email, the company I worked for issued a formal “email policy.” You had to have a legitimate business reason to use email. You then had to get approval from a Vice President. Finally, you had to sign-up for your own AOL or CompuServe account and pay for it yourself. (We didn’t have a corporate email system at the time.)
This is why some companies today are developing formal Social Media Guidelines and Policies. They know it’s seeping into the workplace, and they want to control it. After all, that’s what executives do, they think.

Stage 3: Experimentation. The executives begin experimenting with the technology themselves. Again, to use email as an example, as more and more people started using email, I saw executives begin to tip-toe into the water. I remember one executive who had his secretary print out his emails and put them in his physical inbox. He would then dictate a response.
Believe it or not, I know of a couple of executives today who are doing the exact same thing with Twitter. I don’t try to discourage them. If it gets them started, great.

Stage 4: Adoption. The executives start using the technology themselves. Eventually, executives learn that the technology is not so scary, and they can actually be more productive if they use it themselves. I don’t know about you, but I never really learned ho to dictate a memo. I am so much faster just banging out my own messages. Besides, it gives me a chance to edit and respond more quickly.
Some executives are figuring this out with Twitter, too. They can use it as a competitive advantage to be more responsive to their customers, employees, and even vendors. Besides, it’s kind of fun.

Stage 5: Dedication. The executives wonder how the organization could function without the technology. Can you imagine joining a company today and not being given an email address? It’s now standard operating procedure. Everyone is expected to use email. No one I know would even think about sending a paper memo any more.

Read the full article here

Great article. Where’s your business on the Twitter Life Cycle?