How do we as learning professionals overcome the cultural barrier within business towards integrating social media platforms as learning enabler. The notion that social media is only for Gen X & Y is no longer valid as the use of the popular SoMe platforms transcends age range, industries and geography.
It is acknowledged that there are a handful of tools available, all excellent discussion & collaboration platforms and the key to successful use in biz is having access to best practise/guidelines proven to have worked in order situations and also able to manage cultural barriers to integration.
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The argument is quickly closed out when you compare how people learn in their private life to business. SoMe in a private environment works across all demographics, for example my 69 year old father is an avid You Tuber because he enjoys cruise holidays and cruise companies show him virtual tours via embedded You Tube videos. Does he know it is You Tube? Does he know it is SoMe? Probably not, but who cares! It is fun and informative. It builds the habit of understanding that point of need information is freely available and if not, we can easily ask for it. It is simply a mindset change; businesses need to wake up and catch up with how we are succeeding in our private lives with learning all manner of new skills from knitting and fishing to language learning and complex accounting via SoMe.
Hi Olusesan, I agree with your point that SoMe is not just for the 'youth of today' and most businesses are waking up to the opportunities it presents - for learning, marketing, networking etc. We've had some successes by showing the power of the mediums and how they can be used effectively as part of a blended learning programme. Once you have some simple war stories I guess it becomes easier to sell. However, I do feel there is a lot of nervousness (probably due to fear and lack of understanding) which is holding people and organisations back from realising its true potential. L&D can help with training and education to help raise awareness of things like the organisation's policy. I think we can add value from our experiences of trying to change behaviour through learning and help the business apply it to social media more broadly. We have the chance to knock on a few doors and raise it up the agenda.