Social Media Can Change The Corporate Culture

By MITCH JOEL

Most corporate cultures are what they are. Some have been around for decades. Others have had the same corporate culture for a century (or longer). Change is never easy, but change does happen.

There's this old trucker saying that goes: "if you can't change people, you change people." The truth is that not every competent individual is right for every company, and there are also some serious nincompoops who manage to stick with a company longer than anyone can fathom. Beneath the many layers of individuals, personal politics, power shifting and HR is a corporate culture. The brand's raison d'être. It is not something that changes easily, but it does change. Mark W. Schaefer over at the Grow Blog doesn't seem to think it's possible. In his Blog post, Can social media change your company's culture? I doubt it (September 22nd, 2010), he calls me out for saying that Social Media is changing corporate culture during our recent Podcast debate on Ghost Blogging (more on that here: SPOS #214 - The Ghost Blogging Debate With Mark W. Schaefer).

Social Media can't change a corporate culture...

And, here's why Mark thinks this way: "The idea that you could transform a company culture just because it needs to create a Twitter account or YouTubechannel is probably fanciful. I believe the companies who are succeeding on the social web are doing so because they already have a company culture that would enable and reward that success. A well-managed, market-oriented company with a legacy of customer-centricity is going to do well with social media -- and any other marketing innovation that comes down the line.  If you look at a list of the most successful companies on the social web, there really aren't any surprises are there?  Their cultures are pre-wired to succeed." Read More...

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