|
Panel Detail:
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
An Interactive Discussion About Social Networking
Moderator:
Barry Libert, Chairman and CEO, Mzinga
Mzinga is in the business of building online employee and customer communities for businesses to give a voice to those who matter most. Its chairman and CEO, Barry Libert, opened a session about creating online social networks for employees and customers by establishing a context for what it means to be a leader.
Libert said today's business leaders have lost their way. Business isn't about the products and services being sold or the dollars and cents that are made. It's about the people receiving the goods and services and the relationships they have with the companies, he said.
He used as an example the former CEO of General Motors, who claimed that customers had it wrong about the quality of GM vehicles. The issue has little to do with quality and everything to do with the failed relationship between the automaker and its customers, Libert said. Profit is not the end; community is the end.
While many business leaders claim to want feedback from their customers, they want to control that feedback heavily, he said. They are afraid of inviting a truly open and frank discussion because that will make them vulnerable. As a result, leaders want to manage feedback in a way that prevents full and honest communication.
But it's not about them. Libert presents online social networks for employees and customers as one solution to this culture of fear. These networks are teaching companies that they have lost their way. "Social networking is cool, but it’s the beginning of an even cooler change," he said. It's about how we think of ourselves as humans.
Libert was joined by an assistant, Matt, who eased the room full of business leaders into the world of online social networks and showed them how easy it is to create a forum for feedback and discussion that would allow the businesses to learn from honest, unfiltered interactions with their employees and customers.
Matt relieved many concerns people had about social networking sites. In fact, many things employers feared the sites would bring into the workplace already exist there. At the same time, business leaders were missing out on a lot of benefits associated with online social networking tools.
The session really was meant to take business leaders out of their comfort zone by inviting a conversation with employees and customers that, however unpleasant it might seem, was in their best interest. In fact, many customers have created their own spaces online to discuss a company’s products or services; the problem is that the company isn't part of the conversation.
| 
