Social Media – Why Aren’t They Using it?

Recently I read a blog post by someone completely abhorred at the notion of companies not on-board the social media wagon.

The corporate world has been tossed a ball that they largely, with some notable exceptions, do not know what to do with. It's my experience that companies with tech savvy insiders at or near the top tend to jump on the wagon more quickly. It's still new and everyday more experiment and find their way.

Here are some reasons why companies choose to sit back and wait to come aboard or not:

Social networking taken to the executive round table gives HR a headache with all the work and disruption new policies that have to be implemented will cause.

If no one inside has a significant comfort level with all the new jargon and gizmos associated with it there is a great sense of distrust and feeling it is a time waster to hang out at a virtual water cooler.

For large organizations to do it right there has to be at the very least some investment in a newly created internal positions or through consultants and agencies.

It's a lot to consider when the company is conservative.

Early adopters (think Zappos) just jumped in grassroots style, grew with (still growing) and waddled through the trials and tribulations of potential lose lips sink ships and airing dirty laundry in public can bring.

While many of us are biased in favor of the value of ning, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and LinkedIn, in the trenches and ready to proselytize to the next passerby from our soap box, social media is still avant garde and in beta..... Some companies may never adopt it in their communication strategy for fear of liability risk and others will come on board when it becomes mainstream in a corporate sense.

One man's junk is another's treasure.