What are Social Media evangelists looking to accomplish?

We talk a whole lot about humanizing the corporation, but when we do so, we tend to think in terms of Customer Service and Marketing.  Is that all there is to it?

These questions came to mind during a recent dinner hosted by Jeff Dachis, former head of Razorfish and now founding father of Dachis Corp., which has attracted stars like Peter Kim and David Armano (whom I sat next to during the meal; the dude is not only smart but fairly hilarious).

Dachis Corp. is talking about “social business design” as its core concept: “the future of business lies in the intentional creation of a dynamic business culture that empowers all of its constituents to better exchange value.”

But this post is not about Dachis Corp. Although we jokingly asked him to, Jeff did not unroll a magic scroll to describe the Dachis Corp. vision or project list.  So these questions are being spurred by my own unsated curiosity about the future of corporate organization.

Think about a corporation that fully embraced Social Media WITHIN the four walls.

What will happen when a corporation is empowered to view which employees are the most prolific ideamakers, the most connected across hierarchies?

What happens when it’s discovered that “Josh, in Accounting,” has the most re-tweets by his co-workers?  Does this impact his performance review? Does it mean he’s best at finding valuable nuggets on the web, or that he is brilliant, or that he’s better suited to a different department?  Is Josh wasting time on the web — or is he more valuable than anyone realized?

What happens when a world-changing brainstorm happens, unbidden, thanks to a blog post published on the intranet by “Connie, in Customer Service?”  What happens if Connie decides to post about “tricks to decrease customer hold-times,” but also reveals that these tricks do nothing to boost customer satisfaction?  Is she going to be lauded for great thinking, or condemned for whistle-blowing?  Empowered to effect changes based on her observations — or fired?

What happens when “Linda, the Hot Girl from the Scranton office” realizes that she has the most internal Twitter/Yammer followers largely because of her racy avatar?  Can her employer suggest a more appropriate pic?  Can she sue for harassment  — for either reason?

What happens when the best ideas rise to the top regardless of authorship?  Will transparency lead to a more egalitarian meritocracy?  Will one-hit-wonders be detected more quickly?  Will “seniority” fade in importance?  Or will the current Powers-That-Be find ways to protect their fiefdoms? Will they become the offical “vetters” of these unrefined ideas?  Will they have the power to tamp down a bottom-up revolution in information sharing?

Forget for a moment about how to measure ROI of Social Media Marketing.  Think instead about how Social Media Thinking will impact the greater whole of the company.

A wild ride ahead, for Dachis Corp. and for us all.

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