Why a wait and see strategy sometimes is best for social media

Be an early adopter not an innovator.

That's the strategy that companies should adopt when approaching social media according to Jeremiah Owyang.

The early adapters

Learn from the failures of innovators, they reduce risk. Often they have the opportunity to explain how it works to others. Become the case studies that other groups follow

and his tips?

1. Examine your organizations adoption patterns. First, define how quickly your organization responds and adopts to technologies, and factor into your considerations.
2. Be a Category Ahead Of Your Company. If you’re responsible for new technologies at your company, your personal adoption should be a level or two ahead of the organizations adoption, as you cannot effectively deploy for your company if you don’t personally understand the impacts of the new technologies.
3. Track The Category Ahead Of You. Find an individual that’s above your adoption category (the early adopter watches the innovator) and be sure to watch their behaviors and learn from them. Adopters are often blazing their own trail, and may not ever follow anyone.

Measures to protect your social media security

Social media remains for the moment an area in which the individual lays him or herself open to abuses of privacy.

Internet Security Analyst Robert Siciliano gives some tips over at the Huffington Post

1. Strengthen your passwords; use upper/lower case, numbers and characters. Don't use easily guessed words from the dictionary or pets, kids, birthdates etc.

2.Don't access social media from libraries, internet cafes or any public computers that could have spyware.

3.Make sure your own PC has updated virus definitions and security patches. Don't bother with all the 3rd party apps in social media. Many are risky.

4.Don't click on links in emails from "friends" asking you to download a video or see pictures. This is becoming a common ruse in social media.

Social media policy or does common sense prevail?

The issue crossed my path yesterday yet again.Do organisations need a social media policy?

General guidelines should be in place but I firmly believe that the moment an organisation starts bringing in rigid structures,the very essence of social media ,its vibrant coomunication and instant reaction starts to dissipate.

I was therefore quite interested in what Scott Hepburn has to say in this post especially his call for getting rid of a can't do that policy

Social media is a new-ish approach to business. It enables new forms of collaboration, new approaches to problem-solving, and new ways to increase efficiency. “You can’t do that!” is our default response, a knee-jerk posture we instinctively deploy as a defense against discomfort. Hear it, recognize it, accept it, and set it aside

Maybe though his final point is the most important

Since the dawn of commerce, more companies have failed for lack of innovation than because of legal liabilities. Yes, be compliant with the law. Yes, know your risks. But there’s a difference between knowing your risks and deferring to them. Err to flexibility, toward encouraging new ideas and new models, and your people will astound you with their talents.