Companies need help in understanding and taking advantage of social media

The Swedish IT industry newspaper Computer Sweden has a piece on companies being stressed by social media- they know they need to do something but now what and how (read the full article translated with Google Translate here, in Swedish here):

Social media creates frustration out on business. Everyone knows that they can be used in a smart way - but it is difficult to know how.

- Just yesterday I thought about how we could use it, "says Per Olofsson, CEO of environmental engineering company ClimateWell.

He thinks that social networks in particular, could be used in a robust manner internally in the company.

- We are growing and growing and are in many countries and it could be an effective knowledge platform, "he says.

I had the opportunity to make a comment in another related article in the same newspaper (read the full article translated with Google Translate here, in Swedish here). Although it is not entirely clear in the article, I am saying that increasing transparency within and across the firewalls of an organization, in a managed way, is one of the great business opportunities:

The trend is continuing in social media. "Certainly one can understand that it is difficult for companies to keep up, but there are great risks if we do not do it," says Oscar Berg, an expert on Web 2.0 at Acando.

Some companies are mostly included in the value of using social media externally, for marketing and sales.

Others also see an internal use to create a more effective communication.

- It's either or. Few have really seen how to combine these elements. I myself have no track of everyone who works here at Acando and sometimes it happens that I have colleagues who work with the same type of assignments for other clients and that I could benefit from having an exchange with.

- If you could create the forms in which it is possible to see what others are doing and then marry it to see what customers and partners are doing - it strikes me as a great opportunity for businesses in the use of social media, "says Oscar Berg.