nuance intelligence

Tunisia and Egypt are in the midst of revolutions. In both countries, WikiLeaks and the brigade of social media warriors roused by reading US diplomatic cables have played a major role. Social media also played a big part in Iran’s 2009 Green Revolution, but that ‘revolution’ died out and hundred of the protesters who used Twitter and Facebook to muster crowds are still in prison.

Restive population under economic pressure. Harried leader looking for a way forward. I’m sorry, doesn’t this sound a little like your average company mired in the Great Recession? So if you want to be a useful cabinet member – sorry, communications executive – what lessons should you be helping your CEO draw from the turmoil in the Middle East?

#1 Don’t be a Greedy Hypocrite. Really, this is such an obvious one, but unfortunately it has to be said. If your CEO’s pay is hundreds, maybe thousands, of times that of the average employee, and s/he’s talking to the troops about belt-tightening and budget cuts during these tough times WITHOUT cutting his/her own pay…you have a problem. Your shareholders and your board of directors have a problem, too. Good luck with this one, by the way.
#2 You Don’t Control ALL The Media. In both Egypt and Tunisia, state-run media gave no hint of trouble in the streets early in the uprisings. Egypt’s President Mubarak shut down the internet and even cut off mobile phone networks in an effort to stem the tide of disruptive information. But by the time the signals turned to static, Cairo was already rioting. Tunisia’s autocratic president neither shut down nor used social media before he was driven into exile. Both regimes were led by aging dictators who had recognized the power of ‘old’ media but were far behind the curve in their understanding of, and use of, social media.

Your company can’t control what employees are saying to each other on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels. You can decide if, and on what terms, you are going to engage with them on those channels.

#3 People Get Really Mad When You Block Media. The riots in Cairo intensified, and spread to the country’s other urban centers, after the state shut down the internet and social media (and yes, mass texts do count as social media in my book.)

Does your company block access to Facebook and other social media channels? Why? Doesn’t your leadership see the value of some of these tools for business purposes? How about networking and knowledge-sharing? Have they heard of LinkedIn, for goodness’ sake? In an earlier blog, I’ve already passed along Shel Holtz’s case for why it’s in companies’ best interests to allow social media access – it’s here if you missed it the first time around.  The walls need to come down, pronto.

#4 Learn to Use ‘New’ Media In Iran, state security forces used Twitter and Facebook trails to identify and arrest dissidents. Obviously, this is not the model that a company should follow. What your CEO can, and should, do is lead the way by asking the IT and communications teams to work together to draw up a roadmap for the productive use of enterprise-level social media in your company. The tools are there. They aren’t going away. Learn to use them to advance your business goals, before the competition does.

Anyone have another lesson or two they think CEOs should be taking away from the revolution? Leave a comment.