Thanks for the comments and you have brought up some interesting questions. There are two ways for companies to take advantage of social media. One, for creating a better learning organization that fosters the company’s Kaizen. I would call this the company intranet/social networking site. In some ways, companies are already doing this with issues like pay or basic communications. The next step is to create a company ‘MyPMC.com’ or ‘PMCbook.com’.
On a site like that, they could take many of the functions they already perform and put them up for the whole company to see. Scheduling, pay issues, times, company news, etc. The most important aspect though is for the various employees or contractors of the company to have a profile page and running blog (if they want), within the company site. The CEO should be encouraged, along with the rest of the management staff to interact and freely communicate with the rest of the company.
The thing I see with a ‘intra-net’ setup like this, is taking advantage of your people resource. If your company has 150 people working for it, and they are posted all over the world, then that is 150 sensors/salesmen/idea factories that the company could be taking advantage of. To not set up the proper architecture to support this kind of activity is like burning money. A company should be doing all they can to tap into that resource. Plus, if people give input, and the company acts upon it, those people are more willing to support the company they work for because in essence, they helped to build it.
Also with Twitter, there are numerous applications to better harness that resource. You could set up a locked Twitter account for everyone to use, and the information should also be pertinent to just company operations or news(OPSEC and PERSEC should apply).
The other development in the world of social media is the smart phone. Contractors are carrying smart phones out there, and they are using them to communicate with the company and family. You can even use Hushmail with a smart phone, or even Skype. These phones will be an essential tool to have, as a company’s social media plan develops and includes a mobile social media plan.
The way I see this going, is you sign on to your company website via your smart phone, and then do all your updating or information collection about the company when you have internet access. Most of these phones now are either 3G or WiFi or both, and anywhere a computer can operate, a phone can operate. A company that does not take advantage of this, will be left in the wake of those companies that do. Plus, smart phones are getting cheaper and more available. I can get one through AT&T for like 79 dollars, along with a new service plan of two years. I could even see companies buying these phones.
I think it is Blackberry that has a push to talk phone, that is a smart phone as well. I think it is Wackenhut that makes the Securetrax software for smart phones that help guys with first responder activities. Plus phones all have GPS, which makes tracking employees and contractors out there a lot more feasible. Perhaps incidents like the one that happened to Crescent Security in 2006 could have been averted, if a contractor had a GPS phone and Twitter account. “help, being attacked and they are taking hostages”……”GPS on, track me…..”
The second way for companies to use social media is for information collection, business intelligence, and security checks within the company. The imagination is the only limit there, and one thing a company can do is check all their employee’s facebook, myspace, twitter, and whatever accounts. Now a company could do this during the background and clearance check, or they could just ask employees to list that information. Or another way to do it, is for the company to have a facebook, myspace, and twitter account, and put it out to the employees and contractors that the company would like to link to you guys.
I like the last one, because it is impossible to get an employee to disclose all of their sites they hang out on, and it really isn’t that cool to do (and an invasion of privacy in some cases). But to put it out there for an employee to link to, with the hopes of them linking to it, would be a better plan. But, if an employee or contractor knows that the company has a presence on those sites and is active on those sites and knows how to use the features (like search), then that employee or contractor might be a little more cognitive of not posting OPSEC or PERSEC stuff. Plus, the company can recruit throughout the general population through those sites, as well as put out pertinent information or even put out the real story on incidents. It is pure Information Operations essential, and companies need to get on board with this stuff.

By the way, Blackwater has a Twitter account. And so it begins…..

I have posted a number of articles on Aprodex about the rise and use of “Resilience 2.0” – and the use of social media in, for example, emergency response… see http://www.aprodex.com/next-generation-resilience-relies-on-citizens-and-communities-308-bl.aspx , and I too am a keen spectator of how the phenomenon is developing, and how it can be put to best use.

As per the links in your blog, there is much in the news currently about Iranian Political Instability and the use of Twitter and there is no denying the success and usefulness of it – but it is used by ANYbody to write about ANY, and EVERYthing. There aren’t many sophisticated ways to filter the increasing Twitter chatter, and the service can become a major time-suck – you can spend hours seeking Tweets that have any real relevance, interest or value.

One wonders if a system, along the same lines as Twitter, cannot be used more effectively – that is to say a system that provides real time data feeds, but for a specific purpose – namely: to collaborate, share information, raise awareness, request assistance and advice, and seek strategic and operational resources specifically to mitigate the risks and lessen the immediate impacts of threats we face today - from terrorism to natural disasters … and not to have to seek those things out from between the latest shock revelations in the life of Britney Spears, posted by some oblivious 13 year old girl in downtown Wherever.

Surely a system, dedicated only to involving specific, interested stakeholders – such as the effected public, collaborating amongst themselves, as well as with professionals best placed to employ their knowledge and expertise accordingly - would better serve the immediate and ongoing requirements of such circumstances, than the current tools available?

Perhaps such a system exists already? Is it even feasible – would people use it now that Twitter is so established?

A Thompson,
http://www.aprodex.com
http://twitter.com/Aprodex