"McKinsey Global Institute, the research arm of the business consulting giant, has just published a lengthy study on “unleashing value and productivity through social technologies.” The short version is that things like improved communication and collaboration from social media in four major business sectors could add $900 billion to $1.3 trillion in value to the economy"
"The value is mostly through added productivity. Improved consumer focus as well as better-functioning teams are two other benefits. That is a great big number, likely to attract attention. McKinsey last did that in May 2011, with a report that said that by 2018 the United States could face a shortfall of 1.5 million data analysts and managers able to cope with the flood of data in their businesses."
In a sense, how can you doubt the power of social media? Is not the Arab Spring the first revolution achieved on social media? The Chinese government certainly sees its power with its attempts to heavily censor it.
On the other hand, I do recognize you have to take such claims with a certain, healthy skepticism at least where the economy and productivity is concerned. As much as I love tech-computers, the Internet, social media(I was as burned as anyone when Twitter went down earlier this morning)-isn't its impact on the economy double edged?
I mean don't the productivity gains come at the expense of workers? Basically workers are replaced by technology thereby cutting the bottom line and so increasing productivity.
For it's part, the McKinsey folks have been flagging the productivity angle for years. In 2005 they wrote a book "The Productivity Imperative" which extolled the ramp up we saw in productivity beginning in 1995-after a 22 year lull. However, since 2005 there has actually been another productivity slowdown.
“The industries with the highest percentage of interactions workers have the highest spread of profits per employee,” said Michael Chui, one of the authors of the report. “It’s low in mining, but can vary by nine times in banking. If you can make these people more effective, you can make the biggest difference.”
"There are challenges to using social media effectively, the report says, and it could take years to put these productivity tools in place correctly. The main challenges are organizational and personal, as managers have to develop nonhierarchical cultures, where data and knowledge are exposed and shared, not hoarded."
Look, don't get me wrong, like David Mulder, I want to believe. However, as they say themselves, even if they're right it may take a few years. Still, I would attribute a large part my success-such that it is-to social media.
I'm not a naysayer, if anything I'm restraining myself from being too optimistic. Any optimism must be cautious. And I would be very interested in anyone who tried to really factor in the benefits and losses. I don't think you have to be a Luddite to at least factor in worker losses as well.
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