On the surface, not-for-profit (NFP) organisations have embraced social media. Most have a Facebook page, Twitter profile, even a blog, or a YouTube account. However, for all the inspirational stories we hear of crowd-funded social projects, leaderless campaigns and online communities that emerge to support real world ones, our NFPs are not taking full advantage of the possibilities offered by 21st century technology.

Fundamentally, this is because our organisations – both NFPs and corporates – are still organised undemocratically, with power held by a few senior managers or directors at the top of a hierarchy. Unfortunately, hierarchy doesn’t blend well with social, so it can be difficult to implement successful social media strategies when your organisation is trying to micromanage its online presence, and those responsible for delivering it.

The issue lies in what we perceive social media to be. Do we see it as an extra budget line in a campaign strategy? A direct marketing channel? A fad to be tolerated?

At its core, social media is allowing people to find and do more things, directly and together, in ways which would traditionally have required organisational intervention. For organisations that have been largely created to play this in-between role – co-ordinating campaigns, or bringing donations to those who need them during disasters – this raises serious questions.

Rarely is the potential of social media fully realised in organisations, because it can unravel a range of deeper, out-of-date organisational assumptions about power, control and expertise. Social media has the power to unmask an organisation and unleash the true potential of the people within and around it.

The good news is that while social media is creating major challenges for organisations across all sectors, your organisation has the ability to change and begin to let go of the assumptions on the left side of the below chart and find practical ways of embracing those on the right.

For all the challenges that the social web and its staggering pace-of-change have created, there’s one major factor to keep you from stumbling blindfolded into an unknown future: you! Social media has become a deeply counterintuitive reminder of much of what it means to be human, as a range of social factors have, for decades, pushed us away from such fundamental understandings. For instance, who would’ve imagined that sitting in front of our monitors could help to reawaken some of our natural but dormant sociability? That websites, mobile phones and apps could help us relate to each other and society in a
more personal way? That a website could provide an emergent breadcrumb trail that leads us into relationships with people who will change our lives, or us, theirs? Yet that is exactly what’s been happening.

As authors of Humanize: Why people-centric organizations succeed in a social world, Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant suggest, “One of the most important reasons social media has been so successful and grown so quickly is that it has tapped into what it means to be human. Social media has given all of us the power to do what we as humans always wanted to do. Social media allows us to be more of who we are.”

So as our organisations fly headlong into a world we have yet to fully comprehend, it’s important to remember that we can be our own best compasses in the journey across the changing social landscape. Is your NFP up for the challenge?

Contrasting approaches of the traditional and social organisational philosophies: The traditional approach vs. the social approach

Traditional organisational assumptions

• Decisions should be made by someone more senior than the person taking the action.
• Job titles and descriptions create a sense of order which helps get things done.
• Expertise and leadership are concentrated at the top of the organisational structure.
• To get things done, we need to be able to control them at each stage.
• Resources should only be allocated to efforts that create a clear, causal return on investment.
• Internal communication should travel through the appropriate chain of command.
• External communication can be kept to office hours.
• Clear hierarchy ensures information reaches the right people and parts of the organisation.

Social organisational assumptions

• Decisions should be made by whoever is there to make them.
• Job titles and descriptions prevent people from working to their strengths, passions and interests.
• Expertise and leadership are shared amongst everyone – inside and outside the organisation – and shift, depending on the situation.
• The most amazing outcomes are the result of the most people, working with the most autonomy, united by a broader shared sense of purpose.
• Seemingly meaningless conversations can be the glue of stronger working relationships, and need the freedom to happen.
• Anyone can talk to anyone else, if it will help them get things done.
• External communication happens when people from outside your organisation engage with you.
• Hierarchy distorts information and denies people the agency to share ideas on their own terms.