I’m intrigued by the data and information from Forrester Research so I love reading the blog of Jeremiah Owyang.  So many of the concepts explored in the world of social media seem to me, (am I the only one?)  to be directly tied to all the changes in business models, political strategies, economic developments (vis-a-vis digital divisions), and communication/mass media practices.

Over the summer, Jeremiah posted this:  Trends, Corporate Adoption of Social Media: Tire, Tower and the Hub and Spoke.  It’s come up in so many discussions, at conferences, etc. I thought readers might be interested in the details.

Using three basic metaphors, a tire, a tower and a hub and spoke, Jeremiah identifies three social media adoption styles.  Here’s an excerpt:

The Tire
Common to grassroots movements within corporations, adoption happens at the lowest levels at the company, rather than from a centralized group. You’ll see individual business units define their own strategy, pick their own tools, engage their own vendors, and communicate with the market on their own terms.

Common to companies that haven’t put a strategy in place, depending on culture, this could be detrimental as resources are not used efficiently, data is spread on multiple systems, and the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing.

The Tower
Common in organizations where power is centralized, we may see a central team formed to organize social media. This team defines the policy, best practices, vendors, and tools. This team which will commonly found in corporate communications and supported by PR will often dictate the direction of social media. Expect a dedicated role or sub-group to appear either experiential marketing, new media, or interactive media to eventually be born out of the group, where social media is centralized.

Social media is a grassroots movement, so common dangers can be gagging the natural voice of conversations of product experts with customers using these tools, so a centralized team needs to be more of a support organization to the enterprise, not a controller.

The Hub and Spoke
This coordinated model has a central organizational unit that provides best practices, sets policy, supports infrastructure but encourages conversations at the edges of the company. More about empowering business groups to partake in natural social media discussions without hindering, this group will be more of a coordinator, and less of a controller. Expect to see this model to occur as social media infiltrates every nook and cranny of a business, and at a certain point, a company as an enterprise can’t ignore the raging groundswell.

Cautions to this model, as overly coordinated programs will be difficult to achieve, and may be ineffective to different unique markets that a large company may have. Like the tower, having a centralized group at a large enterprise is always going to slow down natural conversations so focus on empowerment, rather than control.

Can you identify your church’s leadership style?  If so, you’ll be able to determine it’s strengths, weaknesses and the value social media may play within your staff and congregation.