Michael Short: Peter Williams welcome to The Zone. Thanks a lot for your time. You are one of Australia's leaders in all matters digital. You're here today to explore the risks and the opportunities of social media, in particular for businesses and other organisations. Can we start please with the big picture? What is your overview? Should organisations embrace social media?

WHO Peter Williams, a leader in harnessing computing and social media
WHAT The greatest risk is to fail to realise there is a revolution going on
HOW Get your head in the cloud and your staff in the conversation

THE explosion in the use of social media, supercharged by mobile computing and a newfound abundance of data and knowledge, poses a profound risk to organisations large and small.

While we might pay attention to a damaged piece of machinery or a chemical spill we often overlook the non physical risks in a workplace. But while bullying and harassment may not be as visible, they are just as dangerous as the risks we can see. A productivity commission report in 2010 found that even though bullying and harassment tend to be more costly on average than claims for most types of physical injury they are given less attention (by both legislation and employers).<br />
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The same report estimates of the annual cost of workplace bullying to employers and the economy in Australia ranged from $6 billion to $36 billion. That equates to 3% of Australia's GDP and if bullying is prevalent in your business then it will be costing you a lot more than you think. Bullying doesn't just affect the person being bullied, but their families, the people they work with and if they leave their job the (poor) person who replaces them.

Social Media for Small Business Beginners - Planning Your Social Media Presence<br />
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24 January, 2011<br />
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Social media is now an integral part of a brand’s online identity but it is not as simple as creating a Facebook page and expecting a community to form overnight. Before you start building a presence, it is important to ask yourself four key questions to establish your strategy

Social Media for Small Business Beginners - Launching Your Social Media Presence<br />
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12 August, 2011<br />
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Social media is now an integral part of a brand’s online identity, but establishing a presence is not as simple as creating a Facebook page and expecting a community to form overnight.<br />
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In part one we discussed the four key questions to planning your presence; we now look at how you launch social media and build an engaged community around your brand.

Deloitte Center for the Edge’s paper, “Social Software for Business Performance” discusses how companies can leverage social software to significantly enhance business performance in the short-term and transform it in the long-term. Early adopters of social software have the potential to reap financial rewards and develop skills and experience that can help build a stronger competitive position over time.<br />
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Social software has unique capabilities to address current operating challenges and improve operating metrics. To capture this value, however, companies will need to more systematically assess the operating metrics that have the greatest potential to move the needle and then strategically deploy social software to ensure near-term performance impact with modest investment.<br />
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This “Social Software for Business Performance” paper discusses: profound changes; skeptics; focusing on adoption is a dead-end strategy; companies must be strategic, decisive, and act now.

Deloitte’s Innovation Academy is a managed and edited platform designed to foster learning, idea generation and collaboration within and across business and government.

To remain competitive and connected to customers and constituents, businesses and government need to take an integrated view of the innovation process – from idea generation, to selection, to implementation and diffusion. In addition, business and government have to take a new look at strategies and platforms for fostering a culture of innovation and building organisational structure that supports innovation – particularly in volatile times, when many opportunities present themselves.