It’s been Social Media Week in London this past week – with 26 events happening around town, so here’s a quick run down of a couple of events I’ve been to.

Day one kicked off with ‘Understanding Social Graph Optimisation’ with members of Facebook, BT, SkyTV and Mebo on the panel.

One of the key areas of discussion was how companies can use people’s social graphs (your online identity) and whether users should be rewarded for providing their data to these companies. Vincent Sider, (Head of Strategy: Social Media, Gaming & Presence) from BT asked the question, "Do I have your attention?  We should be paying for it." He described how BT is using games to reward people for their attention by paying them via virtual economies. He believes that by giving out rewards more people are likely to stay within the BT ecosystem.

Trevor Johnson, Head of Strategy and Planning, EMEA at Facebook made it clear that  Facebook users get enough value back simply from the user experience gained by being on Facebook.  He described how users gain "egotistical value".

Issues surrounding privacy were much debated and the question arose: "Who would you trust to hold your data – BT? Facebook? Your bank?" No one had an answer.

Day two saw ‘Social Media in the Enterprise – The Elephant in the Ecosystem’ run by Alan Patrick and David Terrar, which looked at how Social Media can be used by enterprises to re-engineer themselves.

All speakers seemed to agree that the way in which traditional companies are formed now (ie: hierarchical) will change and that social media can provide the tools/methodology to drive it.  As Umar Haque of the Harvard Business School put it: "We have reached Peak Organisation" seeing self organisation and maximisation of knowledge as being the way forward. Though Benjamin Ellis’  view is that benign dictatorships default to a leader - without some form of leadership, nothing would happen. 

To what degree companies can move away from a hierarchical form to a more "self-organised" structure so that they can function in a more economically viable way is a key question.  This was highlighted by Alan Patrick who discussed the challenges faced in terms of return on investment of introducing Social Media into an enterprise.

Adriana Lukas, who "disrupts for a living", thinks that hierarchy has to die completely before Social Media can work. She believes that there is no point trying to change systems which are already in a business structure, you have to bypass existing systems, find alternative ways of working and then push these ways through – in other words, completely disrupt existing processes. David Terrar, however, did not agree believing that Social Media and the tools available can be integrated into existing corporate structures to assist organisations to operate more openly and effectively.

Mat  Morrison showed how he had implemented social networks into a real organisation and the challenges faced, and also raised the question as to whether it is correct for companies to use the social capital of employees for the good of a business (something I have touched on before). As Euan Semple pointed out, "sometimes life is easier if your boss isn’t your mate".

There are currently few examples of organisations who have seriously implemented Social Media – be it to change a whole company structure or by simply creating groups via social media tools to enable workers to engage with each other more effectively.

It’s at this point that I start to feel just a little smug... Here I am, sitting at Quirk, a company which has created a Democracy, where all employees vote each month to elect one person to act as President of that Democracy and attend the monthly board meetings, where any of the 60 employees (and interns) can use various internal platforms (which include Yammer, Wikis and good old email) to air their views and where if an idea is good enough you will be heard and it will be acted upon. It’s easy to forget how ahead of the curve we are.  And yes, we can use Twitter, listen to Spotify and throw the odd ball around.  One thing’s for sure – if the social environment’s right, the passion for your work and productivity will follow.