Social media to define future company bonuses?

Along with the rest of the planet I received hundreds of news stories about Friday's controversial memo from Google CEO Larry Page, the general gist being 25% of every employee's bonus is reliant on successful performance in the social media space this year.

Doing the job that I do, this prompted me to have a think about whether this was a) savvy and b) fair.

I don't feel comfortable offering firm conclusions as I wasn't privy to the exact wording, backdrop and context of the memo but the following thoughts seemed to resonate as I considered the concept:

• Involving the whole business in social media, whether it is technically their job or not is smart. All too often I hear "oh marketing deal with social media", which is true but the strongest teams have allies, advocates and participants across many business functions
• Putting a solid number on the amount of bonus at stake is sensible enough, but nowhere did it get reported exactly what form "success" was going to take or what it looked like. Likely this is confidential information in this case but worth remembering if you are thinking of following in Google's footsteps
• Making the whole company financially invested in the success of a single project is a great way to get everyone pulling in the same direction and encourage cross functional collaboration
• The whole initiative feels quite broad brushed and making people accountable could be tricky. If Joe Bloggs doesn't pull his weight whilst Jane Doe works hard, is it fair to Jane if they miss out on the bonus or good to reward Joe's lack of input if they are awarded the money?

So is Larry loony or a legend? I don't know - I'd love to hear your thoughts.