54 posts tagged “social+media”

Zero.

Implementing social media systems in a business will only add value with adoption and usage. JP asks: "Does it make sense to have asymmetric information within the firm? Once we start acting as if information has value by and of itself, it is only a matter of time before people start using this information to gain personal advantage within the firm."

That is why social media in just about all its forms requires openness, transparency and trust. But, for all their protestations, that's not how businesses typically function. So I'm a little surprised that Martin Koser is stressed by the fact that "Management is supposed to be [a] people business, it is inherently social by all accounts."

Management is, but business is not. Business is mainly about the bottom line. And that is why Susan Scrupski points out that many businesses think 'social' equals productivity drag.

But collaboration using social media can help the bottom line if it is in the flow, a part of the every day, part of the nature of a business. Rob Paterson asks, hypothetically I think: "Isn’t an underlying principle of 2.0 that it uses nature’s rules and hence should make everything a lot easier?"

For early adopters of social media, social media already is part of everyday life. The SF Web2.0 Expo is not the first to use live audience participation (this time through Twitter), and sometime soon many company staff events will follow suit - a trojan mouse if ever there was one.

Unlocking the ability of a business to collaborate, to activate a virtuous circle able to create new knowledge is where the value of social media in the business lies. As JP concludes:

"We should concentrate on providing good service and good product, concentrate on providing that service honestly and diligently. And the money will flow. Not by hoarding information, but by freeing it up. Collaborating with each other, within the firm, with our customers, with our partners, with our markets. Even with our competitors."

Odd question posed by Ragan.

• Own as in who should start it? Anyone who has learnt what it is and thinks it's relevant, preferably someone in the internal communications team.
• Own as in maintain it? If it works and grows, then you need to speak to HR and IT. Get some community facilitators on board to help nurture the community.
• Own as in control the conversation/relationships? Shel Holtz says the employees that use it. That is, the community.

Social media internally or externally is not about ownership or the tools, but about the right culture of transparency and trust. Companies will adopt it if it is obvious there is a business benefit, and the learning curve (props Paul Adams) is steep and quick - and should be cheap.

Props to Geoff Livingstone over at The Buzz Bin for his post about what Barack Obama might say to the Pope about social media during the latter's visit to Washington DC this week. Though the Pope may not join Twitter.

The inevitable lag between external developments and enterprise adoption meant that it was not until the actual dot com bust that companies grasped the potential of Web1.0. But its place in the mix of communication channels alongside print and face-to-face was not clear, and many saw it as a trade-off between print and online.

Fast forward a few years: more and more companies are learning how social media in the enterprise could be rather useful. Again, there is uncertainty about where it sits in relation to other channels - an evolution of the corporate intranet with additional collaboration elements, a technological coup that casts the traditional intranet to history, or an approach that could rewrite the rulebook for all communication channels?

Cart and horse. Internal communicators need to know their audience, and one of the fundamental shifts in the past couple of years for communicators is the ability/neccessity to understand their audience as well as marketeers know their customers. Top-line functional/geographic distinctions from employee surveys are the bare minimum now. 

Seth Godin points out in How do I persuade you?: "Here's the thing: unlike every other species, human beings make decisions differently from one another. And the thing that persuades you is unlikely to be the thing that persuades the next guy. Our personal outlook is a lousy indicator of what works for anyone else."

Your audience is fragmented, information overload is a daily fact, the sources of information have exploded and, as a communicator, you have to revisit first principles to make a lasting connection.

If you/your organisation understands the importance of social media - despite some drawbacks - and you have plenty of reasons for your colleagues to have conversations, then you have the foundations for nurturing an online community.

Jeremiah's finished a piece of Forrester research that outlines online community best practice and charts the life process of a successful community. He points out: "Above all, remember that control is in the hands of the members, so put their needs first".

This is aligned to Hugh MacLeod's point about the axis of social media: social networks are built around social objects, where social objects are the reason that two people are talking to each other.

I learn by discovering and then mastering what I discover. Both steps are made easier - and more fun - if guided. As we grow up, those guides include parents, teachers, friends and colleagues.

As a consultant, guided discovery helps me form an accurate picture of the client's world, make predictions, formulate explanations, imagine alternatives and design plans. And now I have two new guides in John Smythe and Jerome Reback, who joined us this week.

John is author of The CEO: Chief Engagement Officer and a leading light in the area of engagement, while Jerome is co-author of Corporate reputation: Managing the new strategic asset. John has a high profile, and there are clips of him in action here and here.

I first met John last summer, just as his book was coming out. At that time, a bit like a recent post from Sue Dewhurst, I thought there was a bandwagon pushing 'employee engagement'. It was the communication industry's equivalent of 'Web2.0' - everyone was using the term yet there was no consensus about meaning or relevance.

Just as social media and enterprise2.0 start to (slowly) normalise, the co-option of 'engagement' means there now is space to, with my new guides, look a little deeper at the connections joining business, communication and engagement. And continue to learn.

Never underestimate the value of occasionally revisiting first principles. When it comes to social media in business - aka Enterprise2.0/E2.0 - then here's a quick primer:

• Blogging - Debbie Weil video interviewed at BlogWorld Expo
• Wikis - new research on managing wikis in the workplace
• RSS - or really simple syndication

Take these basic ingredients and sketch out a strategy. If you need a pointer, then check this collaboration tools and technolgies video from BNet, and Dell's experience with social media after they 'stopped thinking like a customer'.

This could be an ROI question in disguise, but just say your manager buys into the potential of adopting some aspect of E2.0. How soon could he/she expect to see a change? According to the Wall St Journal, IT's lag effect on productivity could be as much as 3/4 years.

Now, adopting E2.0 should not be viewed unilaterally as an IT project, breaking down as follows:

• Content - what you want to communicate and why
• Process - the technical piece, getting the chosen system in
• Perception - the cultural shift required to unlock E2.0's full potential

The benefits of E2.0 could be visible almost instantly if used for a single project because the content is already in place. Expanding use of other forms of E2.0 could then be accelerated with the help of IT's alignment with business strategy. Cultural shifts should then gather momentum.

Imagine life without e-mail.

When Ray Tomlinson invented e-mail in 1971, I doubt he wanted to create the single biggest source of information overload in the enterprise. Is social media/E2.0 the way to kill e-mail overload, bacn included?

• Well, you could just delete everything.
• Maybe you could cultivate selective ignorance.
• Or you could go low-tech, and opt for e-mail free days. But turning off e-mail won't help.

As Suw Charman says; "A more effective way to tackle business e-mail is to look for specific tasks that are being done on a regular basis and move them to another, more suitable tool."

Such as a blog, chat platform or wiki.

Wikis are very versatile. And, according to Axel Thill of investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort, capable of reducing project-related e-mail volume by up to 75 per cent. That should help protect employee IQ levels.

We are reaching a point where interruption communication such as e-mail is untenable. Wikis are not new, yet for many businesses, this form of better collaboration and communication could prove innovative.

 

 

I saw this Geek and Poke cartoon today and then received the results of a Pollstream poll into social media that indicated:

• Over 77% of communicators declared that they will introduce or enhance Online Social Media tools on their intranet and within their email campaigns in 2008.
• Over 46% of communicators will be leveraging blogs, videos and polls to enhance customer and prospect online engagement in 2008.

Managers who think blogging - or other forms of social media - has had the requisite 15 minutes of fame are rare. Most yet do not know the potential to change the conversation in their company. More likely: fear will kill social media in the company.