Community Casebook

Networking the Way to Success: Conclusion

And, the end states:

Many of the social, collaborative, developmental, contributive and collegial workplace experiences desired by young workers can be facilitated through online social networking, and many company challenges- including bridging geographic and generational divides, increasing retention, improving process and workplace innovation, and building new business, can be enhanced through strategic online community initiatives. To remain competitive, some innovative companies have begun implementing and encouraging the use of online tools to create communities where employees can connect with one another at work and beyond. 

Where well-planned corporate social network strategies have been deployed, companies have seen early results indicating dramatic strategic and operational value across myriad strategic corporate measures, many of which directly impact human resource initiatives.  Purely from a talent perspective, corporate social networking has the potential to help business leaders identify internal talent across departmental and even geographic barriers and to help capture the attention, interest, collaboration and contribution of the employee community. It offers a solution to enhance on-boarding and development programs through social awareness and knowledge transfer in a peer-driven and collaborative fashion that connects the employee with whom they need to know. And, it can help talent planners to track employees through various career stages, from the time of entering a prospective talent pool within a corporate community, through to hire, promotion, alumni status, boomerang hiring, career development, retirement, and beyond.  
 
While corporate objections to social media and social networking are not uncommon, well considered electronic data policies and carefully chosen technology platforms can address these and provide solutions that are secure with ample control mechanisms.  Working through risks and objections and through executive strategy, policy and goals, Human Resources leaders and senior executives have the ability to leverage corporate social networks and online employee communities and to develop and protect a tremendously important company asset- invaluable talent. 
 
Accepting a proven communications trend, companies may choose to reevaluate policies
and reassess opportunities to implement changes that enable the power of online social networking for corporate advantage.  Because employees themselves are seeking connectivity not just at work, but in the world, we are apt to witness a shift in attitudes towards the role of online social networking at work and the growing emergence of corporate social networks. As social media tools and solutions become ubiquitous, it will be ever more critical to chart a company course through the vast and evolving online social networking meta-verse. 
 
Company online communities and social networking enable social awareness and knowledge transfer in a peer-driven and collaborative fashion, connecting employees with whom they need to know and connecting their contributions to the organization. Ten years ago, the Internet was a huge corporate threat.  Today we’d be lost without Google and email. Tomorrow, social networking can solve complex corporate challenges, if we embrace change and pave the way.

 

Networking the Way to Success: Mitigating Risks

More from the same!

Despite the many examples of successful corporate social networks, many companies remain skeptical that there is value in spending time online and they worry about the risks associated with these technologies.  Reportedly, sixty-five percent of US employers block certain websites from being accessed behind the corporate firewall, and half of those specifically block access to social networking sites.22  This resistance is partially to keep employees from wasting time but is also due to risk aversion.  The risks to employers of allowing access to these online sites can be managed, however, and are far outweighed by the benefits.

Corporate interest and participation in social networks have impacted the way users think about their own representation on line.  There is some indication that profiles are becoming more professional and appropriate for public consumption. Regardless, there is concern about what employees may say online.  Blogs are conversational and published in real-time so the potential to compromise an employer- intentionally or inadvertently- is increased. By ensuring all employees sign aggressive technology and confidentiality policies and agreements with restrictions that can be expanded to cover social networking and that state the employees clearly understand company policy on appropriate use of electronic communications, employers can legally monitor and evaluate employee online communications. That said, there are definite risks to terminating or disciplining an employee for online conduct outside of work; several state and federal anti-regulation acts could support the employee.  And, beyond the legal considerations of course, the ethics of monitoring employee behavior outside of work present a set of complex challenges.
 
For the workplace and company constituencies, building secure, exclusive networks is likely the best option for addressing a number of these issues.  Most corporate concerns and legal risks about social networking are alleviated by secure, company sponsored community solutions. Employees themselves prefer secure communities, citing security and trust among driving considerations23. Technologies provided by companies that build and deploy private social networks include options for role-based access to content and various levels of permission for network contribution and activity.
 
Finding a way to embrace technology trends and communications preferences to meet the needs of both the company and its constituencies is critical and not out of reach.  By evaluating and creating intelligent, enforceable policies companies can allow employees to communicate using with the full array of popular communication tools while ensuring legal and reputation risks are mitigated. Human Resources leaders should be far more involved in discussions surrounding possibilities and advantages for leveraging social networking, instead of focusing on concerns of reputation risk or wasted productivity.

Networking the Way to Success: Social Networking at Work

Again, from a draft of my article:

According to Forrester, between twenty-five and thirty percent of companies with 500 or more employees are seeing investments towards Web 2.0 communications and the kinds of online collaboration tools that are cornerstones of social networking. When asked why they are adopting the trend, seventy-four say that it improves the efficiency of business, sixty-four percent feel to the need to keep up with the competition, fifty-three percent claim it solves a particular business challenge, and forty-five percent cite employee demand. The move towards this company networking, however, is often driven through marketing or IT groups, without coordinated human resources efforts. 
 
In a recent Business Week article,11 head of technology for British Telecom J.P. Rangaswami articulated the huge value to corporations in leveraging social networks.  There is an increasingly vast arsenal of online communications tools to connect with employees he pointed out.  He told Business Week, “We've spent years talking about the value of the water-cooler conversations. [Through social networks] we have the ability to actually understand what these relationships are, how information and decision-making migrate. We see how people really work…” He points out that it’s the younger generation who are forcing the change; “the new people come infected with the new world… A new class of super-communicators has emerged…” He should know! More than 16,000 of British Telcom’s employees collaborate with online social media tools, 10,000 are on Facebook, and the company has recently launched its own internal corporate social network, built as an extension to its existing intranet, that links employees with similar skills and interests and allows visibility into employees’ contributions to the company’s collective body of knowledge. 
 
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer began a journey into social networking in 2006 to increase inter-team communications and facilitate collaboration. Pfizer launched an online community specifically for Web 2.0 strategy evaluation, and created a lab for testing social technologies. The company will soon launch a corporate social network solution for R&D employees worldwide, and a full-blown corporate Social Network for all employees possibly to be named “Pfacebook,”. Simon Revell, Pfizer’s manager of enterprise 2.0 technology, hopes the network tool will offer greater visibility into the skill sets of Pfizer’s world wide talent base and offer a way for employees to reach out to one another. “We have to put the user at the center of this, and we have to understand it from their perspective.”12 Among other uses, the network will provide content feeds based on job function, interest or expertise.  The solution will allow visibility into what colleagues are reading and how they react to the information, thereby pulling subscribers into collaboration.  
 
Financial services powerhouse Morgan Stanley is also looking at on line social solutions to improve work collaboration. The goal is to “transform how the company connects to its people, ideas and capital,” according to Adam Carson, a company associate who is taking the Web 2.0 charge. Carson believes the move towards corporate social networking is imperative: “It is not an ‘if’ anymore—it is a ‘when’ and ‘how’.” Half of the company’s 55,000 employees are under 35 years old and adeptly experienced with social networks. Morgan Stanley already uses corporate networking to facilitate collaboration at work.  The firm uses online social networks to communicate internally and with clients; the company’s 10,000-person IT team is kept closely in the loop to ensure that security and permission are built into all company tools, in order to comply with strict regulations13.  According to Carson, “If you can tap into the power of your
company better than your competitors… that is a competitive advantage.”
 
Many other firms have agreed.  Citrix Systems, the global leader in application delivery infrastructure, recently launched an employee knowledge network connecting its workforce through community-based blog solutions that include the ability for an employee to receive content feeds relating to job functions and interests. 14 Japan’s leading retailer UNIQLO, also implemented a blog content management networking solution with mobile access to connect a 700-store workforce to corporate headquarters, including connecting floor personnel with limited computer access. The solution enables real-time information collaboration and process development15. 
 
According to IDC, Telephone customer service and call-center company Alpine Access provides connectivity and facilitates conversation and information collaboration and a “virtual water cooler effect” through a more sophisticated internal social networking and community platform16, and Serena Software, a 27 year old organization, is “redesigning its business for the new century”17.  With an aggressively innovative approach to organizational structure, Serena is using social networking to enable functional internal communication, while also using it to create and provide a new online marketplace to promote new products and services.  Serena used a company mandate to use Facebook on “Facebook Fridays” as tool to educate and encourage employees of all generations to embrace a proven shift in online and interpersonal communications. Since then, the company has shifted towards an increased use of a private company social network that replaces inefficiencies in existing processes and technologies, freeing Serena from the bourdon, cost and cumbersome nature of enterprise. The Serena community has layers of visibility for the public, Serena customers and partners, and internal employees. Its branding is sophisticated and edgy, in keeping with Serena’s company website and brand.  The Serena Community bridges internal and external communications, creating
efficiencies and new business opportunities for the organization. 
 
In an era of shrinking talent pools and ever more transient workforce, social networking provides a new an innovative way to address a number of talent challenges including employee engagement, connection to the corporate culture, continued connectivity of transitioning workers, such as corporate alumni and retirees, and collaboration across geographies. Dow Chemical and others are using social networking to leverage talent internally and externally.  Dow has had great success with its recently launched corporate social network called “My Dow Network” which serves retirees, former employees, women and current employees. Senior management, business leaders, HR, and PR are all involved in the strategy of the corporate online community. At Dow, more than forty percent of Dow’s current workforce will be retirement eligible in the coming five years, making talent considerations and career transitions essential to core business strategy. The social network solution seems to be bridging generational gaps, and has even led to an increase in rehires.  In the first three months, more than 4,400 employees including 800 retirees signed up on “My Dow Network” and started connecting, resulting in 130,000 first and second-degree community connections (a first step towards network adoption and activity). Simply by creating a community for retirees, Dow maintains the knowledge base to ensure productivity, while retirees gain a broad personal and professional network with the ability to stay connected or even to re-enter the workforce and have access to critical retiree benefit information they need.  The results indicate an unconditional success; in the first few months alone, Dow received 24 full-time and 40 contract job applications through the network as well as Employer of Choice award designations by Workforce Management, ComputerWorld and BusinessWeek. 18 An excellent competitive advantage for leveraging talent, and an easy place to start with corporate social networking, is connecting to corporate alumni in order to facilitate new business referrals, applications from alumni to potentially rejoin the company, and brand ambassadorship.  Alumni rehires tend to stay on the job longer and cost significantly less to hire. One company’s early alumni network evaluation metrics showed ten percent of hires in one region coming through the social network indicating a cost-savings of more than 1.4 million dollars in third party recruiting fees. 19 Furthermore, research indicates that rehires make for markedly better performers (being as much as three times as productive according to the Recruiting Roundtable). It makes good sense to include alumni as well as current employees in a talent-focused corporate social networking
solution. 
 
Efficiencies in social effectiveness, learning and on-boarding of new hires are also important to assess. Several leading finance organizations are evaluating corporate social networking for on-boarding of new-hire classes, to allow them to learn from one-another as well as participating mentors and knowledge leaders through a collaborative social networking environment online, not only at work behind the corporate firewall, but socially, online, for constant learning & team-building through a networked affiliation with their new employer.  Companies are also evaluating the benefits of surrounding online learning resources with community applications to generate a knowledge network, discussion and insights surrounding existing company documents, resources and learning materials.
 
Corporate social networks are commonly used to connect large workforces to one another. After years of mergers and growth, many companies have enormous populations in the tens of thousands spread across many locations.   One of the most successful and widely publicized successes in connecting disparate employees through corporate social networking is Best Buy.  In 2006, the international electronics retailer launched “Blue Shirt Nation.” The corporate sponsored network connects employees from myriad retail outlets to share information and ask questions of peers in the community. The community is outside of the Best Buy firewall, moderated by its users, and has more than 20,000 active members, 85% of which are sales associates. Started by two marketing managers as a weekend project, the community provides a forum for authentic and un-moderated communication including discussions around operational issues, and suggested policy changes. Leveraging this tool, Best Buy was able to spread the word about new benefits resulting in 40,000 employees signing up for a new 401K program. But beyond just information and communication, since the advent of this online social network the  turnover rate at Best Buy dropped from 60% to only 8.5% in the networked group. 20
 
To address the inevitable disconnect between employees, IBM has set up its own employee social network, successfully connecting more than 30,000 employees. The network, which allows activities such as event planning, photo-sharing and discussion groups, is intended to help employees build relationships across a large, geographically distributed enterprise. Like IBM, another computer giant, EMC, launched a corporate social network with the vision of connecting their 37,000 employees with customers, partners, influencers, new hires, and other industry constituencies in a vast knowledge and productivity network- a total enterprise community of as many as 370,000. Viewing the opportunity to address business challenges created by having several silos of information within the company, the EMC project was funded by the Marketing eBusiness Group, the same group that provides web solutions and portals, along with a corporate executive sponsor, the VP and Global Marketing CTO.  The solution required help from IT and HR as well as a dedicated team to ensure platform continuity and as well as user-enablement community development. Goals include conversational collaboration, identification and building upon communities of interest, as well as collaboration for content, documents, projects and teams. 
 
The network as it exists today is for EMC employees only, is behind the firewall, and was introduced via word of mouth (vs. corporate mandate). Within the first six months it attracted 3,500 active users including 80 or so employee-generated communities.  Chuck Hollis, the executive sponsor for the community believes the solution facilitates important collaboration and conversation. In his own blog, he has written that the EMC online community "has significant business value, even for the casual observer."  He also points out other unexpected benefits: "email traffic is down, …a new "external quality" blogger [emerges] every 3-4 weeks [creating] lively, business oriented discussions on dozens of topics."  Chuck now believes that there is high business value derived from these internal communications and that the online social network has increased employee satisfaction, enriched the work experience and positively impacted corporate culture.  Says Chuck; "I am now a believer in the transformational power of E 2.0 [enterprise social software]… at a personal level and at a corporate level." 21
 
There is no question that online social networking tools have vast potential and are already changing the way companies and employees do business. The question for corporations is not if they should launch an online social network, but what kind of solutions, for which business purposes, and how. 

Networking the Way to Success: What is Online Social Networking?

Continued from previous post:

Terms like Social Media, Social Networks, Blogs and Online Communities all refer to a
philosophy known as “Web 2.0”, a term coined several years ago to indicate a shift in
user preference and activity towards online self-publishing and content collaboration. Put simply, social networking and social media leverage a system of contributory and
collaborative media and knowledge management tools to put power in the hands of a
community of online users- collaborative networks- vs. in the hands of corporations or
traditional media outlets or institutions. 
 
A Google search for “Web 2.0” turns up more than seventy million hits, the relatively
new Web 2.0 tech conference is one of the most popular today, and the World Economic
Forum in Davos has newly introduced panels on the world impact of Web 2.0. Media. 
Coverage of social media and social networking has been extraordinary, with nearly daily
mentions of Web 2.0 in leading business magazines. Time magazine even made “You”
(each individual Internet user) the Person of the Year 2006 to indicate the extraordinary
business and social impact of web-based collaboration. 
 
Social networking is essentially the bringing together of various Web 2.0 communications tools and methods and marrying the collaboration and user-generated content publication they enable within a connected online network. Much of the hype around social networking is attributed to the proven affinity for hundreds of millions of people worldwide for publishing personal information and content in open forums on social networks that are open to the public.
 
Of the most popular social networks, LinkedIn focuses on professionals, facilitating
expertise requests and business inquiries, and providing job postings and research tools.
Many recruiters use LinkedIn to source from millions of professional profiles. Some companies boast as many as 25% of regional hires through LinkedIn. As recently as March 2008 the LinkedIn Professional Network had more than 23 million members, approximately half based in the United States, with millions of UK, EU and Indian professionals participating as well.  MySpace is more oriented towards friends and  mutual interests and boasts more than 100 million members in more than twenty  countries, making it among the most trafficked site on the web.
 
Another of the Web’s most popular sites, Facebook was originally started to connect
college students and alumni. In the last few years, membership has grown to more then
75 million spanning 80 countries.  Despite the site’s roots, today, as many as forty
percent of users are between 35 and 50 years old. In addition to its social component,
Facebook has appeal to many companies for marketing initiatives as well as recruiting
and employer brand leverage. Its mostly college-educated demographic represents a
critical talent segment, and profile content tends to be more conservative and private. 
 
An estimated fifty percent of employers screen applicants through profiles on popular
social networks9.  However, social networking is often frowned on by employers because
content employees publish may be unprofessional and inappropriate to publish in the
corporate public domain. To combat these concerns, popular public social networks are
working to enhance user security levels to facilitate restricted permissions and access
between professional and social contacts and content. 
 
Increasingly, albeit slowly, employees, colleagues, work groups and, in some cases, entire workplaces are self-selecting into corporate social networks. Often sponsored by or set up by corporations in addition to or in tandem with intranet sites, corporate social
networks allow company employees to engage in collaboration and business networking,
acting as both internal and external brand ambassadors through their communications
preferences and online activities.  
 
Some companies are stuck grappling with legal concerns and threats to changes in  corporate culture, while only an innovative few are taking important steps to tackle
planning challenges and embrace the new wave of interactive communications. Corporate social networking can provide transparency across departmental, affiliate and even
geographic barriers, allowing the corporate community to connect and facilitate the
identification of internal or external talent for projects, new roles and opportunities, while encouraging collaboration to solve functional problems. It can also be used to create or augment an internal directory, potentially to be linked to existing Human Resources systems. Leveraged correctly, social networking can present a potent marketing and branding mechanism, a virtual water cooler, and a catalyst for enhancements in corporate culture. 

Networking the Way to Success: The Challenging Landscape

The following extracts are from my recent article, co-authored with VP HR and consultant Lauren Leader-Chivee published by the Journal of the Human Resources Planning Society: People and Strategy (the Special Future Edition)

Let’s review the statistics. More than seventy-five percent of 400 Human Resource  executives from 40 countries surveyed recently by the IBM Institute for Business Value  and the Economist Intelligence Unit1 said they are concerned about their ability to attract,  retain and develop future leaders.  In other studies, as many as four out of five companies  express worry that they will not have the talent they need to fuel their businesses in the  coming years.  Despite the current economic downturn in the US, Human Resources  executives are bracing for a looming talent crunch that is widespread, global and has  already become apparent in the IT, scientific and technical sectors. 

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics by the year 2014 the number of US  employees ages 55 to 64 is expected to grow by forty-two percent and the percentage of  workers over 65 is expected to increase seventy-four percent. Overall, the American  workforce is aging and many younger entrants to the workforce are not developing the  skills they need to fill key roles with impending shortages. At the same time, Human Resources leaders in many industries are reporting spikes in voluntary turnover, as young workers are markedly less likely to stay in their jobs than in the past. The average college educated worker in the US will hold ten or more jobs between the ages of eighteen and forty. 2  What’s more, seventy-two percent of educated workers between the ages of 26- 30 will stay in their jobs less than two years and eighty-seven percent will hold jobs for less than five years. 

What can social networking do?  Companies may prepare talent pools- networks of interested candidates in persistent dialog with the recruiting organization. Beyond building and leveraging talent networks that coordinate with recruitment marketing  campaigns, companies may also address top considerations of young professionals through the introduction of online communities. 

A recent Harvard Business Review3 study revealed that among high potential young  leaders, individual responsibility, social and enjoyable colleagues and a congenial  workplace are the most important factors impacting loyalty to employers.  This study also  indicated that opportunities to learn and grow are critical, as are team-based work and collaborative decision-making. Another recent survey of employees about benefits of social networking at work4 reports that seventy-four percent of employees consider work  culture assimilation challenging and twenty-five percent report having quit a job due to lack of social connectivity. An incredible seventy-seven percent of 20-29 year-old  employees find social aspects of work essential to workplace satisfaction, and eighty percent of workers indicate connectedness as critical. In essence, culture and engagement are at least as important to young workers as compensation. Employees want to be connected to colleagues and the firm and to learn from peers and managers. This kind of feedback supports what Human Resources executives have suspected for years; connectedness is what keeps people engaged at work. Well-planned company social networks can foster such a workplace connection.

Implications go beyond recruitment and retention. Connectedness is often linked to workplace performance. As outlined in the book “The Hidden Power of Social Networks5,” decades of research indicate networked teams out-perform the competition. And within teams, on an individual level, the high-performance distinguisher- more than technology access or personal expertise- is having access to a large and diversified personal network.6 This is no surprise when you consider the statistics: more than eighty percent of employees across the workplace generations indicated they are more likely to listen to information or recommendations if presented by someone they trust and know; sixty-three percent indicate the quality of information they receive through trusted networks is higher than any other7. In other research, employees are as much as five times more likely to turn to a trusted connection for information as to an institutionally provided source.8 

Corporate adoption of social networking, while new, is already showing enormous benefits. By offering employees the tools and technology to reach out and connect with one another, organizations can facilitate a collaborative corporate culture while benefiting from a wide range of improved efficiencies, from sourcing and recruiting, to on-boarding and learning programs, to improved alumni, diversity, women’s and retiree communications. Many process improvements may be found through efficient social networking programs and organizational connectivity.

Networking the Way to Success: Introduction

The following extracts are from my recent article, co-authored with VP HR and consultant Lauren Leader-Chivee published by the Journal of the Human Resources Planning Society: People and Strategy (the Special Future Edition)

There are many complex human resources challenges facing companies large and small,
many of which are directly affecting by internal and external communications programs.
The advent of globalization and the prevalence of mergers and acquisitions have made it
harder than ever to ensure employees in disparate locations around the globe have a
consistent experience and experience a unified corporate culture.  Talent pools are
shrinking, turnover is high, brand is increasingly paramount, and recruiting costs are ever
growing. Yet one of the most interesting and potent resources for addressing these issues
remains a relative mystery to most Human Resources leaders. Online social networking
may be the most powerful solution not yet built into the corporate plan.

In the last few years, online social networks like Facebook and MySpace,  along with
professional networking sites like LinkedIn, have exploded in popularity with an estimated aggregate total of more than 170 million subscribers.  New social media tools are cropping up every day. While many employers view social networking as a threat to productivity, and while many block access to popular sites from work computers, some visionary employers have figured out how to leverage powerful social media tools and online communities for efficiencies and competitive advantage.  

Social networks are an important workplace consideration for the purposes of keeping up with employee demands and communication preferences, as well as for maintaining a variety of innovation and competitive advantages. Some early adopters are pro-actively fighting turnover, increasing engagement, affinity and retention, and recruiting passive, retiree, and boomerang talent through the use of social networks. Others are facilitating knowledge transfer and collaborative process improvement and innovation through company social networks, while simultaneously driving new business development.  The possibilities for leveraging social media tools to broad success are enormous.  Most early-acting companies have begun social media strategy consideration through the marketing department. Others are evaluating from the standpoint of corporate communications, updating Intranet (knowledge center) strategies by adding social features to existing processes. Few are embracing a new approach to human resources strategy that embraces an advanced approach using online social networking to bridge internal and external communications and tackle pressing recruitment and retention concerns.  It is unknown what the optimal strategy looks like, but how soon is too soon to try?

A very good article on Business use of Social Networking

I am hopeless, swamped, and not able to do better this quarter than one posting that is nothing more than a reprinting of someone(other)'s very good article, chalk-full of tidbits appropriate for Community Casebook!

name:	Social Networking Connects Businesss
link:	Smart Enterprise
author:	Karen Bannan
date:	June 18, 2009
keywords:	HiveLive, Social Text, Caroline Dangson, Charlene Li, social networking
full article:	Smart Practices Following other consumer technologies, social networking sites are finding a home in corporate settings. For CIOs, the move brings challenges -- and opportunities. By Karen J. Bannan How do you grow market share when you already lead the market? For Headwaters Inc., a South Jordan, Utah, provider of products and services to the energy, construction and home-improvement industries, the answer involves social networking. Headwaters, with 2008 revenue of $819 million, already owned 80 percent of the market in many of its verticals. While company executives put a priority on pursuing the remaining 20 percent, they’re also focused on introducing new products as a way to expand into related markets. Headwaters executives knew this strategy would require numerous meetings with customers, both current and potential. Yet they also wanted to avoid costly travel bills. So last year, with help from CIO Niel Nickolaisen, Headwaters built a customer portal and wiki to let employees interact online, both with customers and each other. The company evaluated several popular services, conferred with others at industry events, and launched social-technology pilots. Since then, Headwaters has begun using social networking for other purposes, too. These include helping HR find and evaluate job candidates, connecting salespeople with customers, promoting supplier loyalty and connecting customers to potential customers. “You can invite your customers to share best practices and share their experiences,” Nickolaisen says of the latter application. “Do it right, and you’re creating a potentially limitless pool of unofficial company salespeople.” The company also uses social networking internally to support its Lean manufacturing efforts. “We use social networking to gather process improvement information from our employees,” Nickolaisen says. Social Work Headwaters is far from alone. Social networking, a technology originally designed for consumers, has entered the corporate setting in a big way. In fact, 60 percent of all U.S. workers have used at least one social-networking site in the past year, according to market researchers Compass Intelligence. Another market watcher, Equation Research, sees even wider adoption; the firm says 75 percent of all U.S. employees now use social networks for business purposes. “Social networking began with the consumer Internet and is now finding its way into the workplace,” says Caroline Dangson, Research Analyst with IDC’s Digital Marketplace Program. “People are realizing the value of social networks to connect with colleagues and deepen business relationships, just as they do with friends on these services.” Many employees have taken it upon themselves to use these tools, regardless of whether their organization has its own initiatives, Dangson adds. In fact, she is one of more than 50 analysts at IDC using Twitter, the microblogging service. Another 360 or so IDC employees use Yammer, a free, private social messaging service, for internal information sharing and virtual brainstorming sessions. Click on image to enlarge it. Also, some companies have improved productivity with social networking, Dangson says. Mainly, they’ve done so by reducing the time employees need to spend on the phone solving customers’ problems. “Workers struggle with information overload,” she says. “Social networks help them filter and find the information they need through the help of peers they trust.” A recent MIT study supports this. Researchers there found that employees with the most online connections were 7 percent more productive than their less digitally connected colleagues. While that gain might seem modest, in today’s economy, every percentage point is worth fighting for. That’s certainly the case at Textron Information Services (TIS), which provides IT resources to its parent company, Textron Inc., a $14.2 billion company based in Providence, R.I., that serves the aircraft, defense, industrial and finance industries. TIS uses social networking to help its 800 IT employees communicate with each other and find answers to difficult problems. “People can reach out and find someone who has a skill set that can help them,” says Gary Cantrell, VP and CIO. “Social networking connects them in a way that just wasn’t possible in the past.” For CIOs, social networking brings a mix of challenges and opportunities. Get it right, and the company can benefit. Get it wrong — and many do, experts say — and the CIO faces wasted time, manpower and other resources at a time when few companies can afford such losses. “Social networking isn’t something you can just turn on,” says Ross Mayfield, Chairman, President and Co-Founder of Socialtext Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif., developer of enterprise social networking software. “You need to be aligned to a business goal, and if you are a CIO, you need line-of-business alignment and a line-of-business manager engaged in the implementation process.” In fact, companies that take a try-an-installation-and-see-what- happens approach have a 90 percent failure rate, according to Mayfield. Statistics like that led Nickolaisen of Headwaters to select his social networking tools carefully. First, he determined the business need. Headwaters executives knew that most new product ideas come from solving new customer problems, which — more often than not — require the company to spend time with customers, understanding their business challenges. “But in our business, we don’t have a lot of people in the field, so we have to be smart about gathering information,” Nickolaisen explains. Social Pilots So Nickolaisen turned to social networking. He and his team began by evaluating Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and other popular services with firsthand trials. He spoke with other CIOs, both at industry events and online, asking them what they had accomplished with social networking. And he instructed his team to launch pilots with select clients to see how they liked using social networking to interact directly with Headwaters. Ultimately, in a bid to save money and reduce complexity, Nickolaisen selected a software solution that the company had installed earlier and which provided a portal. Headwaters was using the software as an internal resource to post ideas and track their process through the R&D process. To foster internal collaboration, Headwaters set up a wiki. Experts say Nickolaisen did well to start with his company’s business goals. Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group, a digital strategy consulting firm, and coauthor of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (Harvard Business School Press, 2008), says considering the business objectives is essential for CIOs selecting a social networking tool. “It all depends on the goals of the company,” she says. “Are you trying to engage customers? Are you looking to drive sales? Are you looking to get people talking internally? It all starts with that.” John Kembel, CEO of HiveLive, Inc., a Boulder, Colo.-based developer of social networking software, agrees. “Some companies start with a focus on internal collaboration and efficiency, while others start with more of an external focus on customer engagement,” he says. “We’ve seen the greatest success with those companies that start externally, bringing customers closer to their business through a community. This extroverted posture makes for the fastest cultural shift, driving innovation and competitive advantage.” Doubly Social Nickolaisen of Headwaters may also be leading a trend with his choice of not one, but two social networking systems. Indeed, Li says many companies will ultimately select two different social networking technologies: one for internal use and the other for external use. Which approach should a CIO take? It depends. Does the CIO need something that’s one-dimensional and works internally only? Or does he or she need a bigger ecosystem that connects to public social networking services such as Twitter or Facebook? Either way, says IDC’s Dangson, the CIO is best positioned to manage and support the flow of information within the enterprise — and to support and direct an organization’s social media strategy. The CIO should work with the CEO to develop corporate guidelines and policies that help encourage all employees to use social networks. One best practice for CIOs evaluating social networks for business, says Dangson, is to choose a flexible platform, one that aligns with the company’s business objectives and will connect all departments of the company. “Corporations that have experienced quantifiable success in deploying social networks have buy-in and support from upper management, who understand this is not just an activity for marketing and sales,” she says. “It’s about connecting the entire company and leveraging the wisdom of many, not just a few.” But CIOs should not take too long to decide which social network to adopt, advises Alan Majer, a Senior Analyst with Austin, Texas-based nGenera Corp., which bills itself as a next generation think tank. “If you don’t put a stake in the ground,” he warns, “eventually people will start using their own tools, and it could be very difficult later to migrate them over.” Then, once a social network is running, CIOs should follow up with controls to protect confidential corporate information and prevent abuses. For example, the company has also created an “acceptable use” policy that gives employees and customers a framework to work within, says CIO Cantrell. “We also do continuous training and awareness to reinforce proper use and the right behavior,” he adds. Enforcing these controls can be a delicate balancing act. Too little control, and corporate secrets could be at risk. But too much control, and the social network stops, well, networking. Nickolaisen of Headwaters believes he has found an effective middle ground. “You don’t want to be too controlling, because that limits the use of social networks,” he says. “Even when our internal social network initially turned into a gripe forum, we were patient, and the community established the standards. Now it has a purpose and its own controls.” In the end, social networking success may come down to trust. Once you’ve provided the tools, it’s time to step back and let those tools create benefits. “You need to trust your salespeople, your CEO, your customer service people to talk to each other and talk to customers every day,” says consultant Li. “If you give them specific goals, and if they see inherent value in using social networking, they are going to use those tools for the good.” ■ KAREN J. BANNAN is the Executive Editor of Smart Enterprise. Five Ways to Succeed with Social Networking 1.Assess your business needs before testing technologies so you can match needs with functionality. 2.Get at least one person from each business unit to test any potential technologies. Different business units have different needs, so what works for the IT department may be lacking for the marketing department, for example. 3.To prevent abuses, create an “acceptable use” policy that provides employees with guidelines for using the company’s social networking tools. 4.Determine how easily social networking tools can be integrated with your existing technology. The more integration you have, the easier it will be to get people to start using the social networking tools. 5.Install filtering and monitoring software. That way, you can monitor what’s going in and out of the company and prevent or detect abuses. Source: IDC Social Networking for Personal Gain Ian Church has lived all over the world. He’s also changed careers and industries, moving from the high tech world into sporting goods. His most recent stop was as VP and Managing Director, U.K./Ireland, with ProLink Solutions. Along the way he had little time to network and few people to network with, since his goals and expertise were constantly changing. Church knew that networking could be extremely important to his long-term goals, so he logged on to business networking site LinkedIn.com, created a profile and joined 23 groups. He connected to more than 200 people and started answering questions and providing feedback. “It is a way to evaluate what’s going on outside the walls of your company without having to leave your own personal four walls,” Church says. “Personally, it helped me overcome my many geographic issues. I was so mobile, I didn’t have the benefit of a face-to-face safety net of people, so I had to create one.” This past February, Church learned just how important such a network — even a virtual one — could be. He was laid off due to the recession. That same day, Church logged on to LinkedIn and announced to his network and groups that he was looking for the next opportunity. Within just one day, he says, three people responded with job leads. Within a few weeks he was working on a two-month freelance project, and he had a good lead on a full-time job that would coincidentally start when his freelance gig ended. Overall, Church says, while social networking is a boon to those executives trying to boost their company bottom line, it’s just as important for personal fulfillment as well. “Social networking becomes the safety net in this modern world,” he says. “In the 1970s, your employer was your employer for life. Now you have to create your own job security.” – K.J.B.

Community Jeopardy! Creativity! Be prepared to be wrong!

It has come to my attention that one of the very neat parts about having a completely configurable community platform is that community members can get creative and add unexpected flair and opportunity. 

Why would you want to empower your members to create activities in your community?  Well, you don't need to. Administrative controls at the most granular, content (building block) level can keep you in your comfort zone of complete control.  What if you were to venture forth and try something new, however?

Maybe you could invite members to give insights and feedback and join in the creation and growth of the community?  Maybe you could create private spaces for groups within the community to try things out and see what works or drives interest?

Today I found Community Jeopardy in the HiveLive community. What is it? It is a trivia game that keeps track of the leaders on the leader (score) board, rewarding expertise. And, it is a game that also rewards participation!  Points are scored not only for being right, but also for weighing in with answers.  Why? In short, fear of being wrong kills creativity. Only if we are willing to throw our ideas out there and take a risk do we have a chance to make things happen!

This Ted video tells that story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY#t=5m34s

I'll report on a few questions and answers in coming posts. This is a very cool community element, introduced by a member of the community looking to drive certain conversations while having fun. The knowledge base this is building is already extraordinary. All in the quest for point. Wonder what the end reward will be?

Current leader:  http://www.ryanspohn.com.  Bring it on!

A Presidentially Historic Use of Social Networking

Presentation to Kraft Organizational Development & Corporate Communications Group on 11/05/08:

It was an historic time to be in Chicago, and an historic time to draw the parallels between social networking for campaign and corporate strategy.

A few thoughts on the election, and the use of corporate social networking.
Parallels can be made, called out as I go along…

The entire orchestration of the social media medley of the campaign is something I suspect we have never quite seen before.

Obama relied less on the big sell and more on the big swell.

1) As we all know or are discovering, there is undoubtedly a strong communications trend towards social networking.

I’ve read that in some circles, Barak Obama may be considered the King of  Social Networking.  Has he been the most popular candidate ever to social network?  Not necessarily, and that is somewhat outside the point… Yes, he engendered faith, hope and loyalty throughout his campaign. But, he didn’t necessarily start there.

Obama and his campaign have been prolific users of social networks, and using a popular Hive analogy, have been VERY BUSY BEES. From what I read, he was among the first to use groups on Facebook, to place a profile on the boomer social network Eons, to participate in profile and group on the professional social network, LinkedIn, and to join other demographically focused social networks such as BlackPlanet.com, MiGente.com, AsianAve.com, and GLEE.com (“Gay, Lesbian, and Everyone Else”). 

According to David Weinberger, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School and Internet adviser for Howard Dean, as reported by The Trail (Washingtonpost.com), "This is 2007, not 2004. Back in 2004, the strategy was, get them to your Web site. That was the goal… These days, the Web is a much busier, fragmented, diverse world, and while these social networking sites are still really in their infancy, it's hard to resist their value in reaching people."

2) We are beginning to realize the value of social networks branded to accomplish certain specific initiatives under a unified banner.

The Obama campaign launched its own social network, MyBarakObama.com., bringing people together specifically for Obama-related information, resources and initiatives.  The site invites supporters and interested parties to create profiles about themselves, blog about their insights or experiences, plan and attend events, find others of common interest, and help with fundraising.

Some consider Obama’s branded social network to be similar in ways to Facebook- a least as easy to use. I find it much more compelling, from an information, research and discussion standpoint. It is of note that Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, left his post to join the Obama campaign and help with social networking strategy. Apparently, “Obama’s supporters looked like Facebook.”

As pointed out in Webtrends (on About.com), “the rule of thumb for any great application is to pack a powerful punch while being as simple to use as possible. And that's what My.BarackObama.Com delivers.”  Some would argue that the Information Architecture could reveal more interesting content, topic and focus areas for the information-seeker, and that there should be more opportunities for user-generated content, comments, questions, ideas and feedback around the point of topical information (all of which are benefits for having a comprehensive social networking under a unified banner), but generally speaking, the site is easy to navigate, even for a social networking neophyte.

I think it is also a rule of thumb that any successful social networking initiative should include some (or both) of two things, and ideally both:

·      an extraordinarily vast arsenal of potentially interesting connections (sheer volume of people)- as is the driving attraction of MySpace, LinkedIn or Facebook,             

·      and/or, compelling, rich, and relevant content and information- with ample opportunities for community contributions and collaboration- specific to accomplishing specific initiatives, tasks or goals- as is the case with a branded social network such as MyBarackObama.com. 

The two main functions of Obama's social network seem to be 1) to help with event coordination, organization and awareness, and  2) to help raise campaign funds.

While there are no indications that MyBo, as Barak’s social network is affectionately called, approached the membership levels of social networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn, it certainly delivered on content relevancy, richness and collaboration.

3) Let’s not forget about strategy, business and communications purposes, and ROI. Social Networking may make traditional processes easier.

It seems that hundreds of thousands of volunteers (230,000 volunteers by some counts) made a huge difference with a get-out-the-vote campaign in the swing state of Florida. How so? Events, gatherings and motivational pushes organized through the MyBo social network.

And, if the general consensus is correct a great deal of Obama’s record-breaking fundraising was comprised of online donations of less than $200. The viral nature of the social networks and inexpensive campaigns that relied in large part on member-to-member messaging led to young and lower-income voters to donate modestly in order to dip toes in the water of a larger, groundswell movement (to borrow the Forrester term), very similar to the evolution of social networking itself.

Here is a key point for any business: let’s not forget that social networks also act as databases.  The Obama campaign gave volunteers access to databases had been constantly updated throughout the race through both its field-office computers, and through the online community, with information about potential voters' political leanings. The Neighbor-to-Neighbor tool and its database coordination helped organizers to identify registered voters in specific neighborhoods so they might more efficiently be canvassed. And the campaign enjoyed richly refreshed data.

According to Sanford Dickert, a social-media consultant in New York City, as reported by Wired Magazine “The blend of gumshoe canvassing and information processing is a hallmark of the Obama campaign.  … the use technology was not the end-all and be-all in this cycle. Technology has been a partner, an enabler, bringing the efficiencies of the internet into the real-world problems of organizing people in a distributed, trusted fashion."

4) It’s a good idea to consider a comprehensive social media strategy that includes both a branded social networks, and social media campaigns leveraging other networks and tools.

Obama (or his campaign team) were smart to build their own social network in addition to maintaining a strong presence across the main social destinations on the web.  Obama participated on all of the aforementioned social networks, and he also had a presence on MySpace (which may likely have been introduced by a zealous fan).  By one count, Obama has 1.5 million friends on MySpace and Facebook, and he currently has over 45,000 followers on Twitter. Apparently, one could have also followed the campaign through the daily Tweets of an Obama intern.  (Sure enough, I “tweeted” that I was in Grant Park the evening of the election and received a dozen or so new “followers” within the hour.  People track Obama people.)  Also of note, “Yes We Can” music videos on YouTube, viewed as many as 8 million times.  The entire orchestration of the social media medley of the campaign is something I suspect we have never quite seen before.

Clever orchestration is a of course a masterwork. And, I truly believe that MyBarakObama.com- the information hub for the purpose of the social networks, made all the difference. In fact, I’d love to learn more about it, once the analyst votes come in. My guess is that those that participated in MyBo were more active (both online and offline) with Obama advocacy (passive or active) than those that simply joined a Facebook group or asked a question on LinkedIn.  I may be wrong about that, and I’d be interested to learn the statistics, but it was the case with me.  Sure, I clicked the link to designate myself an Obama “fan” when the mood struck, but when I joined MyBarakObama.com, it was to dig deeper, seek interesting insights and discussions, and take a step towards active participation.

The use of a comprehensive social networking strategy enabled supporters, perhaps only several million of the final Obama voters, perhaps the critical new ballots that made the election a record-breaking turnout, to do what Obama himself  also accomplished.  Advocates told stories, discussed values, shared motivational messaging and influenced each other through insights and feedback, over time. And, much of it fell under the banner of achieving specific, coordinated goals- to great success.

5) Shifting models- an ode to the power of persistent communities.

It was brought to my attention today that social networking in and of itself is no new shakes- Bill Clinton got nominated initially in large part through the power of traditional (offline) social networking.  And, campaign strategies have long embraced “online”.  Some of these concepts may not be new… 

I would argue that for the most part, traditional online strategies have been very Web 1.0…  mostly  “pushed” content, with perhaps the addition of YouTube clips or blogs. I am reminded of the Hillary Clinton site I participated in earlier this year. Every time I visited I was pushed a new message and greeted with a huge “donate button”. I felt a pressure to drink the Kool-Aid, push the huge button and contribute more. Like a common general reaction to information clearly pushed by a corporate/campaign mandate, despite quite a bit of personal passion, I eventually disengaged.

Obama relied less on the big sell and more on the big swell. His campaign let the community push the message amongst itself, and the community organically grew. Wired.com points out that, “ultimately that may have been what made the difference: Obama simply 'gets' how social networking works.”

Daniel Nations (Webtrends) makes a critical point, “A fundamental understanding of communication has always been at the center of a politician's arsenal, but a firm grasp on the future of communication may be the secret weapon that wins the war. For Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was radio. For John F. Kennedy, it was television. And for Barack Obama, it is social media… There is no doubt that Barack Obama has changed the face of politics in America. And just as Obama is using Web 2.0 and Social Networking in his campaign, so can Web 2.0 and Social Networking give the American people a voice in politics.”

Beyond the end of the presidential campaign, I anticipate the Obama social network will only grow and morph into a platform for collaboration, discussion and further initiatives around his presidency.  Furthermore, the branded sight, easily found on search engines, likely caught, and will continue to catch the attention and participation of many people who were not already active online social networkers.

By the way, Obama's own social network was apparently used, by members of the Obama community, to stage a protest of his stance a particular piece of legislation.  Social Networks are not always about business goals and brand promotion. Social Networks also offer a chance to gain the true insights of your community. Obama will be wise to continue leveraging this incredible tool, and the people of the world have a chance to utilize a new voice. 

Way Behind... quick view into Social Media through CNN

By Steven Mollman
For CNN

CNN -- "Why can't I do this at home?"

Employees in the office used to ponder this question about corporate technology not easily available to consumers.

Today the question, usually asked from home or a cafe, is: "Why can't I do this at work?"

Innovative, user-friendly offerings -- Skype, Facebook, Twitter, mash-ups, YouTube, wikis, and the like -- take root and thrive as consumer offerings.

Corporate IT departments meanwhile often seem oblivious to their potential usefulness, even as workers wonder at their absence. But increasingly such technologies are being used for business.

Partly this is because enterprise versions have emerged with fancier security features. And partly it's because as the consumer-side versions keep growing, new users continue to come from within small companies -- or even large enterprises, often to the horror of security-conscious IT departments.

• Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, has seen the emergence of small copycat services focused on businesses. Yammer, for instance, claims to have better security than the free Twitter, and it charges a small per-head fee. Users, rather than answering the Twitter question of "What are you doing?" for anyone to read, answer "What are you working on?" for colleagues only to read.

• Wikis, online pages that any user can edit, surged in popularity among consumers thanks partly to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Not long after businesses hopped aboard with tools geared for them. One of those, PBwiki, has seen the number of individual business wikis created with it jump to well over 40,000, up from less than 20,000 a year ago and only about 5,000 two years ago. A Los Angeles design firm called The Groop, which uses PBwiki for creative collaboration among teams and clients, claims to have realized $1 million in annual productivity gains with it.

• On the social networking side, Facebook and MySpace became household names seemingly overnight. This year businesses are expected to spend more than $250 million on social networking tools geared towards them... according to research firm Forrester. And increasingly vendors offer companies suites of Web 2.0 technologies that have emerged on the consumer side. For instance HiveLive lets employees create and control blogs, wikis, mash-ups and so on within business social networks.

• Skype, the online phone service bought by eBay, noticed that many of its customers were small businesses. To entice more of them, it created a business version of its software with improved security and a "control panel" application for central management of Skype credit and numbers.

• Last month Google launched a YouTube-like video sharing service for businesses. The idea is that employees can share videos amongst themselves in a secure setting. A CEO could broadcast a message, for instance, or a technician could post a how-to video.

• The iPhone, inevitably, is also forcing its way into the work force. "The best phone for business. Ever" claims the typically bomb-throwing ad copy from Apple.

Research firm Gartner foresees consumer adoption driving more technologies into enterprises over the coming years. Among them are desktop video-conferencing, virtual worlds, 3-D controllers, and augmented reality.

Gartner analyst Jackie Fenn suggest IT departments should make it their ongoing strategy to take advantage of such consumer technologies, rather than bump into them on a case-by-case basis.

Besides, there's a nice upside to this approach for IT workers, as long as security and other challenges can be overcome. As anyone who's played around on Facebook, YouTube or an iPhone can attest to, the consumer side is where all the fun stuff is.