Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community

The Social Media Garden: A 2.0 Organizational Research Study

"What do you think are the main barriers for organizations in embracing social media practices and what ideas do you have for overcoming them?" This is the question at the heart of a public research study being conducted by Silverman Research, which uses a social research methodology rather than a survey format to capture and develop collective insights on important questions. Everyone is able to view and evaluate the responses from others, in addition to contributing their own perspective.

===//===

As the Founder of the Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community, I am pleased to offer my support to this project. I learned about the study when Michael Silverman posted an invitation to participate in the SMinOrgs LI group. Obviously, the question is one that is near and dear to my heart, but I am also very impressed with and intrigued by his approach to building a dataset and representing the results.

I invite everyone to enter the Garden, take a stroll through the responses shared by others, and plant a bloom of your own!

- Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD

 

Study Overview and Invitation

The Social Media Garden is an open-access research project that has been designed to generate insight about the barriers organisations face in adopting social media practices – and solutions to overcome them. This new approach to online research eliminates unmanageable lists of comments and uses data visualizations to help participants navigate the conversation and develop their understanding. Algorithms then rapidly filter insightful comments based on input from other participants. Here’s a screenshot of a typical page:

 

Of course, there is already a mounting body of research on the use of social media in organizations. However, none of these studies have been conducted using social media methodologies. When one considers the opportunities provided by social technologies to share information, develop ideas and generate insight, I find it immensely frustrating that so much social research is still conducted using surveys. For all the big consultancies, research agencies and academics espousing the benefits of social media, it’s unfortunate that they have stuck to a standard survey approach. This is one the few research studies on social media in organizations to employ a social media approach. We therefore expect to produce many new insights that would not be possible using traditional survey approaches.

The study is being sponsored by Unilever to help push forward the social media agenda in organizations, and to build on their efforts to “social mediatize” employee research across the company (see below for more information on the methodology). The Garden will be open throughout February 2012 and has already received over 450 participants. A full report of the overall research findings will be publically available towards the end of March 2012. All participants will be emailed a copy of the report (containing a combined text, sentiment and statistical analysis), which will also be available on the Social Media Garden website. Please click here to enter the garden and plant your bloom.

A leaderboard of the top authors will be posted in the Garden towards the end of the project. Currently, the top author is ‘philwoodford,’ who wrote:

The two biggest factors preventing organisations embracing social media are: (1) Difficulty in measuring return on investment (2) Fear of loss of control Using social media successfully requires an investment of time and human resources. If organisations cannot see or quantify an immediate and obvious return, they get nervous. Social media is profoundly democratic. This takes power away from managers, marketers, HR professionals and others within the organisation that might be expected to sponsor its growth. Both of these factors will become less of an issue with each passing year, as social media becomes more and more embedded in the fabric of business and society as a whole. Business owners and managers who are resistant to change probably won't be convinced and there's little that can be done to shape their attitudes. The world will simply change around them.

 

Methodological Background

Despite their prevalence, surveys are riddled with problems. The most serious of which, and the one that is most often overlooked, is that they are incredibly boring for participants and consistently fail to provide participants with a compelling and engaging experience. The fact that participants complete surveys in isolation provides people with a very solitary experience. Worse still, a valuable opportunity is missed to capture the insight that comes from measuring what people think of other participants’ comments. This is where surveys really fall down. If participants knew their comment would be available for others evaluate, they would not only be more likely to write a response, they would also be more likely to write a thoughtful and considered response.

In addition, if participants are able to evaluate others’ comments, it becomes possible to identify the authentic voice of that community and see what themes are achieving consensus. Text analysis software is great, but we often forget that we have an even more powerful text analysis tool than any computer – the combined wisdom of our brains. I like to think of this as a form of crowd-sourced text analysis.

However, linear lists of comments that are used in traditional discussion forums and message boards are difficult to navigate and soon become unmanageable as the number of participants increases. This means that many comments never get read. Coupled with the widespread use of over-simplistic binary thumbs-up or five-star ratings, lists favor early birds or those with extreme views and conceal the real diversity of opinion.

Unilever was one of the first organizations to employ this approach internally, using a pre-cursor to the Social Media Garden called “Opinion Space” (see screen shot below). This project engaged Unilever’s 1,800-strong international assignee employees in providing feedback and suggestions to improve its policies for this community. The project won two HR industry awards and has led to the adoption of this approach to employee research and collaboration in different parts of the business.

 

In addition to providing new insight into the use of social media in organizations, we also hope that the Social Media Garden will raise awareness of new ways of generating insight and facilitating mass collaboration.

Michael Silverman is Managing Director of Silverman Research, a company specializing in applying social media principles to social research. A psychologist and organizational research specialist, he was previously Global Head of Employee Research at Unilever.

 

For more information please contact: michael.silverman@silvermanresearch.com

 

The Social Workplace: The Future is Now

In this SMinOrgs S.M.A.R.T. Blog guest post, Jerry Carducci offers his thoughts on the future of the social workplace. Building on the ideas in the latest S.M.A.R.T. News Digest – Social Media and the Workplace - What’s In Store for 2012? – he anticipates the impact of new digital technologies on organizational culture, employer branding, consumer listening, and organizational policies.

===//===

As a follower of social media in the workplace, one thing remains clear: many organizational leaders are still apprehensive about social media’s potential to enhance operational effectiveness, increase stakeholder value and engage employees. 

We’ve seen how the global community used social media to connect and gain support for humanitarian and political issues. What if your organization could generate that same strength of internal community to enhance its value propositions for current and future stakeholders? What if your organization could unleash its hidden talents and creativity through an open, engaging and collaborative environment that increases value and competitive advantage? 

Looking at 2012 and beyond, more organizations will start using social media as a way to optimize the power of consumer-based networks to increase productivity, communications and collaboration. We should see changes in four core areas:

• The “Social Workplace.”  The “social workplace” constitutes the next generation of organizational change, combining social technical tools, culture and physical design to enhance communications and create a structure that is flexible, collaborative and connected to the organization’s mission, values and goals. Geneca, an IT consultancy in Chicago, provides one example of how this can be done (see: Corporate Culture Meets the Digital Era).

• “Employer Branding.”  Employer branding connects the organization to the talent market by providing not only a realistic view of the culture, expectations and work-life within the organization, but also the social and community involvement aspects. Organizations will begin to heighten their focus on employer branding through LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to create a community of followers and attract the right talent.  Involvement will grow to extend beyond Human Resource roles to include front line leaders and employees in all functional areas.

(Editor’s note: for more on social media and recruiting, see Recruiting in the Digital Era: Updated Guidance for Employers, Recruiters, and Candidates).

• “Social Listening.”  Consumer review sites are replacing formal “Focus Groups” in providing continuous qualitative feedback. Social listening represents analysis of feedback from these sites and using it as a source of continuous improvement, innovation and a means to identify hidden opportunities to increase value.  As a result, the role of the “social analyst” will evolve to include not only technical and intuitive analytical skills, but also product, process and internal operational savvy in aggregating, organizing and communicating information in a way that is meaningful throughout the organization.

• Formalization of Social Media Policies. As use of social media grows internally, formalization of policies, etiquette and training will become more prevalent. In her blog post entitled, A Matter of Policy: Protecting Employees and Your Brand on Social Media, Jaya Koilpillai Bohlmann provides a practical, commonsense approach.

(Editor’s note: for more on social media policies, see Social Media Policies: Necessary but Not Sufficient).

The term “Value” has evolved to represent the total experience for consumers and employees alike. And creating value in today’s environment is a strategic imperative, requiring organizations to be continuously connected, engaging and transparent in ways that generate loyalty and a positive experience. Social media provides the means to establish the necessary formal and informal connections.

However, understanding how social media can change the way an enterprise does business and engages employees is a complex undertaking.  Leaders must fully understand their culture, mission and value system – and how their organization really works. Most importantly, they must select the right social media platforms to support and achieve their organization’s objectives.

===//===    

Gerald E. (Jerry) Carducci is the President of Carducci & Associate,; an organizational consultancy that helps small and mid-sized businesses energize their workplaces through a supportive culture and progressive people practices. He is a widely published author and guest editor for the Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) S.M.A.R.T. Blog, where he explores the use of social media as a means to enhance internal communication, collaboration and processes. He is also a frequent guest on WGN Radio.

12 Hopes for 2012: Enhanced Adoption of Digital Technologies

As the Digital Era progresses, technological capabilities continue to outstrip our willingness and ability to address the opportunities and challenges they present. In this post from the Digital Era Thinkers Blog, I offer 12 hopes for 2012 that are rooted in the psychological challenges we face and are built on our willingness – both individually and collectively – to tackle them in thought, word, and deed. As always, I welcome input from others.

Click here to read the post.

via www.gcdel.org

The “End” of Email: Reflections from a Digital Era Thinker

A recent statement made by Thierry Breton, CEO of Atos, about the "elimination" of email at the company churned up quite a bit of controversy in cyberspace. Many of the pieces sharing the news included misinformation, and much of the commentary reflected misunderstanding. This post clarifies what Atos is actually doing, offers insights on why it’s the right move, reflects on some of the reasons for resistance, and highlights the importance of strong leadership in enabling organizations to move ahead in the Digital Era.

===//===

Last week there were a number of articles and blog posts about “the end of email” after news of a statement by the CEO of Atos (a large French technology company) went viral. Almost all of these items generated a number of impassioned responses rejecting the use of “social” tools and defending the use of email for a variety of purposes.

Unfortunately, many of the pieces written about the announcement included sensationalistic headlines and/or misinformation, and many people took the news quite literally – which seemed to cause much of the harsh, knee-jerk reactions. So let’s start by clarifying what CEO Thierry Breton was really referring to:

• His decision was focused on internal email only.
• Atos will not be using a public platform like Facebook for internal communication. Rather, they will use similar tools that are designed for private social networking.
• Atos will not replace email with internal social networking and instant messaging exclusively. The idea is to leverage a variety of 2.0 tools to improve employees’ ability to communicate and collaborate.

Expanding on the third point, many of the comments I read seemed to reflect a poor understanding of the kinds of communication and collaboration tools that are now available for organizations of all types (not just large, high-tech firms). Social business platforms can certainly include social networking and real-time chat features, but those are just two of the many capabilities most of them offer (for more on social business technologies and their applications, check out slides 7-19 in this presentation). With respect to the replacement of email in particular, the key features to focus on include asynchronous chat streams (including status updates and microblogging), discussion forums, wikis, file sharing and editing, and the ability to create centralized group and project worksites.

It’s probably unfortunate that terms like social business, social enterprise, and social intranet have emerged to describe the application of 2.0 technologies inside organizations. Many people interpret words like “social” and “chat” to indicate frivolity, shallowness, time wasting and a lack of professionalism. Arguing about semantics can be such a distraction, but relabeling and reframing the tools may help skeptics get over their resistance and focus on their “work value.” We could, for example, refer to:

• Private Digital Networks r/t Internal Social Networks
• Quick Collaboration or Quick Exchange r/t Chat
• Announcements and Queries r/t Status Updates

 

Email’s Inefficiencies

In many respects, email can be considered the granddaddy of today’s social business tools – it certainly meets the basic definition of social media I shared in Part 1 of the Social Media Primer (updated here). But, relatively speaking, it’s fairly unsophisticated and clunky. And, more importantly, it’s often misused and abused.

Given its inefficiencies, the goal behind shifting away from email is a valid one. For example:

• Lots of exchanges (e.g., when/where do you want to meet?) don't need to be preserved, and each message in the back and forth gets saved, causing lots of unnecessary duplication. Having a centralized chat feature - which can be asynchronous - can eliminate that.
• For cases where the conversation should be preserved, a centralized discussion thread is probably more appropriate than dozens of email exchanges with duplicate – and often disconnected – content. Not only does a single discussion thread save resources and minimize confusion, it's also easily accessible to/by others for whom the discussion may be relevant.
• Exchanging documents via email is a colossal waste, and it can create a lot of confusion. Rather than passing a document around, it's better to put the document in a central, shared location and let people come to it. Doing so is not only more efficient, it also better enables people to know what the latest version is and can prevent two people from attempting to revise the document at the same time. History on the document can also be tracked.

Today's social business platforms offer both individuals and organizations more efficient and effective ways to get their work done. For me the key advantage of these platforms is that rather than having the work distributed to the workers, the work is centralized and the workers come to it. That reduces unnecessary duplication, confusion about what version of something is the most current or what the latest word/decision was on a particular issue/conversation, and many other benefits.

Email won’t go away, but that doesn’t mean we should continue to use it the way we do today. Instead, we should recognize where it has the most value and where another tool can be more effective. We should all be open to using new technologies to help us work smarter. And yet…

 

Email Attachments
(and I’m not Talking about Documents)

One of the most powerful realities of the world we live in today is that the capabilities of the communication and collaboration technologies available to us far outstrip our human ability to harness them. It's not that we can't use these tools – they are widely available, inexpensive, and relatively easy to implement and use – we simply don't. This list of reasons is long, and include

• Our tendencies to resist change, stay inside our comfort zones and take the path of least resistance
• Fear (of the unknown, of failure...)
• Our unwillingness to risk learning something new
• Our short-term focus and tendency to be in a hurry ("get it done now" rather than "do it right")

Another key element that is too often overlooked is the fact that we're still using Industrial Era models and modes of working, even though we're well into the Digital Era. For example, rather than collectively creating and refining a single repository of relevant knowledge/information using wiki technology (think barn raising), we prefer a more linear, assembly-line approach of passing around a document that we "manufacture."

There's also an ironic contradiction in how we function in our personal and professional lives. On a personal level, many of us are very comfortable working in a divergent, non-linear fashion – which I would argue is natural for our brains – but when it comes to work we kick into structured, Tayloresque factory mode. Why? Because this is what we’ve been taught throughout both our academic and work lives. The habits are deeply ingrained and tough to change.

So what’s a Digital Era worker to do?

 

It All Boils Down to Leadership

I commend Thierry Breton and other business leaders who recognize the value in leveraging new digital technologies to enable their employees to work more efficiently and effectively. As demonstrated by the reaction to his recent comments, however, this type of Digital Era leadership is still extremely rare. Most leaders do not understand the potential power and uses of new technologies – or how important it is to educate themselves about both their applications and implications (both external and internal). Those who do recognize they need to:

• Make the increased use of digital technologies a strategic and operational priority
• Support the creation/adoption of new tools and technologies
• Allocate necessary resources (both money and time) to enable employees to use these tools effectively

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in 2012…

-  Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD

Corporate Culture Meets the Digital Era

A case study about the role social media plays in maintaining and growing a powerful, engaging, and results-producing culture at a Chicago area custom software development firm, Geneca. Written by guest blogger Jerry Carducci.

===//===

A few months ago, in his most recent SMinOrgs S.M.A.R.T. News Digest, Jerry Carducci shared ideas and examples of how social media can be used to build and reinforce organizational culture. As promised, he now follows up that post with a case study about the role social media plays in maintaining and growing a powerful, engaging, and results-producing culture in a Chicago area firm.

In addition to the take-aways Jerry shares below, I’ll offer my own observations about what this case study highlights:

• Social media can be used not only to reinforce an organization's cultural values, but also to promote employee engagement.
• When used effectively, digital interactions mirror in-person interactions. An organization’s “digital” culture shouldn’t be different from its “physical” culture.
• As noted in Part 4 of the Social Media Primer, organizational size is neither a barrier to nor a key determinant of the effective use of social media. 
• Social media can and should be fully integrated into an organization’s communication and collaboration efforts. It shouldn’t be viewed as a simple add-on to or substitute for other interaction activities. The keys are to focus on using the channels that offer the most efficient and effective means of achieving both individual and organizational goals and to ensure that “high tech” approaches are also “high touch.”

I always appreciate Jerry’s contributions to the S.M.A.R.T. Blog, and have enjoyed seeing him add to his collection of News Digests by creating and sharing a case study. If you would like to be a guest blogger and/or share a case study of your own, please email blog@sminorgs.net.

-  Courtney Hunt

===//===

In an environment filled with economic uncertainty, restructuring and doing more with less, I think we all would agree that aligning employees and actively engaging them with corporate values and belief systems is an increasingly challenging task. 

Social media has found its way into many organizations, formally and informally, as a means of communicating and collaborating with and among employees, customers, and other key stakeholders. Since culture defines an organization and requires continual communication and reinforcement, I couldn’t help but think about whether social media could help connect the complexities of an organization and its culture. Can it serve as a platform to strengthen and reinforce an organization’s cultural value system, build community, and provide a method for inclusion and transparency – both internally and externally? And do best practice examples exist where an organization intentionally designs their social media strategy in a way that enriches their culture?    

The answer to these questions is “yes.” I had an exclusive opportunity to explore how Geneca, a Chicago area custom software development firm, uses social media to manage one of its most valuable intangible assets -- its culture.   

To the naked eye it would appear that each social application works independently. However, when you look deeper, one begins to see the strategic thought process underlying the individual approaches. I saw and heard firsthand how Geneca has designed its use of social media as a tool to protect, enrich and manage its culture and how it has become a source of differentiation and competitive advantage.

Click here to access the full case study: Geneca's Culture Goes Digital

Key points I drew from the discussions and observations are:

• From its beginnings in 1998, Geneca’s culture represents the strength of the organization and provides the foundation for all the organization does. It is based on three fundamentals; serving clients, honoring commitments, and serving employees. Culture is so important that Joel Basgall, CEO says, “If we have to choose between growth and culture, culture wins.  Without culture, the company goes nowhere.”
• Geneca’s culture is about inclusion and transparency. Absent are egos, personal and hidden agendas, and “sacred cows.”
• Protecting Geneca’s culture is a shared accountability throughout the organization and reflected in the way it sources for new talent and skills, connects with clients, and designs its workspaces.
• Geneca leverages social media, both internally and externally, to promote and extend its cultural values.

Internally Yammer serves as the company’s “water cooler,” providing a virtual platform for open discussion, innovative ideas and sharing interests. 

• It brings together on-boarding, special interest groups, employee development and knowledge transfer, corporate goals and innovation in a way that is engaging and creates buy-in.
• Employees actively engage in forming vision, mission and goals on initiatives along four strategic imperatives; Culture, Clients, Organizational Structure and Organizational Growth. By taking a role in their development, employees take ownership and accountability for results.
• Employees are able to post ideas on Yammer, which through collaborative exchanges develop and evolve into “great” ideas.

Externally Geneca extends its culture to continually build and strengthen relationships outside the organization. The message about Geneca’s culture and what it means to all stakeholders comes across loud and clear.

• Geneca uses its website (www.geneca.com), LinkedIn (Geneca and Geneca and Friends), Twitter (@genecapeople and @geneca) and its blog, Getting Predicable, to convey its cultural values in the form of shared practices and discussion.
• Through these media, prospective job candidates can get a firsthand look at what work life is like at Geneca, meet Genecians and see personal interests and philosophies.
• Geneca also uses these channels to share best practices with others in the industry.

Geneca uses social media in ways to reinforce, convey and extend its culture. It has successfully connected these media in a way that is cohesive, delivers a consistent message and creates a virtual community that generates value not only for its bottom line, but for employees, clients and the industry.   When everyone comes through the door, they are focused on one common objective: making software development predictable.

The results are impressive and have enabled Geneca to sustain its growth through the economic turmoil during the past four years. Geneca continues to be widely recognized for its progressive people practices and is among the Best Places to Work in the Chicago area and Illinois.

Technology-Enriched Travel: 10 Take-Aways that Reveal Digital Era Truths

Using a personal case study, this post offers reflections on how life experiences like summer vacations are enriched by digital technologies, and reminds readers – especially technology hold outs – of Digital Era truths that individuals, organizations, and communities must accept and (eventually) embrace.

====//====

Like many active technology users, I take its integration into my life for granted. But I’m often reminded that most people do not embrace it the same way I do. In particular, many people still love to disparage social media, especially social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. I regularly hear disdainful comments about what vast wastelands they are, full of vapid, narcissitic oversharing about what people had for lunch and other banalities. Like many prejudicial statements, the criticisms contain an element of truth, but that doesn’t mean they accurately reflect reality…

Targeted primarily to technology hold outs, this post highlights the vital role new technologies can – and probably should – play in our lives. Providing a personal case study on a topic virtually everyone can relate to, its focus is two-fold. First, I illustrate how digital technology factored into our summer vacation plans and how integral it was in enriching the adventure before, during and after the trip. Second, I share ten Digital Era truths that reflecting on the overall experience served to reinforce.

 

Tourism in the Digital Era: WWST 2.0

Each year my sister and I take a trip to explore someplace new. This year’s adventure – dubbed the Wild West Sister Trip (or WWST) – focused primarily on South Dakota and Wyoming. It was absolutely stunning, and we were very lucky to have some great weather and priceless experiences. Obviously, what made the trip such a success was our destination – a starkly beautiful, primitive and powerful land that is both awe-inspiring and humbling – but the trip was also greatly enriched by our social networks and our ability to leverage digital technologies before, during, and after the adventure.

This isn’t the first trip I’ve taken that was enhanced by digital technology. Like many people, I’ve been researching destinations and making travel arrangements on line for so long I can barely remember not doing it. I’ve also been sharing trip pictures via Flickr and Facebook for two or three years, and last year I was inspired to write my first blog post – a photo essay about building digital communities – based on a visit to Rome.

I have created an album on the Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Facebook page that offers a photo essay of sorts and provides examples of the ways in which digital technology enriched the WWST. If you’re not on Facebook, you should be able to access the album through this public link (please let me know if it doesn’t work).

I would love to hear how digital technology has enhanced your travel experiences too.

 

Ten Take-Aways

Reflecting on the overall WWST experience has reminded me of the following Digital Era truths, which extend beyond tourism and are important not just for individuals and organizations, but also the communities in which they’re embedded.

1. Interacting via social media and other digital technologies is not a substitute for “real life” interactions. In the Digital Era, it IS real life.


2. Digital communication should not be viewed as an adjunct to other communication forms; rather, it should be fully integrated into the ways in which we connect with others.  We should rely on ALL forms of media – both traditional and new – to achieve our goals and enhance our experiences.  


3. Time spent in cyberspace is no more a waste than time spent on any other activity that brings people pleasure and enriches their lives. The value of the time spent should be determined based on a person’s own goals and objectives – and not the judgments of others.


4. At a fundamental level, digital technology doesn’t dramatically alter what we do, but it does give us “new tools for doing old things” (the SMinOrgs tagline). The idea isn’t to use the new tools just because they’re shinier and everyone else seems to love them. We should use them because they allow us to accomplish things in better ways by enabling us to access a wider range of (more current) information, minimizing bulk, reducing paper production, etc.


5. Digital technology can increase both efficiency and effectiveness. Obviously we could have planned, executed, and shared this trip via more traditional means, but doing so would have taken much more time and would likely have reduced some of the immediacy and intimacy of the experience. We may also have missed some relatively hidden gems.


6. Its benefits notwithstanding, we shouldn’t become overly reliant on digital technology and lose our ability to rely on more traditional media - sometimes you gotta kick it old school. Flexibility and adaptability may be better markers of a Digital Era sophisticate than someone who voraciously consumes new technologies.


7. The more we all engage with digital technologies, the more we all benefit. Technology isn't a cure-all and there are certainly challenges, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. In addition to pursuing opportunities, we must also address challenges. Costs and risks are inevitable, but they shouldn't be used as an excuse to avoid progress.


8. The over-reliance on the distinction between “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” is counter-productive. Fluency is a state of mind not a factor of chronological age. Anyone can be as digitally sophisticated as they choose to be.


9. The idea that digital technology levels the playing field is not a myth. Individuals and organizations of all sizes and types can benefit from enhancing their digital profiles. The biggest barriers to entry are self imposed.


10. The ability to leverage new technologies both strategically and tactically is important for organizations of all types, not just for-profit or consumer-oriented enterprises. These technologies have powerful implications for economies and communities of all sizes throughout the world. In addition to direct beneficiaries (e.g., commercial enterprises), we have to remember the indirect beneficiaries (e.g., governments, citizens) as well. Leadership is critical, not just from individual organizations, but from Chambers of Commerce and government too. We need to remember the interconnectedness of our communities and look at opportunities from a holistic perspective.

What would you add to this list?

 

Conclusion

This is the first in a series of “What I learned from my summer vacation” posts.  Here are the working titles of the others, which are forthcoming:

• What is Social Media? The Answer may Surprise You
• How the Digital Frontier Is – and Is Not – Like the Wild West
• Social Media Resisters: Puritans or Luddites?

As always, I welcome your comments and questions.

-  Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD

 

Tragedy, Hope, and the Undeniable Power of Social Media as a Force for Good

Two recent tragedies offer several insights about the integral role that social media plays in modern society, illustrating its power in enabling us to demonstrate the sublime aspects of our humanity as well as the mundane.

 

The last week of April 2011 in the Southeastern United States was marked by two tragedies: The better-known story is of the powerful storms that swept through several states on the 27th, making it the second-deadliest day of tornadoes in US history. The lesser-known story occurred the day before, when a female eagle was killed by a US Airways jet as it landed at Norfolk International Airport, leaving three young eaglets with only one parent at a crucial stage in their development, and thousands of people – who had been watching the eagle family’s nest at the Norfolk Botanical Garden (NBG) via a webcam – stunned, grief-stricken, and worried (Click here to learn more about the nest and its history. Click here to read my previous blog post about the NBG eagle community).

These events may not have the scale and scope of disasters like the earthquake and tsunami in Japan earlier this year, the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, or the hurricane in New Orleans in 2005, but they are no less tragic for the people directly affected by them. And perhaps because of their smaller scale, they may provide more relatable examples of how social media is becoming an integral part of the human condition in the Digital Era, a means for us to express and demonstrate the better part of our humanity in addition to sharing the details of our everyday lives.

The ways in which technology has been used during these tragedies illustrate several social media “truths,” which are described and illustrated in the sections that follow:

• Social media is not just digital
• Social media is powered by people, not just technology
• All forms of media (can, should and do) work together
• Social media is real life
• High tech is high touch
• ROI is also about investment, not just return

These truths may seem self-evident to many social media sophisticates, but for most social media rookies – especially the doubters and haters – they bear repeated emphasis. They’re also good reminders for many social media advocates that new communication technologies are not an end unto themselves, and they have tremendous value beyond their commercial applications. The hallmarks of social media – user-generated  content, dialogues and “multilogues” rather than monologues, collaboration and engagement – can serve many purposes besides marketing/branding, sales, customer service, and public relations.

 

Social Media is not Just Digital

As I discuss in Part 2 of the Social Media Primer (updated here), human beings have been using social media as long as we’ve been on the planet. Though digital social media may be a relatively recent technological development, its underlying concepts are not nearly as radical or revolutionary as some people may think.

The role of ham radio operators during the tornado-spawning storms illustrates this best. As described in this story from the ARRL (the national association for amateur radio), the storms and resulting destruction prevented the use of more modern technology, and amateur radio helped fill the gap. And if you scroll to the bottom of this National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) page, you can see how much of the event reporting was contributed by amateur radio operators.

 

Social Media is Powered by People, not Just Technology

Technology may provide the engine, but the fuel comes from people. Referring again to Part 2 of the Social Media Primer (updated here), throughout our history we’ve used the technological tools available to us to achieve our goals and objectives, whether it was cave paintings to share our history, smoke signals to communicate danger, or the printing press to share news. Like all technology, digital social media is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.

Excellent evidence of this is the number of Facebook pages started by people in the wake of the Southeastern tornadoes. Here are some of the most popular pages, with their fans as of May 5^th noted in parenthesis:

• Pray for the Tornado Victims of April 27, 2011 (142,000+)
• Pictures and Documents found after the April 27, 2011 Tornadoes (95,000+)
• Animals Lost & Found from the Tornadoes in Alabama on 4/27/11 (29,000+)
• In Memory of people who lost their life during the strong tornadoes (10,00+)
• People Missing or Unreachable after April 27, 2011 Tornadoes (8,000+)

These pages continue to attract fans and contributions as word about them spreads, primarily through word of mouth (both digital and otherwise).

Another powerful example is the ways in which individuals on various Facebook pages promoted the two main non-profits associated with the care of the eaglets – the Norfolk Botanical Garden (NBG, their original home) and the Wildlife Center of Virginia (WCV, their adoptive home) – in the Chase Community Giving program. As a result of this promotion, and the voting that ensued, WCV was ranked 4^th and NBG 9^th in the first-round of voting for the most recent giving campaign, garnering $25,000 awards for each of them. There were also several calls by individuals on various platforms for folks to write letters to US Airways asking them to make a donation to aid with the eaglets’ care. Although it’s not clear how much momentum this effort gained, or whether it had any influence, US Airways did announce on its Facebook page that Air Wisconsin (the flight operator) was making a donation for the support and care of the eagles.

 

All Forms of Media (can, should and do) Work Together

In some respects it’s useful to distinguish between different forms of media, but it’s also important to remember that media is a general construct that refers to “storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data” (see this Wikipedia entry for more).  Sometimes the effort to distinguish social media gives the impression that it’s more distinct from traditional or broadcast media than it is. Rather than looking at forms of media as independent and mutually-exclusive ways to communicate, we should view them as complementary, integrated parts of a whole.

The activity at the bottom of this NOAA page shows how members of the public, the government, experts (i.e., trained spotters) and amateur radio operators all contributed to reporting the unfolding events of the tornadoes. No one group could have done it alone, and without the active engagement of all these parties the complete story could never be told. This article about the search for missing people further illustrates how multiple forms of communication are necessary, particularly in crisis situations. And in the storms’ wake, broadcast media has not only helped report the facts but has also supported the social media efforts of individuals by writing stories like this one about the woman who started the “Pictures and Documents” Facebook page. The page’s rapid growth to almost 100,000 fans can be attributed at least in part to the broadcast media coverage it’s received.

As tempting as it may be to see social media and “citizen journalism” as a threat to “traditional journalism,” it’s in our long-run best interests to view them as additive rather than competitive.

 

Social Media is Real Life

At some point we have to stop disdaining our interactions in cyberspace as inferior to our face-to-face interactions (aka “IRL” or “in real life” interactions). Yes, there are fewer signals (i.e., vocal tone and body language), which may result in an increased likelihood of miscommunication or misinterpretation, but we’re learning to adapt. And though the perceived anonymity of cyberspace may cause some people to speak and act differently, most of our digital interactions are pretty typical of the interactions we have in other spaces, both physical and otherwise. Finally, for many folks, the experiences and relationships they have in cyberspace are perfectly real and no less substantive than any other experience/relationship they have.

Anyone who visits either of the main Facebook pages devoted to the NBG eaglets (Wildlife Center of Virginia and Eagles at Norfolk Botanical Garden), or the moderated chat on the WVEC eagle cam webpage, will almost instantly recognize how real this virtual experience is. People in the NBG community refer to themselves as a “family” and a “crew,” acknowledging their collective devotion to and interest in the eagles. The moderated blog is primarily educational, and thousands of people all over the world – including countless schoolchildren – learn about eagles and related topics (e.g., their relationship with American Indians, the laws designed to protect them, the ways in which human actions threaten them) every day. Sadly, the events surrounding the mama eagle’s death and the removal of the eaglets created a set of learning opportunities most people would have preferred to do without, but the learning continued. And in the immediate aftermath of the mama’s death, the focus of the blog, as well as the related Facebook pages, turned to shared grief, loss, anger and a host of other emotions as pubic expressions of sorrow flowed along with people’s private tears. And today WCV shared this post about mail they’re receiving from children, which grounds the cyber experience in a powerfully poignant way.

Similar emotional expressions can be found on the Facebook pages cited earlier that were created in the aftermath of the Southeastern tornadoes. And in these digital communities, where individuals are not just observers, there is a lot of activity related to helping. Three of the pages, in fact, were created to provide assistance, and virtually all of the exchanges are focused on requests for and offers of help.

In all the sites, along with the sorrow and concern, there are also moments of shared joy and hope when a person is found, a beloved picture is reunited with someone who lost everything, the eaglets continue to grow healthy and strong, and positive news about papa eagle is shared.  And the expressions of admiration and gratitude for people who’ve gone above and beyond to help fellow humans and animals continue almost unabated.

 

High Tech is High Touch

Because of the frequent emphasis on tools and technologies, many people seem to forget that social media is fundamentally a human endeavor. And in digital communities, like any other community, leaders play an important role. The eagle cams themselves are amazing, but for many watchers it’s a social experience that they share with friends and family and want to talk about with others. They also have a lot of questions they need answers to and concerns that need to be addressed when they see something they don’t understand. Can they try to find the answers on the internet? Sure. But for many that’s too impersonal.

In the communities I follow most closely, I’ve watched the community managers and other leaders do an excellent job of making these virtual experiences more personal. They maintain a delicate balance between freedom and control, steering discussions with a steady hand and a light touch. They’ve promoted civility and boundaries while allowing people freedom of expression, which has promoted a high level of functioning. The administrators of the WCV Facebook page in particular were awesome in providing lots of communication in the early days after the eaglets arrived, to help assuage people’s concerns and reassure them that the “babies” they were so attached to were doing well. Their responsiveness was particularly admirable given that their Facebook fan page tripled in less than a day, their server was brought to its knees by a flood of website visits, their email was overflowing and their phone was ringing off the hook!

These community leaders have also done a great job of sharing their own humanity and personalities with folks, which has contributed significantly to the value of their communities. Someone in the NBG community once dubbed the chat moderators the “Mod Squad” and the nickname has stuck. People feel like they know them and have developed attachments to them. In addition to providing guidance, they grieved along with everyone else when the mama eagle died. Experts like Reese Lukei, who works for the Center for Conservation Biology (CCB), writes his own blog, and occasionally participates in the chat, has developed a strong following, and Ed Clark, the President of WCV, did an amazing job of connecting with members of the community almost instantly after the eaglets were transferred to his center. He and Amanda Nicholson continue to interact with the eaglets’ cyber following, with warmth, patience, knowledge, and great humor.

 

ROI is also about Investment, not Just Return

The ROI (return on investment) question comes up often in discussions of social media, and there’s lots of debate about how it should be measured, or whether it’s even appropriate to try to measure it. The ROI question itself isn’t unreasonable, but it makes more sense with respect to specific, short-term, focused campaigns rather than general, long-term engagement. From that perspective, the question of engagement should be driven more by an organization’s mission and values than its financial objectives.

The NBG eagles perfectly illustrate the investment value of social media. For the garden itself, the eagle family may have been their “star attraction,” but supporting it also served their mission “to enrich life by promoting the enjoyment of plants and the environment through beautiful gardens and educational programs” (from their “about us” page). The digital activity spawned by the eagle cam has certainly helped raise awareness of the garden and bring visitors, but it’s clear that NBG always put the eagles’ needs above their own and would never intentionally do anything to cause them harm.

Nuckols Tree Care, Inc. also illustrates this point. They got lots of “free publicity” when they donated their equipment and the services of several of their staff to help when the eaglets were banded on April 21^st (to support research efforts), but they also didn’t hesitate to come back under much less PR-friendly circumstances less than a week later to remove the eaglets (not everyone agreed with the decision to intervene).

Even more profound is WVEC’s role. As a television station in the Norfok area, the support they provided to install and run the camera at NBG was a great local community initiative that provided great PR as well as advertising dollars. Given the distance between Norfolk and Waynesboro, it would have been perfectly understandable for that support to end when the eaglets were removed from the local nest. Instead, WVEC decided to resume the eagle cam from the same website, providing additional support to help WCV undertake the herculean task of establishing a basic set up in less than two days. Their commitment to keeping the story “on the air” was nothing short of remarkable.

 

Conclusion

I invite everyone to join any of the digital communities I’ve highlighted in this post, as well as another one I follow closely: an eagle cam in Decorah, Iowa and the corresponding Facebook page for the Raptor Resource Project. These communities, as well as others, offer living case studies of how humans connect, communicate, and collaborate in cyberspace, and highlight the benefits and challenges of managing online interactions. Following them is a great way to listen, watch, and learn.

 

S.M.A.R.T. News: Videos on Social Media’s Role in Workplace Communications

This S.M.A.R.T. News Digest presents a sample of 5 videos featuring Mark Ragan of Ragan Communications. The videos address topics like the evolution of corporate communications and planning a social media strategy, in addition to providing examples of how organizations are using social media as part of their communication tactics within their organizations.

Many thanks to Jerry Carducci for being the guest editor for this News Digest, which is a nice extension of his previous News Digest on social workplace communications. His focus on this topic reflects an argument I make in Part 2 of the Social Media Primer (updated here) that external applications (e.g., marketing) are just the tip of the iceberg, and that the same technologies and concepts can be applied inside organizations to enhance their effectiveness. Interestingly, two of the videos are from 2008, which demonstrates that these ideas aren’t as “new” as some people think they are, and that the underlying best practice principles haven’t changed. I have enjoyed Ragan Communications videos on social media and am glad to highlight them, because of both their messages and the medium through which they communicate them. – Courtney Hunt

Please feel free to share your thoughts on the items in this News digest directly via the blog, or start or join the dialogue on LinkedIn. We especially welcome other videos on the subject of social media and workplace communications. We also appreciate your bringing items on other topics to our attention via LI, Twitter, or FB, or by emailing a link to news@sminorgs.net. Thanks!

Click here to learn more about the SMinOrgs News Digest feature and how you can leverage it to meet your goals and objectives.

If you'd like to receive a notice each time a new post is published, you can subscribe to the SMinOrgs S.M.A.R.T. Blog by clicking here or on the link on the right side of the website.

 

Introduction

The five videos featuring Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communications, provide insights into how internal communications have evolved from newsletters and press releases, what to consider in developing a social media strategy, and innovative ways three organizations have used to create a culture of collaboration and two-way communication that is engaging and relevant for their employees. Here’s a thumbnail sketch of each: 

1. Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communications, discusses the evolution of corporate communications, how social media creates two-way communications and the importance of testing the waters before jumping in.
2. Jim Ylisela and Shel Holtz talk about why it is important for organizations to understand how social media fits into their broader communications framework.
3. Rob Friedman discusses the CEO’s role in communications and the importance of connecting with employees.
4. Catherine Cummings talks about how the Federal Reserve uses blogs to create internal “buzz.”
5. Toni Ewton of Yum! Brands discusses how they developed a behind the firewall social network that is as popular with employees as Facebook.

Many factors are converging and causing organizations to become highly flexible and continually reinvent themselves to remain competitive. Some of the dynamics challenging employers in their efforts to create strategies to communicate with and retain their most costly and valuable resources – humans – include:

• Business models are shifting to ones that are network-grounded, where people collaborate, access and apply individual and collective expertise.
• Workplaces are getting more complex and mobile. 
• People are the future “drivers of value and innovation,” increasing the importance of attracting, retaining and engaging them. Yet a recent Gallup Poll revealed that 84% of workers say they will seek new opportunities as the economy begins to improve!!!!
• Skill shortages are growing in a number of industries, making continual development of skills and abilities a critical success factor at the individual and organizational levels.

Social media is all about community, connectivity and relationship building. It plays an enabling role organizationally by leveraging and internalizing a commercialized, mobile culture that has evolved outside the organization. When strong relationships are established, a culture of trust and cohesion is established. 

Features like discussion forums, wikis, blogs and instant messaging provide instant access to information, subject matter experts and just-in-time knowledge, and encourage a two-way exchange. It is not out of the realm of imagination that, IBM’s “Watson,” introduced on Jeopardy in February 2011, could evolve to social platforms, possibly providing an interactive way to develop skills as well as other uses limited only by imagination.

It is now more important than ever for organizations to establish a framework that provides access to and disseminates consistent, credible and relevant information that can be used to grow capabilities and provide an engine for growth and innovation. 

Like it or not, in the absence of formal internal applications, employees are using social media to inform, communicate and collaborate. So why not integrate it into your communication package? 

Categories: applications, best practices, collaboration, community, enterprise 2.0, human resources, internal communication, knowledge management, leadership, opportunities, strategy

For additional articles that address related issues, click on terms of interest in the category cloud on our website.

============================================================================= 

Title: Video and Social Media in Health Care Communications

Source: Larry Kless’s YouTube channel

Description: Social media is transforming the way companies communicate to its internal employees and to the public. Many organizations have changed their marketing and communications strategies and tactics by launching company Wikis and blogs, official Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, YouTube Channels, internal video contests, podcasts, and endless conversation channels. I spoke with Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communications, at the Health Care Communicators Summit last month about held June 8-9 at Kaiser Permanente's Sidney R. Garfield Health Care Innovation Center, about how social media is revolutionizing corporate communications and PR.

Brief Commentary from Jerry Carducci: Understandably the thought of implementing an internal social media strategy can be a seemingly overwhelming task and create a sense of fear, loss of control and, in some cases, weakness among senior leaders. Like any large initiative, if approached in one large dose, failure and/or loss of interest and focus are likely outcomes over the long term. However, when broken into smaller, manageable parts, the chances of successfully attaining expected outcomes are increased dramatically. As Mark points out, starting small with a quick win, builds confidence, breaks down resistance and provides a means for everyone to become familiar and learn…establishing the cornerstone from which to build.

============================================================================= 

Title: Social Media Tips and Hints

Source: Ragan Communications YouTube channel

Description:  Jim Ylisela and Shel Holtz tell you why social media is an easy, simple tool to use on your intranet. Be careful though, it's not always best to jump right in.

Brief Commentary from Jerry Carducci:  All too often organizations jump into the latest trend without examining the bigger picture. More often than not, this leads to fragmented initiatives that do not interact well, fail and ultimately undermine the credibility of leaders. By starting with the “big picture” organizations can best evaluate how they communicate, how each piece of the tool kit fits together and which social media applications will best serve to achieve those objectives.   

============================================================================= 

Title: CEO Communications within Your Organization

Source: Ragan Communications YouTube channel

Description: Rob Friedman, Director of Executive Communication at Eli Lilly, discusses the role the CEO plays in communication, getting senior executives connecting with employees and how to deliver both tough and good messages via social media.

Brief Commentary from Jerry Carducci:  As with any change initiative, how, when and where senior leaders communicate is critical. Social media aids in the communication process through delivery of consistent, credible content in a form and media that reaches employees simultaneously, regardless of location.  Allowing for employee feedback, anonymous or not, provides a great measure of message clarity, progress and a vehicle by which leaders can communicate adjustments. But a warning, while asking for and exchanging feedback can serve to build trust, it does so only if that feedback is acted upon – and in a way that is meaningful to employees!   

=============================================================================

Title: Catherine Cummings: Internal Communication at the Chicago Federal Reserve

Source: Ragan Communications YouTube channel

Description:  Catherine Cummings, Assistant Vice President of Internal Communications at the Chicago Federal Reserve, discusses how blogs have evolved internally as a communication tool to inform and energize, create ‘buz’ and drive traffic to their intranet for information.

Brief Commentary from Jerry Carducci:  If people are the new drivers of value, then engaging, connecting and developing them becomes a strategic imperative. Externally, one must create excitement and value in messaging to gain and retain followers, whether at the personal or business level. Internally, the same principle applies. To keep people engaged, communications must be delivered in such a way that energizes, entertains and directs them to information and resources and encourages active participation in two-way communications.   

=============================================================================

Title: Internal Social Network as Popular as Facebook

Source: Ragan Communications YouTube channel

Description:  A look at the success behind Yum! Brands' social network for employees.

Brief Commentary from Jerry Carducci:  Based in Louisville, Kentucky, Yum! Brands is the world's largest restaurant company (in terms of system restaurants), with nearly 38,000 restaurants in over 110 countries and territories and more than 1 million associates.  Ranked #216 on the Fortune 500, Yum generated more than $11 billion in revenue in 2010.  Brands include Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, A&W, Long John Silver’s and, the newest, WingStreet.  

Yum is passionate about their commitment to people, the environment and society as a whole.  This video discusses the approach Yum! Brands used in developing a collaborative network (I Ching) that brings the organization together and encourages collaboration among both employees and business partners. The structure of their network is similar to Facebook but is behind their firewall. It contains profiles, groups, discussions and blogs that allow employees to connect on common personal interests, obtain information, and collaborate across borders in developing products and brining them to market faster.

S.M.A.R.T. News 21-Feb-2011

This SMinOrgs News Digest includes pieces that focus on lists – 71 online BtoB communities, 50 top social media brands, 5 trends in learning delivery, 65 infographics. There is also a piece that discusses global social media trends and a blog reflection on enterprise 2.0 challenges.

 

Please feel free to share your thoughts on the items in this News digest directly via the blog, or start or join the dialogue for an individual item by following the link to the corresponding discussion on LinkedIn. We also appreciate your bringing fresh items to our attention via LI, Twitter, or FB, or by emailing a link to news@sminorgs.net. Thanks!

Click here to learn more about the SMinOrgs News Digest feature and how you can leverage it to meet your goals and objectives.

If you'd like to receive a notice each time a new post is published, you can subscribe to the SMinOrgs S.M.A.R.T. Blog by clicking here or on the link on the right side of the website.

 

Title: Process Integration: Putting Social into the Business Flow

Source: #hypertextual

Author: Cecil Dijoux

Lead Paragraph: In all fairness, I am not such a big fan of the Social Business moniker.

I fully agree with Andrew McAfee statement whereby the social business thing has been here for ages. Dr McAfee would rather focus on the new tools to get things done perspective which makes more sense in a business environment. (Not to mention that Social Business already has a definition of his own which has nothing to do with the one everybody is using since 2010 Santa Clara conference)

Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs

This piece was shared by Cecil Dijoux via the LinkedIn group.

This is an interesting post, with great comments. What struck me as I was reading them is the idea that E2.0 initiatives shouldn't be pitched as independent projects. Rather, as I discuss in Part 3 of the Social Media Primer (http://tiny.cc/SMinOrgsPrimer3), they should be viewed as integral components of other high-priority initiatives. The new technologies are tools the can enhance the means by which goals are achieved, but they should not be goals in and of themselves. That's a good reminder for all of us.

Click here to add a comment to the LinkedIn discussion for this item, and/or to read the comments shared by others.

Categories: applications, challenges, enterprise 2.0, social media primer, strategy

============================================================================= 

Title: 71 Top Online Customer Communities: The Big List

Source: Building Online Communities for Business

Author: Vanessa DiMauro

Lead Paragraph: Online customer communities are everywhere -- you just have to look for them -- sometimes in unlikely places. Because they are dedicated to serving customers, often they are not evangelized to the general public or consumer audiences. But they are alive, well and thriving within many enterprises.

Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs

This piece was shared by Vanessa DiMauro via the LinkedIn group. She writes: I have been hunting and gathering up examples of online customer communities (they are not easy to find!) and am sharing them and hopefully growing the list as well. Hope you find this useful.

Alexandra Fawkes provided a very thoughtful response with some great questions about how “community” should be defined. Vanessa responded that the list is focused on B2B communities, with a greater focus on information exchange, knowledge sharing, and collaboration. These communities are a great example of what I refer to as “boundary-spanning” communities/networks in Part 2 of the Social Media Primer (updated here). I address some of the value of these kinds of networks in a white paper entitled “Trickle-up Socialnomics: Leveraging Social Media in the BtoB Context”.

Click here to add a comment to the LinkedIn discussion for this item, and/or to read the comments shared by others.

Categories: applications, best practices, collaboration, community, knowledge management, marketing/branding/sales, opportunities, research, social media primer

============================================================================= 

Title: The top 50 Brands in Social Media

Source: eConsultancy

Author: Steve RIchards

Lead Paragraph: We've been charting the performance of the top 50 brands on social media (and looks at why some brands have done better than others), and there are some interesting results.

Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs

This piece was shared by Matt Owen via the LinkedIn group. He writes: Here's a quick roundup of brands who really understand social with some good examples to follow.

No measure is perfect, and each must be understood in context. Based on the comments above, it seems that some people are missing the point about what Yomego has measured - and how that measurement can be interpreted. Their misperceptions also seem to reflect a lack of understanding about what a "social media reputation" is. Though it may be an exception, Apple kind of proves the rule - their reputation is based on what others say about them in social spaces, not their own engagement. It'd be interesting to see a comparison of measures of social media engagement and social media reputation, including both their correlation with each other and any correlations with other reliable measures (e.g., market share). Though these comparisons wouldn't indicate causality (at least not without a more complex longitudinal study), they could provoke interesting discussions about what matters most.

I for one applaud Yomego's efforts for helping us move discussions about social media out of conjecture and opinion and into something more empirically-based. Since we are still in the early days of the Digital Era, I have no doubt they will continue to improve their research and help advance the important topic of measurement.

Click here to add a comment to the LinkedIn discussion for this item, and/or to read the comments shared by others.

Categories: marketing/branding/sales, research

============================================================================= 

Title: Five Trends in Learning Delivery in 2011

Source: Chief Learning Officer

Author: Caroline Avey

Lead Paragraph: The way people, technology and learning meet is continually changing, moving toward increases in fidelity, convenience, collaboration, specificity and confluence.

Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs

I love that the trends emphasize digital technologies, including 2.0 technologies and social media to enhance the learning experience.

Click here to add a comment to the LinkedIn discussion for this item, and/or to read the comments shared by others.

Categories: applications, human resources, leadership, opportunities, strategy

============================================================================= 

Title: Social Media Around the World: Current Trends and Future Growth

Source: SearchEngineWatch.com

Author: Michael Bonfils

Lead Paragraph: Social media networking sites continue to be one of the hottest commodities in the international online marketplace. Just ask the citizens of Egypt, where social networks played a major role in their recent revolution.

Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs

This piece was shared by Ron Thomas via the LinkedIn group.

Here is a link to a recent post that was shared by Greg Jensen, which has updated infographics reflecting how social media is a global phenomenon with a local/regional focus.

I used the previous version of these infographics (via Brian Solis's blog post from about a year ago) in Part 8a of the Social Media Primer, which is entitled, "It's a Brave New World... Even if You Want the Old One Back."

Click here to add a comment to the LinkedIn discussion for this item, and/or to read the comments shared by others.

Categories: individual engagement, marketing/branding/sales, opportunities

============================================================================= 

Title: 65 Terrific Social Media Infographics

Source: Pamorama

Author: Pam Dyer

Lead Paragraph: As you know, infographics are visual representations of information, data, or knowledge. They present complex concepts quickly and clearly, and communicate ideas in an easily understandable fashion.

Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs

I opened this post with enthusiasm but was disappointed to see how many of these infographics were unchanged from a year ago. Don't get me wrong - lots of them are fantastic, but the overall quality is diminished for me by some of the once-great-but-now-questionable graphics that were included.

Generally speaking, I advise folks to be very cautious about relying on any "statistics" that are more than 6 months old. The last two infographics conveniently make my point, because they show how usage of various social networks throughout the world changed significantly in the past year.

All too often I see people quote statistics that are grossly out-of-date and/or misrepresentative. Unfortunately, great and/or dramatic visuals can exacerbate that tendency.

As with the last two infographics, I would love to see updated versions of ALL of the numbers-based snapshots included in this post.

Click here to add a comment to the LinkedIn discussion for this item, and/or to read the comments shared by others.

Categories: individual engagement, marketing/branding/sales

 

S.M.A.R.T. News 31-Jan-2011

This SMinOrgs News Digest includes several pieces with “best practices” recommendations for social media – not all of which hit the mark due to a restricted focus on external applications. Leadership is also a theme, in terms of both what’s being attended to and what’s being ignored. So many possibilities are still not being realized…

 

Please feel free to share your thoughts on the items in this News digest directly via the blog, or start or join the dialogue for an individual item by following the link to the corresponding discussion on LinkedIn. We also appreciate your bringing fresh items to our attention via LI, Twitter, or FB, or by emailing a link to news@sminorgs.net. Thanks!

Click here to learn more about the SMinOrgs News Digest feature and how you can leverage it to meet your goals and objectives.

If you'd like to receive a notice each time a new post is published, you can subscribe to the SMinOrgs S.M.A.R.T. Blog by clicking here or on the link on the right side of the website.

 

Title: 100 Best Companies to Work For

Source: Fortune

Author: n/a

Lead Paragraph: Fat paychecks, sweet perks, fun colleagues, and over 150,000 jobs ready to be filled -- these employers offer dream workplaces. Meet this year's top 100, network with the winners on LinkedIn, and more.

Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs

I wonder what they do with social media... As I read the high-level summary, I couldn't help but wonder how these companies would rank in terms of their usage of social media. This could make a great SMinOrgs News Digest, blog post, and/or white paper. If anyone is interested in taking a stab at it, please message me. Thanks!

Click here to add a comment to the LinkedIn discussion for this item, and/or to read the comments shared by others.

Categories: human resources

============================================================================= 

Title: Building a Successful Social Media Team

Source: Truffle Pig Search

Author: n/a

Lead Paragraph: The most popular discussion on LinkedIn’s “Intelligent Social Media” Group asks a pressing question about social media ownership within companies: Who should own the social media responsibility in corporations? Obviously, this is a loaded question with multi-faceted answers but the best discussions on LinkedIn generally are. Jay Baer, founder of Convince and Convert, and Amber Naslund break down this frequently complicated issue in terms of football. Even if you’re not a sports fan, the analogy is easy to understand and implement for any sized organization.

Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs

This piece was shared by Anne Weber. I have followed and participated in the ISM "conversation" the piece references, and most of the comments unfortunately reflect an inadequate understanding of social media. One day I'm going to write a blog post about it...

I also read the piece by Jay Baer and Amber Naslund that this piece introduces. Though I can't argue with the details of what they propose, their ideas are limited by their external focus on the applications of social media. As I discuss in Part 2 of the Social Media Primer (see, for example, http://tiny.cc/SMinOrgsPrimer2 and http://tiny.cc/SMinOrgsPrimer1and2update), external applications are just the tip of the iceberg. Considering the internal applications and implications of social media significantly impacts the "who owns" question, as well as the details of how social media initiatives should be led and managed.

Social media experts and thought leaders need to start approaching social media from a much broader perspective.

Click here to add a comment to the LinkedIn discussion for this item, and/or to read the comments shared by others.

Categories: best practices, challenges, enterprise 2.0, marketing/branding/sales, leadership, social media primer, strategy

============================================================================= 

Title: The Impact of Social Media

Source: MindJumpers

Author: Anne Herngaard

Lead Paragraph: Harvard Business Review Analytics Services has released a study on the impact of social media. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, blogs etc. offers organizations the chance to join conversation with millions of customers around the globe every day.

Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs

This piece was shared by Constance Woodson. As another commenter noted, the report - and Harvard's research - basically confirm what many people already know. Imagine how much more dramatic the results would be if the study had focused on the TRUE impact of social media, not just for external applications like marketing, but internal implications and applications as well.

Click here to add a comment to the LinkedIn discussion for this item, and/or to read the comments shared by others.

Categories: applications, challenges, enterprise 2.0, leadership, marketing/branding/sales, research, strategy

============================================================================= 

Title: Social Media for Business

Source: SlideShare

Author: Presentation Advisors

Lead Paragraph: n/a

Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs

This presentation was one of the winners in SlideShare's recent contest. Although it is limited to the external applications of social media (i.e., marketing, branding, sales, customer service), it provides a good overview and important insights for broader applications of 2.0 technologies.

Click here to add a comment to the LinkedIn discussion for this item, and/or to read the comments shared by others.

Categories: applications, best practices, marketing/branding/sales, opportunities

============================================================================= 

Title: Hyatt Brings Labor Contract Negotiations to YouTube

Source: Chicago Tribune

Author: Julie Wernau

Lead Paragraph: Labor-management battles, once fought on picket lines and behind closed doors, are now being waged in cyberspace. Borrowing from the union's playbook, Hyatt laid out its latest offer to hotel workers on YouTube last week.

Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs

Dan Mendelson recently sent me this story. It's fascinating to watch how "new tools" are being used to address "old challenges" ...

Click here to add a comment to the LinkedIn discussion for this item, and/or to read the comments shared by others.

Categories: applications, human resources, internal communication, opportunities

============================================================================= 

Title: The New Paradigm of Enterprise Communications

Source: Alcatel-Lucent

Author: n/a

Lead Paragraph: If you're like most executives, you've spent the past several years streamlining operations and processes and reducing costs, to weather the economic business realities. Going forward, you're looking for ways to return to growth–including increasing employee productivity and differentiating yourself from the competition. Employee engagement is the key. While human resources strategy is a primary force behind employee engagement, the quality of collaborative working relationships with colleagues–across the business community, using next-generation tools such as social networking and video conferencing–can be just as important.

Brief Commentary from SMinOrgs

This report helps make the case for leveraging 2.0 technologies inside organizations to improve performance and competitive advantage. Although the ideas behind them aren't new, the paper introduces the concepts of "context aware computing" and "communications enabled business processes." Interesting stuff.

Unfortunately, I can't attach the paper directly, so you'll have to provide your contact info to access the full report.

Click here to add a comment to the LinkedIn discussion for this item, and/or to read the comments shared by others.

Categories: applications, benefits, best practices, collaboration, enterprise 2.0, internal communication, knowledge management, leadership, opportunities, strategy