making the case for social media inside the organization
DESCRIPTION
Presented to Knowledge Workers Toronto on June 20, 2012. This was a facilitated session. Video of this session available on uStream: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/23449964 (it starts at the 6:40 minute mark). Earlier this year our Knowledge Workers: Technology group explored social media/social intranet layer offerings for the enterprise including Speechbobble, Working Rooms and Pintegrate. However, what is the business value of these tools? Why would an organization put money, time and effort into implementing social? External drivers for use of social media are familiar to us: public relations, marketing and recruitment. But what are the internal drivers? And how does this relate to Knowledge?TRANSCRIPT
Making the Case for Social Media Inside the
Organizationby Connie Crosby
@conniecrosby Crosby Group Consulting
Knowledge Workers Toronto#kwTO
June 20, 2012
Where is Enterprise 2.0 today?
• 2 years ago we were primarily talking about adding in tools/applications such as blogs, wikis, and Twitter-like microblogs such as Yammer to the intranet.
• Today we are seeing a race to create/implement full-on social layers to the intranet or social intranet platforms e.g. Jive, Speechbobble,ThoughtFarmer and others.
• Yammer is now a full-blown social platform and there are rumours of Microsoft planning to purchase it to fill the gap in their offerings.
• The Enterprise 2.0 conference is taking place in Boston as we speak. Follow #e20 on Twitter.
What are the challenges in making the business case for
social?
Challenges (1)• history of being an entertainment
tool
• keeping people engaged
• privacy issues
• investment in people needed, too (e.g. training, support)
• cost to implement higher than expected
• unmoderated; loss of control
• general business case issues, eg. ROI, addressing risks, business use “Why”
Challenges (2)• reputational issues - for both
individuals and the organizational culture
• “just don’t get it”
• who is going to pay for it?
• “free” tools are not free
• engagement/creation of content - does the 1:9:90 rule apply? (i.e. 1% create content, 9% comment, 90% only read)
• information overload
• is the business case based on the reality of the organisational culture?
Ambivalence
FearDistrust
ParanoiaInsecurity
Skepticism
BARRIERS
Will social create a sharing culture?
1. The right tools will make us collaborative.
2. Collaboration is inherently a good thing.
3. Collaborating takes extra time.
4. People naturally will/will not collaborate.
5. People instinctively know how to collaborate.
5 Myths of Collaboration
Gartner - Press release June 3, 2011http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?
id=1711814
Some invalid assumptions
• The purpose of collaboration is obvious
• Bigger is better
• Build it and they will come
• The real value in collaboration is connecting people to content
Source: Sara Roberts, Roberts Golden Consulting, Inc. & Margaret Schweer, Tammy Ericson & Associates
at Enterprise 2.0 2012 - notes by V. Mary Abraham http://aboveandbeyondkm.com/2012/06/building-intelligent-organizations-e2conf.html
• Sharing knowledge is always voluntary. No one can ever be forced.
• We share knowledge when we have the right audience, that motivates us and creates the right context.
• Social software alone is not the solution to the old problems of knowledge management.
Source: T-systems Multimedia Systemshttp://www.slideshare.net/TSystemsMMS/enterprise-20-knowledge-management-people-at-the-center
Here’s what T-systems says:
Building the
business case
Marketing / Communications
• Communicating from the top down
• Getting staff on board
• Keeping a wide-spread team (such as sales) on message
Human Resources
• Recruiting
• Employee on-boarding
• Training
• Employee work satisfaction
• Retention
Library / Research
• Current awareness
• Aggregation of resources - internal & external
• Shared work / research space
Professional Development
• connecting with colleagues, mentors, experts
• attending seminars at different times, in different locations (webinars)
• learning on demand
• finding support from peers
Knowledge Management
• encourages culture of sharing / collaboration
• retaining content / knowledge (outside of email)
• making tacit knowledge explicit
• sharing knowledge for succession purposes
Enterprise-wide
• space in which to develop policy
• record and maintain quickly changing procedures
• engage everyone
• and: how can you “do more with less”??
And more:• crisis/emergency communications
(internal & external)
• customer service - co-ordinating issue resolution
• communicating & recognizing staff success stories
• crowd sourcing (if big enough staff
• research - mining content for major topics/themes of interest; providing real-time info on these themes
• library - social layer in the catalogue providing reviews, tagging, ratings, recommendations
T-systems says:
• It is no longer about storing knowledge...
• but about knowledge just in time
• this happens in formal networks
• ...and even more in informal networks
Social tools
• Crossing boundaries between employees
• Crossing boundaries between organizations
• Crossing boundaries between organizations and their clients or stakeholders
• Crossing boundaries among clients and stakeholders to create communities
Social media is people!
• Connect
• Communicate
• Share
• Collaborate
• Learn
http://www.socialsignal.com/cartoonused under Creative Commons
“Idle chatter” is how:
• staff learn to use the tools
• tacit knowledge is transferred
• teams are reinforced
• staff are engaged
Recommended Reading
www.gartner.com/thesocialorganization
The Social Organizationby Anthony J. Bradley & Mark P. McDonaldHarvard Business Review Press, 2011
Recommended Reading
www.charleneli.com/openleadership
Open Leadershipby Charlene LiJossey-Bass, 2010
Recommended Reading
http://www.russlinden.com/html/books_videos.htm
Leading Across Boundariesby Russ LindenJossey-Bass, 2010
Recommended Reading
Business Cases for Info Prosby Ulla de StrickerInformation Today, Inc., 2008
http://www.destricker.com/en/books.html
Effective Blogging for Librariesby Connie CrosbyThe Tech Set series,Neal-Schuman Publishinghttp://www.neal-schuman.com/ebl
Connie CrosbyCrosby Group Consulting
http://[email protected]
@conniecrosby@crosbygroup416-919-6719
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Thank you!
Image Credits
• “Podcamp Montreal 2008 71” (Jay Moonah) by Eva Blue - Flickr - used under Creative Commons - http://www.flickr.com/photos/evablue/2875304911/
• successful business woman on laptop by Search Engine People - Flickr - used under Creative Commons - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sepblog/3941048713/
• “A lot of networking going on..” by Jacob Bøtter - Flickr - used under Creative Commons - http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakecaptive/15792280/