the social enterprise: the business of going social
DESCRIPTION
Are businesses that are early adaptors of the social enterprise more likely to be successful? Our thought leadership aims to help businesses across industries define their next innovation: the social enterprise.TRANSCRIPT
The Business Of Going Social
The AgileEnterprise
2
The AgileEnterprise
2
join the agile conversation www.bluewolf.com contact bluewolf 1-866-455-WOLF | +44 (0) 118 937 1059
why consider going social?
The explosion in the population of online
social communities is changing how we live
and interact with others. Web users of all
ages now naturally expect to gather and
share information that was once held by
organizations as too privileged or too
difficult and costly to extract and
share — whether at home, at work or on
the road. This phenomena represents new
challenges for organizations seeking to
respond to their customer and employee
expectations to more freely and openly
collaborate and share.
Technology providers have proclaimed a
new era in computing and are aggressively
marketing solutions to help organizations
bridge this gap. Social CRM is a young market
filled with many players, and evolving quickly
as more experienced companies enter the
arena. The value of social CRM is growing as
companies engage in more direct dialog with
employees and customers — for example,
giving voice to the brightest thinkers in an
organization regardless of rank or avoiding
a potential PR fiasco by nipping in the bud
a customer complaint posted on a public
social network.
Bluewolf believes that companies best
poised to benefit from social CRM are those
that already have a strong foundation
of customer information in place. An
organization’s current ability to efficiently
access and analyze accurate data is an
essential prerequisite before adding a
potential tidal wave of new information that
comes with integrating systems with social
channels. Coupling this with a strong vision
from leadership and social-smart processes/
technologies will lead to intended business
outcomes, and avoid unintended consequences.
— Greg Kaplan
Managing Director & VP, Bluewolf
a social enterprise is a successful enterprise
Speed and connectivity are the watchwords
for business success in the systems revolution,
building new opportunities for workforce
collaboration. Businesses can no longer afford
to simply react to customer expectations
by merely fulfilling requests for service. A
successful social enterprise business culture
must identify unfilled customer needs and
other meaningful solutions based on routine
and proactive interaction among product
and service subsets.
Huntington Bancshares Inc. is transforming
the sales culture of diverse business units by
3
connecting sales functions into an integrated
social enterprise, so that thousands of
colleagues now drive the growth of the
company together and can see the direct
benefits of doing so. It’s a logical and
necessary step for the future of any
growth-driven organization.
— Zahid Afzal, EVP & CIO
Huntington Bancshares Inc.
introduction — defining the social enterprise
In a world where social sharing has become
ubiquitous — we share pictures, fleeting
moods, political harangues and funny
stories — we continue to hesitate to bring
that sense of openness to the workplace.
The idea of a social enterprise is one that
attempts to capture the free flow of thought
and information that we bring to our social
interactions into our organizations. The
goal is to foster dialogue, share ideas and
build transparency. With the advent of the
social web, what used to occur around the
water cooler can now be systematized to
incorporate a wider pool of people, across
departments, hierarchies and functionalities.
The social enterprise represents an agile
enterprise, one that fosters ideas through
collaboration, engagement and nurturing.
It mines the knowledge of its employees,
clients and customers to create value.
A study by McKinsey & Co., which surveyed
more than four thousand executives,
found organizations that promote social
engagement within the enterprise had 41%
improved collaboration across silos, 55%
better information sharing, 24% increased
revenue and 43% greater market share1.
Key defining points of a social enterprise
include the promotion of:
Internal Operations and Collaboration:
Social enterprises take knowledge
sharing and brainstorming within teams
to the next level. They create platforms
that allow ideas to flow, be tracked and
communicated clearly through cloud
based software systems. They build a
vehicle for internal voices to be heard
across the spectrum and, in very large
organizations, they break down the
barriers created by geography function
or sheer size.
Transparency: The social web is about
openness, and social enterprises thrive on
transparency. They allow executives an
opportunity to see through the layers of
hierarchies to understand how employees
are communicating and working
with each other. They also allow peer
transparency and create an environment
that values competition in creating value
and building a business.
Customer/Client Engagement:
Meaningful engagement with customers
is a core of business practices today.
A social enterprise is one that builds
this focus into their internal, client
1 Source: McKinsey & Company, “The rise of the networked enterprise, Web 2.0 finds its payday.” Survey of 4,394 executives. December 2010.
3join the agile conversation www.bluewolf.com contact bluewolf 1-866-455-WOLF | +44 (0) 118 937 1059
4
and customer engagement. More than
having a Facebook page or Twitter feed,
the focus of social engagement should
be about a constant transfer and flow
of information that feeds both value
and excitement/loyalty to a product
or service as it happens. For example,
consider Secret’s anti-bullying campaign
on Facebook. It extends the values of the
brand around a core issue that customers
care about. Consumers are commenting
online around Secret’s Facebook page
and building positive brand identity. The
goal is to be unique, engaging and build
positive brand sentiment.
Brand Building: Communicating who you
are in the social world is defined by your
fans — your clients, customers or those
who simply admire the contributions
that your company is making through
its products, services or community. It’s
about communicating an image through
the social platforms that consumers and
clients use. This is accomplished through
mobile ready websites to how companies
handle major news releases and
communications. In the social enterprise,
brand building is a constant exercise that
adapts and changes according to how
customers react in real time — allowing
companies to shape their brand and the
conversation around it more than they
have in the past.
Establishing an Internal Culture:
A lot of companies talk the talk of
collaboration, but few walk the walk.
While some, like Google, go as far as
designing their workspace to build
interaction, many workers are stuck
in cubicle farms meeting their teams
or those on their floor on a regular
basis, but rarely interacting with other
members of the company. A tool such as
Chatter by Salesforce promotes internal
collaboration by emulating the news feed
and interactivity of sites like Facebook,
but with a company focus. Bridges are
built between employees and an inside
view to deals and business is shared
across a wider array of employees.
Creating this kind of shared platform
is where the true social enterprise
distinguishes itself.
the internal social enterprise — driving employee engagement
Social media is a channel that connects
people and teams, promotes engagement
and produces collaboration and innovation.
The social enterprise is one that embraces
all the components of social media. Its
relevancy exists for every organization and
industry. Incorporating tools that encourage
collaboration and capture that into revenue
enhancing ideas marks the successful social
enterprise. In making your organization more
of a social enterprise, the following themes
should be a goal:
Break Down Silos: A key way to
understand the social enterprise is to
look at the concept of the silo. It’s a term
bandied about in conversations about
organizational cooperation and change
4join the agile conversation www.bluewolf.com contact bluewolf 1-866-455-WOLF | +44 (0) 118 937 1059
5
when companies want to get employees to
look up from their computer screens and
work together more. But, it’s a metaphor
that’s far more powerful than we realize. A
silo represents an impenetrable repository
storing something necessary. Now imagine
breaking through that silo and having
what’s stored inside pour out. Social
media captures that flow of information
contained within one individual’s or
team’s experiences. Social enterprises
use tools that break the individual silos
employees build around the knowledge
they accumulate through their work or
small teams and allows that information to
be more widely distributed.
Share In Real Time: The days of keeping
information close to the chest or being
“in the know” are over. Successful
organizations are seeking to share
information with each other through
the cloud so that ideas and info are
available when you want it, where you
want it. Building the infrastructure
to allow employees to do this easily
is critical to collaboration. Sharing
information when it happens is crucial
for a true social enterprise.
Faster, Stronger Internal Engagement:
A new employee at Cisco or Hewlett-
Packard is one among 30 to 40 thousand
people. The time it takes for him or her to
build a network and become acclimated
is time lost in generating ideas and the
knowledge that s/he brings from another
corporate environment. A strong social
enterprise culture within a company
allows for faster internal adoption in
building networks, getting voices heard
and learning the company’s culture.
Eagle’s Eye View: It’s rare for executives
to truly know the thoughts of their
employees, what they’re working on
and how deals are progressing. Creating
internal platforms that track progress
and show information sharing gives an
eagle’s eye view of the internal business
operations to the C-suite. Tablet mobile
technology innovation lead by Apple with
its iPad2 and a few notable mentions
Lenovo Idea pad, Dell Streak Android
Tablet and the Sony Dash Mobile.
5join the agile conversation www.bluewolf.com contact bluewolf 1-866-455-WOLF | +44 (0) 118 937 1059
6join the agile conversation www.bluewolf.com contact bluewolf 1-866-455-WOLF | +44 (0) 118 937 1059
how social ready is your enterprise?
7
action steps: how to bring the social enterprise into your work place
Creating a social enterprise internally requires
a 360 approach that incorporates business
processes with management oversight and
clear metrics. Some of the ways that you
can bring your social enterprise into the
workplace include:
Tools and Platforms: The social enterprise
seeks to create platforms that bring
groups together and provide a trail of
documentation. This helps to demonstrate
the generation of ideas that lead to new
projects or innovations. The goal is not for
a select group to be “in the know,” but for
everyone to “know it all.”
Internal Champions: Every cause needs
an advocate and having internal adopters
of the social enterprise philosophy is
critical for an organization’s success.
Having individuals who can put these
practices of sharing, collaboration and
use of new technology that carry weight
and authority in an organization sets
a precedent that other employees can
follow. Identifying these individuals in
your organization and giving them the
tools to be early champions of the social
enterprise will aid adoption.
Defining Standards of Collaboration:
Defining how your organization would
like its employees to collaborate, use
new tools and build a social enterprise
are necessary first steps. Write a policy
document or company manifesto that
lays out goals on how employees should
work together to foster collaboration and
sets standards that can be measured.
Consider posting an industry specific
news article or participating in an
online discussion once a week. Put the
goals and the standards for the social
enterprise on paper. This will break down
the process of building collaboration
from a cool idea into a manageable and
achievable process.
Executive Oversight: Without
management buy-in and constant
encouragement, a social enterprise can
never truly get off the ground. Employees
need to feel that it’s safe to share
thoughts and ideas freely. Implementing
a social enterprise should include getting
management to participate in the flow
of information and ideas by commenting
online, asking how people are sharing,
how they are using tools and how they
are staying engaged online.
Metrics: While calculating an ROI of
your social enterprise initiatives may
not be possible, setting standards and
ensuring that you are measuring up to
them is critical. How many employees
are engaging online? How much sharing
has there been around deal flow? What’s
the usage pattern around cloud-based
services? These are the types of metrics
that can help you gauge employee
adoption. Firms struggle to allocate value
to multiple touch points for a single
opportunity. What matters the most?
What type of social activity pushed
7join the agile conversation www.bluewolf.com contact bluewolf 1-866-455-WOLF | +44 (0) 118 937 1059
8
the deal over the line. Like any form of
measured research, test and control
methods, varied tools and power of
experience will shape a social media ROI.
Experimentation: In finding the path to
success as a social enterprise, the goal
is to be ambitious and persistent, willing
to try different paths on the road to
achieving the optimal blend of collaboration,
communication and revenue enhancement.
The social enterprise is new terrain for
many companies, and there is no path
most taken. Instead, as new technologies
and best practices emerge, an organization
needs to try different approaches to see what
works best within their industry and
organizational culture. That willingness to
try new things is a hallmark of the social
enterprise because it’s a public declaration
of openness and receptivity to new ideas,
and the failures and success that result
from attempting to build a more collaborative
ecosystem. This should serve to motivate
internal and external stakeholders.
the external social enterprise —building a two-way dialogue
The other side of the coin of the social
enterprise is the external dialogue that a
company has with its customers. How does
it build engagement, loyalty and interest in
the brand? How does a company become
a thought leader? Claiming to be a thought
leader requires the use of contemporary
social media tools and a corporate strategy
committed to the constant work of
managing, building and refining a company’s
image in the public sphere.
Facebook and Twitter are Baby Steps:
The pages of AdAge and other trade
magazines are filled with articles that
dissect the value of a Facebook “like,”
but creating a social media page
or updating on Twitter are only the
beginnings of building dialogue with
customers and clients. Status updates
are a way to start a conversation, but
building loyalty and interest require a
rationale and a connection to the lives
of your customers. Great case examples
range from Sun Microsystems to Burger
King. Jonathan Schwartz’s blog for Sun
Microsystems receives 400,000 hits
a month and comments of all kinds
are allowed and approved. Burger King
ran a Facebook campaign that asked
customers to sacrifice ten Facebook
friends to win free food - it quickly went
viral. Both these campaigns dabble with
the negative. Unafraid of backlash, they
put ideas out there. Having a “safe” and
“controlled” Facebook or Twitter feed
won’t provide the social ROI that are likely
by taking bold steps.
Thought Leadership: When there’s a new
product launch or industry news that’s
worth commenting on, is your company
helping lead the dialogue? With the case of
B-to-B companies, being on the forefront
of thought leadership on trends and ideas
is critical to showing customers that
your company is innovating. Blog posts
8join the agile conversation www.bluewolf.com contact bluewolf 1-866-455-WOLF | +44 (0) 118 937 1059
9
or interacting with your industry’s trade
publications are ways to build that sense
of communication. IBM and Forrester
Research provide strong examples of this
type of thought leadership. Both companies
have employees and lead consultants blog
constantly, providing a steady update on
news of the day in their industry. It creates
dialogue and builds trust that your B-to-B
partner is on top of your field.
An Ear to the Ground: How often does
your company report its social media
monitoring metrics? Does it even use
them? Listening to what consumers and
clients have to say is as critical as voicing
your firm’s thoughts and opinions. Radian
6 and Get Satisfaction are both great tools
that allow companies to hear through
the social “noise.” Radian 6 may put it
best when it says that smaller brands
and new entrants need to understand
the value of listening and participating in
the conversations around their product
category and brands that are similar to
them, not just their own. It builds an
intimate knowledge of the consumer
mindset, which can be translated into
actionable insights.
Knowledge Communities: One part of the
social enterprise strategy for companies
is to build a base of users – whether
bloggers or avid customers – who are a
barometer for the ideas and initiatives
your firm is generating. Companies such
as Collective Bias are organized around
finding you that group of go-to users,
while others like Bluewolf can guide an
organization to map out a strategic vision
and tactical plan to customize cloud
and mobile technology based platforms
to promote internal engagement . For
example, Bluewolf has used Chatter to
build user groups around ideas focused
on new adoption of technologies. The
groups within Chatter create a forum for
participation and internal idea generation
that the rest of the organization can
tap into. Whatever approach you take,
building that dialogue and relationship
with a select group of customers/
clients creates a new laboratory for your
company that’s closer to the ultimate
end client/customer than you may get
through classic market research.
action steps: talking and listening to your consumers and clients
Owning the Social Media Messaging: The
approach to social media varies wildly from
brand to brand. For example, IBM allows
employees to blog about whatever they
want and emphasizes that the views are
not necessarily that of the company. Other
firms, such as Pepsi, tightly control their
Facebook and Twitter messaging and the use
of their brand online. What best works for
you depends on your brand, customer base,
and how comfortable you are with letting go
of the reins.
But, make a decision and assign external
social media responsibility to a team or
group of users within the company. Track
progress and then re-evaluate after six
9join the agile conversation www.bluewolf.com contact bluewolf 1-866-455-WOLF | +44 (0) 118 937 1059
10
Call Today! 1-866-455-WOLF
or +44 (0) 118 937 1059
about us >
Bluewolf is your guide on the journey to
enterprise agility. We partner with clients to
sync business and IT to create a new level of
business responsiveness. From cloud enabled
customer life cycle innovation, to IT staffing,
to agile managed services, Bluewolf knows
how to get your business to the next level of
innovation. Our clients include Time Warner
Cable, GlaxoSmithKline, ADP, Dow Jones &
Company, United Way, Chevron and more.
months. If you started with a tight fist
around your messaging, you might just get
confident enough to loosen your grip.
Incentivizing Participation: You have
a Facebook page, a Twitter account,
maybe a blog - now what? Building an
audience is the key to brand success in
the social media sphere. It can come
through innovative contests or coupon
redemption, or in the case of B-to-B,
focusing on strategic insights that help
your customers business. Whatever your
industry, the goal is to have something
that would bring people in because you
have something of value to give away,
share or contribute.
Quality of Content: In the most
attended webinar hosted by author of
Facebook Marketing and the Hierarchy
of Contagiousness, @danzarella said
“engaging in the conversation does not
work. Publishing interesting content
does.” Correlation of your content
to what the audience is interested in
attracts engagement like “fruit flies.”
The accessibility of your content also
contributes to how well it will be shared
and how organic conversations will occur
around them.
Invest In Metrics: Expecting a dollar
per dollar ROI on your social media is
unrealistic, but it doesn’t mean there
isn’t great value in investing in the
tools and platforms you need to
understand how your social chatter
measures up. Also, simply gauging
consumer or client sentiment around
an issue may help generate the next
big idea for your company.
conclusion — the path to leadership
The social media we have today is bulldozing
the silos of our stored knowledge and
creating platforms where that knowledge
can be shared freely. The social enterprise
seeks to capture the data that we all store
within us and within small groups, and
bring that data into the open so that it can
be compared, discussed and acted upon.
Organizations that embrace this change,
which mimics how our world operates with
information today, are the best positioned to
be leaders in their fields. The keys to success
lie in understanding that openness and
collaboration are the new norm. Businesses
that wish to ride the new social wave with
success will choose to revamp practices to
become social sharing organizations.
we’d love to hear your comments or questions about this white paper
Engage with us on Twitter, Facebook,
Linkedin or Chatter. For media inquiries
about this white paper please contact
10join the agile conversation www.bluewolf.com contact bluewolf 1-866-455-WOLF | +44 (0) 118 937 1059