2. Using Technology in Social Media
Asking WHY
before HOW
BUT – Don’t discount
reverse engineering!
3. Agenda
• Should you care about Social Computing?
• How do the tools help you to be social?
– Lots of guides, lots of gurus to choose from
• How can you get prepared? – Key Steps
– Clearly Identify the Business Problem
– Decide Which Features Make Sense for Your
Organization
– Be Prepared to Respond to Barriers
– Define Your Plan
– “Do-able” Pilot
– Provide Best Practices, Examples, Measure for success
3
4. Why Should I care?
which are why Social
we care about Computing
means
User
Business
Generated
Results!
Content
drives results in
Better Engaged
Content Users
results
in
4
6. National Wildlife
Federation Uses Social
Media to…
• Listen – Google reader/ Search terms
• Connect - (regionally and nationally)
• Explore – to better our work and stay
• Learn – from others
• Stay in touch – with members and supporters
10. How are NonProfits Using Social Media
to Spark Change and better listen?
•Grassroots – Social Change
•Using Social Media to spur action
•Don’t broadcast – have a conversation
•Think Visually – don’t rely on text
•Don’t bombard – once to three times
•Be selective – pay attention to demographics
12. How are NonProfits Using Social Media
to Spark Change . . .
• Good Content – use partners
• Integrate Social Media –
Facebook, Twitter, drive traffic to your web
site
• Don’t delegate social media to an intern
• Measure EVERYTHING
13. Communicate INSIDE before you go
outside. Who’s doing this …
A recent survey of more than 525 companies indicated that:
• 53% have intranet blogs
• 52% have intranet discussion forums
• 51% have intranet instant messaging
• 49% have intranet wikis
• Key word: INTRANET – Internal
–Sharepoint or go cloud: Yammer
13
14. What are the tools . . .
• Web Site / Blog – WordPress, Posterous, Yammer
• Instant Messaging / Mobile
• Facebook – engaging portal
• YouTube – distribute video
• Ustream – capture live video feeds
• Flickr – distribute and collect pics
• SlideShare – presentation material
• Foursquare – geo caching, where am I
• eMail . . . . What’s that?
• Twitter - Twitter in Plain English
22. Gartner predicts that you won’t have a
choice about email
• By 2014, Gartner predicts that social
networking services will replace e-mail as the
primary vehicle for interpersonal
communication by as many as 20% of
business users.
Source: “Tapping the positive from social networks for collaboration,”
eWeek, November 15, 2020
22
23. And, it’s not just the millennials …
• Social networking among
internet users 50 and
older nearly doubled to
47% from 25% between
April 2009 and May 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559504575630404070140386.html?KEYWORDS=older+adults+and+social+media
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Older-Adults-and-Social-Media/Report.aspx
23
24. How do you spell success? Focus on
tangible metrics – not adoption
• User adoption should not be used as a proxy
for success.
• Ask the right questions - don’t be broad, get
specific - Pet owners: STAND UP
24
25. Decide what makes sense – for your
organization
• You don’t have to have it all ... or do it all – at
least not all at once.
• Consider promoting different features at
different times – even if they are all available.
• Tie what you choose to do with your
organizational goals. If you don’t, don’t expect
participation.
• Figure out who should play.
– Social networking initiatives driven by one
department alone are more likely to fail than those
led by a team with people from multiple
departments.
• Don’t be afraid to fail.
– Fail Fast, Fail Cheap
25
27. Barriers you may hear –
Who hasn’t heard them?
• “If we allow any user to contribute
content (to a discussion board or a wiki
or a blog), we risk exposing ourselves.”
• “If we allow people to post anything they
want in their profiles or on their
blogs, they may talk about inappropriate
topics or about other people or about
information that can’t or shouldn’t be
universally shared.”
• “I don’t want to share what I know in a
blog because then someone might take
my idea and use it without giving me
any credit.”
• “Status updates and notes will be used
for trivial purposes and provide a
distraction from real work.”
27
28. … and given some recent events, there
may be some reason to worry about
inappropriate content
Have you ever posted anything online about
yourself that you regretted?
• 35% of everyone surveyed said yes
• 54% of respondents under 25 years old said
yes
• 32% of respondents over age 25 said yes
Of people who posted something online that
they regretted:
• 11% said it didn't cause any other problems
• 3% said it ruined their marriage or
relationship
• 6% said it caused problems at work or
home
• 15% said it caused problems, but they were
able to remove it.
28
29. But there could also be some very real
show stoppers
–Lack of a business case
–Lack of executive support
–Lack of IT support
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-20/enterprise-social-media-becomes-a-necessity-
008772.php?utm_source=MainRSSFeed&utm_medium=Web&utm_campaign=RSS-News
30. Define a “do-able” pilot
• Employee engagement is a key success
factor
• Start with a small proof-of-concept
focused on a specific business problem
– Don’t “over-plan”
• Focus on usability, look and feel
• Engage the “seasoned veterans” and key
influencers (energetic champions)
30
31. Provide Best Practices and Examples
• Tips to get started – general
– Ask questions
– Share great content
– Answer questions
– Acknowledge contributions by others
• What are others doing
– Borrowing isn’t really against the law – it’s flattering
• Discussions – recruit your army
– Have a moderator
– Be sure questions get answered
– Invite the right people – rem Pets story?
• Sharing – make it easy!
31
35. Best Practice Blogs
• If your organization is nervous about blogs, consider limiting who can have them –
at least in the beginning.
• Include internal blogging as part of your social networking policy (have fun, be
smart)
– Looking for a way to get started: check out Coca Cola’s
– http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/socialmedia/
• Create specific policies for bloggers
– Have a list of policies regarding blogging to ensure that trade secrets are kept
secret and personal lives do not become public.
– Policies may include keeping financial information from being posted, as well
as severe consequences for anyone using the blog for negative publicity, even
if the audience is only internal.
• Executive blogs should be authentic.
• Allow associates to comment on blogs – if you don’t, it’s not a blog – it’s just a
glorified newsletter.
• Don’t allow anonymous comments on blogs – own it!
• Keep content current – at least weekly if possible.
35
38. … and all blogs need to be accessible
(or even promoted)
38
39. … and you need to have an actionable
social media policy
39
40. Best Practice Activity Updates
• Share exciting news like affiliate wins or
partner quotes
• Post interesting and useful material you’ve
found (links to articles, actions taken)
• Ask a question (s)
• Answer a question – follow up important
• Post organization milestones
40
41. Engagement Tips
• Ask questions they can answer
• Use @_name to mention other
pages/people
• Post colorful/interesting photos
• Comment again after other
comments have been made
43. Recap of primary Social
Media Tools
So now that we know the primary tools let’s see how they would be used to show
case something simple . . . .
• Twitter : I need to pee
• Facebook : I peed
• Foursquare : I’m peeing here
• YouTube : Watch me pee
44. • Michael Sola,
@michaelsola – twitter
http://michaelsola.posterous.com/
At the end of the day, the real secret is not about adoption – it’s about meaningful business improvement.Adoption metrics do not measure what matters most to any level of the organization. Employees care about working efficiently. Managers care about operating metrics. Executives care about financial metrics. But they are all related.
Base SP2010 does not really provide what most people would consider microblogging. It does offer a way of communication by leaving messages on individual users Noteboard’s — very reminiscent of leaving someone a message on their FaceBook ‘Wall’. But, you can’t do direct messaging, @personname referencing (hyperlinks), search doesn’t automatically find social content, can’t easily “follow” or “join,” can’t leave comments on activities.A tool like NewsGatorSocial Sites adds features that create a much more Twitter-like experience. Updates — or posts — can be targeted to specific users or communities, they can be “liked” and commented on, adding much more interaction. Twitter-style hashtags can be used and searched on, and there is integration with mobile clients.
Response to Barrier 1Blogs and wikis tend to be “self-policing,” especially if multiple users have edit privileges. If everyone in the organization has edit privileges and can correct incorrect entries, then the risk of incorrect information being exposed is temporary—only until someone catches and corrects the error. Moreover, unlike on the Internet, on an internal intranet site, inappropriate or incorrect content can always be removed by the site administrator.The question you need to ask is whether or not this risk is any greater than it would be if a user asks a question in another way and gets an answer from someone who is misinformed. While the exposure risk may be smaller considering only two people are involved in the conversation, the potential damage is probably greater in the direct conversation because there is no opportunity to catch the error unless the person asking the question seeks a “second opinion.” Blogs and wikis are actually more transparent than e-mail, where far more damaging conversations can take place. In other words, social technologies make it easier to catch problems, not harder.A possible strategy to gradually decrease barriers might be to start by limiting users who can have blogs to subject matter experts and similarly restricting edit privileges on wiki sites until the organization is more comfortable with the technology and explicit positive results can be demonstrated. You may also want to consider a graphic identity marker or a disclaimer on each blog page to indicate that it is a blog to differentiate it from vetted content or an approval workflow on wiki content.Response to Barrier 2This barrier may be a legitimate concern in some organizations, especially those where “ethical walls” apply. In general, most organizations already have a policy regarding the appropriate use of corporate IT resources, and this policy typically already covers the type of content expressed in this objection. If it doesn’t, then it’s time to update the policy, not necessarily ban the activity.As a general rule, most people will do the right thing when it comes to sharing online. One of the reasons that you may see a “flame war” on the public Internet is that people are often anonymous on the Internet and can hide behind pseudonyms. This is not the case inside the organization where a general best practice is to ensure that all users “own” their comments and content. It would defeat the purpose of connecting people to other people inside the organization if anonymous contributions were the norm. Even if contributions are allowed to be anonymous in some circumstances, it is almost always possible that at least the system administrator will be able to see who is posting what content. With a documented policy and user names associated with content, this barrier becomes much less of a real risk.Response to Barrier 3One of the important concepts of knowledge management is that knowledge is an asset that you don’t lose when you give it away—if I share my knowledge to help you out, I still have the knowledge to share again and reuse for myself. People are naturally wired to be helpful but sometimes, organizational norms and reward structures create artificial barriers that limit the success of solutions that promote sharing. It’s actually harder to not assign credit to others or at least identify the source of an idea when it comes from a dated blog post or shared document given that the evidence for an idea or concept is easy to find. To mitigate this barrier to successfully deploying social technologies, it may be necessary to look at how people in your organization are rewarded—how they are measured for both regular and incentive compensation. Some of the barriers to collaborative technologies are not risks associated with the technology itself but the fact that the behaviors encouraged by the technology are not perceived as valuable in the organization.Response to Barrier 4There are plenty of opportunities for people to become distracted at work. In general, people understand what is appropriate at work and will do the right thing. If they don’t, there are already performance measures in place to ensure that employees get their work done on time. In addition, by adjusting their preferences, users can control the information they share and see. The best mitigation strategy for this objection is a success story—an example of a situation where a connection made via social technologies helped benefit a project team or an individual or the organization as a whole. If you’re responsible for the deployment of the community features of SharePoint, your project plan should certainly include a plan to capture and evaluate metrics. Be sure to include success stories as a qualitative metric for your initiative.
June 9, 2011: If you think Anthony Weiner's problems are just isolated online difficulties that don't happen to regular folks, you should think again. In a recent RetrevoGadgetology study that looked at how people use the gadgets in their lives, over half the respondents under 25 years old said they regret posting something online.
Response to business case:Measure what matters – define what success means and choose relevant metricsUnderstand that it may just be a requirement for the connected businessPay attention to what people are doing – track it, report itResponse to executive support:Find an executive who caresThink about the Sam Palmisano story – and find and tell your ownResponse to lack of IT support:Engage a cross functional team.If you get an executive sponsor, IT will typically pay attention
We tend to follow others. When we see other people writing reviews, sharing knowledge, and submitting content, we get the sense that this is what we are supposed to do. The more people participate, the more pressure there is for others to participate.IBM needed to get Sametime adopted internally in order to support its massively distributed workforce. After almost a decade of having presence and chat available, there were still only pockets of adoption. Then in 2005, CEO Sam Palmisano sent out a memo saying, "if you want to find me, you'll find me on Sametime." [So don't bother to send me an email or leave me a voicemail.] In a single stroke, he convinced 400,000 IBM employees to announce their presence to each other, to make it much easier to find and connect. Sametime is now the most important application in the company. Without presence, work at IBM would slow to a crawl.Note Board example story from Michael Pisarek: http://www.sharepointanalysthq.com/2011/07/sharepoint-social-tools-in-action-article-commenting/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SharepointAnalystHq+%28SharePoint+Analyst+HQ%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
Ask questions: the best way to start a conversation is to ask for help – this draws in othersShare quality: Save people time by highlighting something worthwhile on a web site or in a documentAnswer questions: this helps keep people engagedAcknowledge contributions: positive reinforcement is a great way to draw out people who might be shy or reluctant