This document summarizes Sun Microsystems' emerging social media presence in 2009. It discusses how consumers are empowered by social networks to create and share content. It then outlines Sun's growing social communities on blogs, wikis, forums and networks like Facebook, showing member counts and levels of engagement. Challenges discussed include measuring the business impact of social engagement and ensuring guidelines are followed across many community sites.

1. Emerging Social
Ecosystems at Sun
Sumaya Kazi (@sumaya)
Senior Social Media Manager
June 2009

2. About Sun Microsystems, Inc (JAVA)
• Develops technologies that power the global marketplace
> Systems and Storage: SPARC, x64 Servers,
Servers+Storage
> Software: MySQL, Solaris, Java
> Services
• Ranked #184 on the Fortune 500
• Fiscal Year 2009 Q2 Revenues: $3.220 billion
• 30,000 employees worldwide
• Conducts business in over 100 countries
• http://www.sun.com
2

3. What We See
Happening in the
Market
3

4. Power of the Groundswell
“A social trend in which people use
technologies to get the things they
need from each other, rather than
from traditional institutions like
corporations.”
Groundswell – winning in a world transformed
by social technologies
Charlene Li – Josh Bernoff
Forrester Research
4

5. Who is this kid?
• DeAndre Cortez Way, aka
Soulja Boy
• At age 16 he uploads his
•Crank That song/dance
• Six months later: #1 US hit
• for seven weeks
• The future is now
• psble thx 2 Netwrk
• Powered by Sun
5

6. Exponential Human Expression
6

7. Network: turning things upside-down
• On the network, consumers:
– create identity
– express affinity
– unleash creativity
• It's all about me
• Content is king
• The syndication of everyman
• Opportunity to radically grow brand
awareness, preference, affinity by
capitalizing on these trends
7

8. New Models
New Communities
8

9. Sun's Community Galaxy
9

10. Sun's Community Galaxy
10

11. 11

12. The Bloggers
Overview
• 5,426 Bloggers
• 4,437 Blogs
• 135,000+ Posts
• 150,000+ Comments
• 2.1M page
views/month
• 846K unique
visitors/mo
Sun's CEO blog:
Celebrating 5yrs of blogging
http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan
12

13. Wikification at Sun
Overview
• 71,000 Contributors
• 23,000 Pages
• 270,000 Revisions
• 2,800 Comments
• 797K page
views/month
• 142K unique
visitors/mo
Content is collaboratively
created by Sun Employees,
Partners, Customers & Invited
Guests
13

14. Sun Forums
Overview
• 946K Contributors
• 355 Forums
• 920K Threads
• 4.1 M Messages
• 3.4M Page
views/month
• 1.1M Unique visitors/
mo
14

15. 15

16. 16

17. 17

18. Pronounced AWESOME
http://osum.sun.com
• 90,000+ members
> 2,500+ professors
• 1,900+ student clubs
• 1,500+ blog posts
• 100's of events
• 15,000 photos posted
• 600+ videos shared
18

19. Sun Radio Network
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stations/sunradio
Socially Speaking – focused on high-level interviews & conversations about Social Media.
Shift Radio - latest in tech gadgets, video game and rich media industries.
Sun News Radio - highlights the latest news and views from Sun.
New Gen Tech - focused on Millennials, Tech, Jobs & Pop Culture.
66,000
listens
since April
2008
19

20. Sun on Facebook Sun Fan Page
>10,460 fans (233%)
>Growing 2,000 monthly
>Syndicate news
>Promote events
I Love Java Fan Page
>20,400 fans (188%)
>Growing 3,000 monthly
>“Younger, hipper”
>Photos, videos
Duke – Java's Mascot
>1,100+ friends
>Photo tagging, poking, etc.
Other Sun communities
(e.g. MySQL, JavaOne, Sun
StudentZone etc.)
Over 20 Fan Pages Built
20

21. Sun & Facebook Groups
Nearly 200 Communities Created
2,650 Sun and Non-Sun individuals have joined Facebook Fridays
to get weekly newsletters on Social Media. Largest destination for
Sun employees on Facebook. Serves as a launching pad for
announcements and new communities. 30 issues published.
1,200 members have joined the Sun Developer Network group to
gain access to a vibrant worldwide community of developers.
Members get the latest news, photos, and videos.
1,000 members have joined Friends of the Sun Microsystems
Foundation & Community Sun group to learn about Sun's
Foundation and volunteer efforts.
700 members have joined Sun's OpenStorage Community
Foundation group to learn about and discuss Sun's Storage
technologies.
Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only

22. Sun & Twitter
“I LOVE Java,
OpenOffice.org, and
VirtualBox OSE, among
other Sun products!”
- @romanv
• Sun Microsystems
> Corporate identity
> 5,240 followers (1600%)
> 1,000 growth/mo
> Publish breaking news, tweet
business priorities, promote
events, listen & engage
• Automated Handles
> IR, CEO Blog, News, Blogs
> 4,500 followers
• JavaOne Conference
> 2,600 followers
Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only
> Live updates, conference comm.

23. Everything Is Measurable!
Facebook
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only

24. SOCIAL + YOU Training
• Training Program
> Immersive offline and online
program for Sun employees
> Monthly Cadence
> Kick-off event
- Get Informed, Connected &
Involved on Twitter
- 150 employees in-person
- 440 watching live
- 300 radio listeners
- 600 downloads of presos
•
Agenda
- Social Media at Sun Update
- Visiting Expert Shel Israel,
- Interview style
- Hands-on training
- Measuring Impact
Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only

25. Tip #1 Trust Your Contributors
Balance
• Policy
• Risk Tolerance
• Culture
• Benefits
• Trust
25

26. Sun Guidelines on Public Discourse
http://www.sun.com/communities/guidelines.jsp
• Conversational tone
• Short
• Easy pointers to granular policy
• Scalable to cover most community sites
• Comprehensively identifies do's & don'ts
• Recently revised to cover
− Anonymity
− Avatar appearance
− Community moderation
26

27. Tip #2 Enable Users to Build Their
Community
• Consistently seed with + content
• Engage power users moderate
• Promptly address inappropriate
behavior
• Consistently encourage efficient use
• Provide user tools: instructional
videos, 101 sessions for & by users,
getting started content, FAQs
• Community alias & wiki for self-
support
27

28. Tip #3 Guide & Nurture a Self-Sufficient Community
• Train
• Police
• Support
• Evangelize
• Grow
28

29. #1 Challenges & Risks
Corporate analytics capturing community engagement
conversions to revenue. How do we measure
monetization?

$
29

30. #2 Challenges & Risks
Old school behaviors resisting efficient use of new tools
> Group editing of email attachments instead of a wiki page
> Fear of transparency
> Long email threads instead of a forums discussion
30

31. #3 Challenges & Risks
Employees not being aware of or fully understanding defined
guidelines & policy
> Sensible business conduct
> Export law
> Copyrights
> Privacy violations
> Trademarks
31

32. #4 Challenges & Risks
• Enabling organic community growth vs Creating
communities
• Being authentic vs Being contrived
• Mitigate these via
− Transparency
− Active engagement
− Community moderation
− Responsiveness to needs
− Tool refinement
32

33. Questions?
Thanks!
sumaya.kazi@sun.com
http://twitter.com/sumaya