Some great feedback from Jen Frahm to the strengths of Twitter as an internal communications tool. Here’s some more thoughts:
Comment: Twitter encourages brevity and clarity in writing (the 140 characters)
An internal communicator who is not good at this does not need Twitter to train them. I can think of better ways to deal with this. (Yes it certainly helps get the point across, so maybe practitioners should set up a personal account and experiment privately). My view on brevity for most internal messages is that more than 140 characters are required for message coherence.
Comment :Twitter introduces the idea of microblogging and the possibilities of this in the company e.g. managing projects.
I agree but there are better tools available (not just talking about Snap tools here)
Comment :Twittter is built on principles of contribution and reciprocity, both necessary in creating an engaged workforce
Absolutely, but is this an idealist view? Better to get staff engaged with wikis and discussion forums first perhaps (many of the organizations I encounter are still struggling with uptake)
Comment :Twitter opt-in creates a measure of engagement - you have ROI
Not sure about this – anyone else have thoughts?
Comment :Work & private life is already blurred. Deal with it, create a living policy on how to use social media safely (for company & individual)
Yes there should absolutely be a policy. I think that some of the older generations will struggle with any expectations to use Twitter. Plus Gen Ys aren’t as willing to sacrifice as much as the Baby Boomers for their work, so we need to tread really carefully.
Comment :Twitter provides you choice on who to follow
It does, but when someone follows you, aren’t you tempted to take a quick look? Also, updates on whether someone just drank a cup of tea or watched their favorite TV show clutter the channel and other messages are diluted. Cut through is diminished.
Comment :One employees pushed out newsfeed is another employees management spam. Totally agree, it’s about content, relevance, and as Liam FitzPatrick put it, as 'meaning' and a sparking conversation.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Twitter as an employee communications tool – part 2
Twitter as an external communications channel. Tim Nichols from 2degrees spoke at a PRINZ event last night about helping employees (in his case those in the call centre) become an external communications channel via social media (in terms of engaging the market, brand management and customer support).
This is just another example of how the line between internal and external communications is blurring due to social media.
Employees as brand advocates. The use of Twitter by employees internally is probably more about helping them become external brand advocates but, of course, you can’t effectively promote this type of use without using Twitter as an internal tool too…..
Clarity regarding objectives. I guess the key point is to have an understanding regarding the organisations objectives and then providing the right environment, guidelines (e.g. how much time staff should spend on Twitter, what’s OK to say etc) and training.
If we are going to use Twitter as an internal communications tool, we need to be clear about why we are doing it and realistic about what can be achieved (e.g. message cut through may be low so other channels will need to duplicate important messages)
This is just another example of how the line between internal and external communications is blurring due to social media.
Employees as brand advocates. The use of Twitter by employees internally is probably more about helping them become external brand advocates but, of course, you can’t effectively promote this type of use without using Twitter as an internal tool too…..
Clarity regarding objectives. I guess the key point is to have an understanding regarding the organisations objectives and then providing the right environment, guidelines (e.g. how much time staff should spend on Twitter, what’s OK to say etc) and training.
If we are going to use Twitter as an internal communications tool, we need to be clear about why we are doing it and realistic about what can be achieved (e.g. message cut through may be low so other channels will need to duplicate important messages)
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Twitter as an effective employee communications tool – really?
Twitter is a much covered communications tool that has seen a massive growth in users..and press coverage in recent months. There is little doubt that it is an important communications tool but is it really the next big thing for internal communicators? The short answer is NO.
Effective employee communication is about providing context. How much context is possible in 140 characters? Research shows that the vast majority of tweets are right up there at 139 or 140 characters demonstrating that most people are trying to squash their message into the maximum allowed space.
Don’t believe the hype. Some technology organisations are promoting case studies about how they have used Twitter as a tool to build staff engagement. Take the time to lift the lid on the numbers and you’ll usually find that the uptake is under 3% of staff - Pretty poor for a ‘game changing’ internal communications tool.
Useless, unless employees are there. Twitter is an opt-in messaging system. Once an employee has set up an account, they then have to follow your internal communications tweets…which brings us to our next point:
Engaging content. For Twitter, or indeed Yammer, to be successful as an internal communications tool, you need to have a stream of regular engaging content that staff will take the time to follow. Many organisations struggle to find interesting content for internal blogs… Twitter presents even more of a content challenge.
Message approval. Depending on the type of organization you work for, you may be struggling with message approval processes around certain types of internal communications. The issue escalates with Twitter which is in the public domain. Yes, internal communications should be open, some organizations are better than others at this, but there is a certain amount of fear that needs to be managed for Twitter to be successful as an employee communications channel.
Twitter is a ‘social communications’ tool. Many staff may not want to blur the boundary between work and their social lives. They could choose to create extra profiles on Twitter i.e. one for work and one for social, but this adds another potentially off putting step.
Inane chatter and spam can dilute the cut through for important messages and cause those employees who have opted in to stop listening.
Not everyone in the organisation is a digital native. Our workforce may be made up of a range of demographics. Enterprise RSS is on shaky ground in many organisations due to low opt in amongst staff. Twitter can be scarier as staff need to ‘put themselves online’ which can be unnerving and off putting for some staff.
Perhaps a better way is to send short scrolling news feeds to targeted staff computers. This allows you to send ‘Tweet like’ messages out to employees in a secure format that doesn’t require staff to opt in.
Formats like news feeds allow you to initiate conversations and maintain direct interaction with staff. For example with a CEO news feeds containing Twitter like updates.
Effective employee communication is about providing context. How much context is possible in 140 characters? Research shows that the vast majority of tweets are right up there at 139 or 140 characters demonstrating that most people are trying to squash their message into the maximum allowed space.
Don’t believe the hype. Some technology organisations are promoting case studies about how they have used Twitter as a tool to build staff engagement. Take the time to lift the lid on the numbers and you’ll usually find that the uptake is under 3% of staff - Pretty poor for a ‘game changing’ internal communications tool.
Useless, unless employees are there. Twitter is an opt-in messaging system. Once an employee has set up an account, they then have to follow your internal communications tweets…which brings us to our next point:
Engaging content. For Twitter, or indeed Yammer, to be successful as an internal communications tool, you need to have a stream of regular engaging content that staff will take the time to follow. Many organisations struggle to find interesting content for internal blogs… Twitter presents even more of a content challenge.
Message approval. Depending on the type of organization you work for, you may be struggling with message approval processes around certain types of internal communications. The issue escalates with Twitter which is in the public domain. Yes, internal communications should be open, some organizations are better than others at this, but there is a certain amount of fear that needs to be managed for Twitter to be successful as an employee communications channel.
Twitter is a ‘social communications’ tool. Many staff may not want to blur the boundary between work and their social lives. They could choose to create extra profiles on Twitter i.e. one for work and one for social, but this adds another potentially off putting step.
Inane chatter and spam can dilute the cut through for important messages and cause those employees who have opted in to stop listening.
Not everyone in the organisation is a digital native. Our workforce may be made up of a range of demographics. Enterprise RSS is on shaky ground in many organisations due to low opt in amongst staff. Twitter can be scarier as staff need to ‘put themselves online’ which can be unnerving and off putting for some staff.
Perhaps a better way is to send short scrolling news feeds to targeted staff computers. This allows you to send ‘Tweet like’ messages out to employees in a secure format that doesn’t require staff to opt in.
Formats like news feeds allow you to initiate conversations and maintain direct interaction with staff. For example with a CEO news feeds containing Twitter like updates.
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