The reality of social media in the enterprise

I came across this useful report on Web 2.0 in the enterprise:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/social-intranet-features.html

Key highlights for me were:

Most companies are not very far along
This is probably due to a number of factors such as perceived risk and the IT resource required (at a time when IT teams probably have limited resources and need to focus these resources on keeping business critical applications running).

Internal communicators should think about using simple plug and play social media channels that minimise the IT resource required. The full bells and whistles solution may never happen but a simple solution just might…

Social software technologies are exposing the holes in corporate communication
Social media channels may not be the sole way to plug these holes, other internal communications channels will also need to be improved accordingly.

Underground efforts yield big results
I’m a big fan of underground efforts, when you are trying to ‘sell in’ social media a big decision making committee usually needs to be involved. They’ll inevitably be someone who slows or stops progress with risk and ROI arguments. A (contained and low risk) underground effort can act as a pilot and case study to demonstrate value (or not! – we may not like this fact but social media uptake can sometimes be frighteningly low for a number of reasons).

Business need is the big driver.
No surprises here. We can’t just say “Twitter (or XXX tool) is great, you’re a luddite for not seeing it”. We need to match solutions to business problems to ensure project buy in.

Budget something for community management — not to control the conversation, but rather to guide it.
Pick a solution that makes this easy. Appropriate reporting that is custom built for internal communications is a good start.

Desktop alerts to moderators when people post certain types of content is also helpful.

Those who lurk (rather than post) also benefit.
Use other internal communications channels to promote and deliver social media content, for example, summarize key themes in an electronic magazine with hyperlinks to encourage participation.

Value comes from the strength of its content
As someone who spends most of her working day with highly visual communications tools, I’m still struggling with the argument that Twitter / microblogging can get messages across quickly (due to brevity).

Which is best?

A) A tweet that the CEO has updated their blog post OR

B) A screensaver with an image of a CEO at their desk with a pen (or whatever visual cue is appropriate) that appears for a few days and people can click to visit the blog directly.

I say visual content wins hands down!

Seeding social tools with early content can be helpful
It’s also about promotion:
- Promote interesting content visually on screensavers (it’s not as hard as it sounds – honest!)

- Use electronic mags to summarise key themes - Use news feeds for interesting updates to push scrolling headlines onto targeted computers

Internal social media breaks down communication barriers…which is good but can threaten people
Snap Interactive is good for a ‘toe in the water’ approach with security, targeting and lots of internal communications reporting to allay concerns.

A role remains for "official" content to state official policies and positions.
No question about this.

Political and cultural changes needed for useful and widespread use take 3 – 5 years
The key is to take a phased approach with simple easy to use tools. Use all of the internal communications channels at your disposal to raise awareness, shift attitudes and encourage participation in social media)

And my favourite…

Procedures that required days or weeks for approvals need dramatic streamlining, or the story will run away on its own..possibly on the www.

I.e., stop avoiding it and put your toe in the water with an easy to use tool which is secure from leaks and easy for non techies to use

A final comment is that people are finally understanding the value of ‘user generated content’ in terms of authenticity etc So even if you aren’t able to implement a social media solution, use tools that allow staff to input their own content – e.g. a user generated staff magazine such as SnapMag

Melcrum SCM – Discount Offer for ‘Friends of Snap’

Since SnapComms are a global sponsor of Melcrum this year, there is a special offer for 'Friends of Snap' for Melcrum's SCM Summit in Sydney.

Enter the keyword “Snap” when you sign up and you’ll get the pre-conference workshops on the 15th Sept for free. (The Workshops Package is usually AU$3,195 + GST, but friends of Snap can attend for AU$2,395 + GST.)If you have stumbled on this but are not currently a 'friend of Snap', feel free to drop your contact details to us here and we'll be your friend (and add you to our mailing list - it's about 3 emails per year and of course you can unsubscribe!)

Alternatives to Twitter for Internal Communication

Sorry, couldn’t help myself… there’s a new page on the SnapComms website here outlining some alternatives to Twitter for employee communication. (Hint - its tickers, alerts, discussion forums and interactive screensavers – feel free to ignore if you don’t want a product push :) )

The strengths of Twitter as an Employee Communications Tool

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.

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)

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.

Fast Response Internal Communications Tools

Staff should hear important company news from the company first: nothing is worse for morale than learning about changes to their organization from the media or family and friends before they hear about them from their employer.

For some types of messages we need a fast response internal communications tool with high cut through.