Whew -- Things Are Moving (Way Too) Fast

My apologies on not keeping you up-to-date on our progress here.

It's all good.  It's just that it's coming fast and furious now, and I'm struggling to keep ahead of the wave.

Usually, I like to write thoughtful pieces on a particular aspect or issue we've encountered.

Maybe this post is "be careful what you ask for, you just might get it"

Platform Status

As you remember, we decided the first phase of our overall social media strategy was to put up a behind-the-firewall platform to gain proficiency and build communities.

It's been up over four weeks.  It's gone VIRAL.

Illustrates the point that "social media" is more about the "social" part, less about the "media" part.

We're at 500 self-selected users, and more piling in exponentially every day.

Key learning: viral launches of platforms are best.  Makes people get curious, explore, etc. -- better than an Official Announcement.  You also get a more patient breed of user, which has been helpful as we experience growing pains.

Behaviors

Remember, the purpose of the platform is to encourage more social media behavior, so we're monitoring that very closely.

We now have a few dozen new bloggers on the platform.  Some are promising, others look like they may go nowhere.  Either way, that's good.

People are joining into discussions, debating vigorously on topics that I hadn't expected.  And the participants are learning from each other in real-time -- something that is fun to watch.

Community formation has improved, but only marginally.  We've only got a few examples of communities that are successful or heading in this direction.  We need more community coaches, and we need them yesterday.

The best part -- people are finding each other and productively interacting in ways I had never expected.  I'm using the analogy of a "social computer" to describe what we're building here.

Executive Sponsorship

Now, you can understand that our IT group was a bit reluctant / skeptical / concerned about what we're doing here.  I think we've turned a corner.

We've agreed that social media needs governance.  We've formed a committee of different aspects of the business that meets once a month to discuss issues from different perspectives.

This is very, very good.  The worst outcome is that one faction or another asserts control over the other ones, and we'd be in a strategic pickle, so to speak.

Our senior leaders are getting the social media bug.  They go from curiousity, to concern, to rampant enthusiasm when it finally dawns on them how this sort of stuff can change the game.  Big fun!

Business Unit Sponsorship

I've found strong sponsorship in our HR group.  They've appointed a leader around "social media proficiency at EMC", building a team, and figuring out how we as 35,000 people get good at this stuff in a directed, thoughtful way.

And, of course, they're forming an online community to discuss, debate and coordinate.

Some of our bigger business units are coming to the table with big initiatives of their own.  Great stuff, it is.  Our big challenge is that I think they're expecting other functions to go implement their project for them.

We're spending serious time with these folks helping to educate them on the resources, skills and roles required to make these projects work.  They'll get it, but at least we're having the discussion.

Scaling Issues

Of course, IT needs more plumbing and licenses.  They're working on that.  Not clear who's going to pay for it all, but I'm guessing we can figure that one out.

Our IT guys want to use a "pay as you go" model for particpants, where every cost center gets charged when someone climbs on.

Solves the funding problem, sure, but I've thought about this overnight and I *really* hate this idea.

Why?  Because the value of social media is getting everyone to use it.  We've proven that.  Creating any sort of barrier (of any kind) defeats the purpose.  I'm going to have to figure out how to get them out of this mindset.

We don't charge people for coffee, or toilet paper, or web access, do we?

I'm going to have to hire a Director of Social Media before long.  I'm interviewing, but it's a journey.  I'm shanghai-ing a few folks to act as community coaches, because we need this.  And we'll need another "user experience administrator" to join the full-time contractor we have.

These are not problems, these are signs of success.

The Bottom Line

With every big idea, you push the stone to the top of the hill, it tips over, and starts running down the other side.

You just want to make sure it doesn't crush anything in its path.  And that's where I think we are.