A Journey In Social Media

Alternative Strategies For Justifying Social Productivity Software

So, as of late, I have been talking to people who are the "gotta justify it" point of their respective journeys.

And I came across one method of justification that just might work for you in your situation, and I wanted to share it.

A Disclaimer

I'm starting to get a lot of interest in these topics, as well as this blog in general.

I don't want to disappoint people, so I thought it might be time for a general purpose disclaimer.

Can Software Make You Smarter?

No, but I think it can make you more successful.

Yesterday, I was talking to our HR group -- an "all-hands" type of thing -- and I wandered into a few interesting areas that I thought important.

One of the things we're noticing on our platform is that people are becoming, well, better people.

An Example Of One Of Our Training Videos

We have this really bright guy as part of the team who's doing "viral videos", trying to help everyone get comfortable with the new platform.

He's getting really good.

As an example, if you want a quick laugh, check out this short clip on "How Do I Log In To EMC ONE?" -- our internal platform.  BTW, that's our #1 question these days ...

He's making an excellent point here.

No, you can't hire him -- he's working for us.

What's Your Organizational IQ?

Now, if that isn't a great opener for a yet-to-be-written pop business book, I don't know what is.

By IQ, I mean "innovation quotient".  How much is innovation embedded in your corporate DNA?

And the answer to this will have a lot to do whether your organization takes this whole E2.0 thing seriously or not.

IT + HR = SM

OK, that's a bizarre title for a blog post.

What's the intepretation?

Simple: IT and HR working together could be a great approach for social media proficiency in larger enterprises.

Hold that cynicism for just a moment while I explain.

Going Outside

Well, if you've been a regular reader of this blog, you'll probably remember one of my "Big Strategies" around all of this, e.g. let's get good at social media behaviors and skills "behind the firewall", and then -- when we venture outside the firewall -- we'll know what the hell we're doing out there.

That time is upon us, and some of the debates around this are interesting.

But, given our internal experience, I think we're well advantaged about how to think about the problem.

Justifying Social Software

It's true that most organizations won't move forward with significant investments without some sort of justification.

And it's also true that the category of "productivity software" is perhaps the most difficult thing to justify.

So, I thought I'd spend this post on the flavors of business value we're seeing from our internal environment.

Graduating Bloggers

As part of this blog, I try to capture "unexpected benefits" associated with our internal social media proficiency effort.

And, in this post, I'll celebrate our "graduating class" of proficient, external corporate bloggers.

Inside, Outside

At the recent Jive meeting, we had two clearly delineated groups there -- people who were focused on outside communities, and  people who were focused on insider communities.

IF you just sat and listened to how the two groups were using the product, what they wanted, etc. you might come away with the impression that there were two distinct use cases with not much commonality.

But, as the meeting progressed, I think these two groups will have more in common over time.

The Big Conversation

I flew out this week for Jive Software's first Customer Advisory Board. 

Yes, there were nice meals and a nice hotel, but what really did it for me was the interaction with the folks from Jive as well as other large enterprises doing similar things with their product.

And, as with any stimulating set of discussions, several ideas and concepts crystallized that I'd like to share here.

Passion: The Secret Ingredient?

We spend a lot of time as a team debating why certain people are getting proficient at social media (or 2.0 behaviors, or whatever you want to call them), and others -- well -- just aren't.

We've studied it from just about every angle I can think of.

But maybe, just maybe, we've stumbled on the quintessential ingredient that makes this stuff work.

Passion.  Maybe it's that simple -- and that hard.

Too Much Information

Well, we're starting to have what I'd call a "good" problem -- too much information being generated on our internal platform.

Our users are telling us that there's so much going on that they don't know where to direct their attention.

And, as a result, we're thinking through different ways to help mitigate the "problem".