Social People and The Big Conversation

Sometimes you get things right.  Whether you're smart, or lucky, or a bit of both -- it should be a moment for rejoicing since it doesn't happen as often as you'd like :-)

It's struck me that when we put our overall corporate social media strategy together, there were two big themes: encouraging social media skills and applying them to ever-wider conversations.

Looks like that was the right thing to do ...

The Germ Of An Idea

David Spencer offered up a telling comment to my last post that confirmed my thinking here.

"At EMC we didn't tell people where to go, what to play with or what not to play with.

We have smart, social people who feel empowered to represent our brand and themselves at the same time all over the place, and the payoff is nearly automatic.

There are certainly other approaches to take, but I really enjoy the organic growth that our approach has led to."

He's absolutely spot-on.  That's exactly what we did.

It's Hard To Get This Insight Across

As a matter of fact, it's deep insight that I struggle to impart with all those I talk to about corporate social media proficiency.  Lots of focus on "what's the best platform?" or "who is in charge?" or "how do we keep bad things from happening?" et. al.

All of this tends to distract from what's turning out to be the keys to success in corporate social media proficiency.

It's The "Social" In "Social Media"

First, it's about getting people comfortable and proficient with all of this.  That means having a place to practice (e.g. internal platform), continual messages of encouragement (from peers and others), and lightweight governance that encourages empowerment and experimentation.

Today, we have an ever-expanding crew of 50 or so EMC people who are (a) extremely comfortable with all of this, (b) represent our company and our brand pretty well, and (c) like interacting with other people at EMC who are interested in doing the same.

You'll see them inside and outside the company on a variety of platforms.  They are perhaps some of our most valuable and important employees -- although that's probably not widely recognized yet.

Call them our "social core" or our "social team" or our "social people" or whatever. 

Nobody chose them, they all volunteered.

The Big Conversation

Second, the value of corporate social media is in direct proportion to the size of the conversation -- hence my preference for the term "the big conversation" -- the bigger the better!

That means we started with a "no private spaces" policy on our internal platform.  We encouraged proficient bloggers behind the firewall to go outside the firewall.  We empowered people to leave comments on other blogs, including competitors.  When we started building external communities (ECN), we had plenty of people at our company who wanted to play for all the right reasons.

And when Twitter came along, we were there in force.  Nothing had to be explicitly done.  No strategy meetings, no amendments to corporate policy, etc. etc.  It just happened.  And I wasn't even paying attention at the time :-)

I should point out that -- whenever the next cool social tool or platform comes along, and it inevitably will -- we're automatically pre-positioned to leverage that one as well.  It all has a nice, organic self-sustaining feel to it.

Which puts us in great shape for whatever comes down the road, no?

Is This The TIme To Write A Book?

In some regards, the fundamental processes and investments we put in place a while back are now self-sustaining.  We're transforming our company into a 2.0 enterprise.  There's no turning back, either.

Sure, we'll need to make more investments -- either to optimize our use of the tools, or to accelerate one use case or another.  All minor tweaks to a running machine, IMHO.

But I'm wondering -- how useful are our insights to others?  How many organizations will want to transform themselves into 2.0-style companies, and realize that it's not a straightforward journey?

Let me know your thoughts ... thanks!

Comments

[Gypsy]

To your first question:
In this space it is easy to track if something is useful at all. You don't like, you don't come back. Actually quantifying value users is rather nebulous; I'd love to know what and how to measure. But it's that intangible benefit that's key; the insight might help directly in a particular case, or indirectly by triggering another thought process/idea storm. And good insight, like good conversation, is an enjoyable exchange, where the end result is greater than the sum of its parts. The old braincells like to be teased once in a while.

To your second question:
Much has been said about customers who will find a way to talk about you regardless, so you might as well join the conversation and host it on home ground. And yet, there are organizations that can get away with not engaging in social media. I wouldn't want to see my Swiss banker (um, if I had one) engaging in this model. Defense is another industry that comes to mind.
Certain industries will lead the way, IT surely being one of them. There must be studies on early adoption of social media by industry...Perseverence and success, of course, depend on personality not industry so the subset will be a different picture.

[Anne Marie McEwan]

"But I'm wondering -- how useful are our insights to others?"

I can only speak for myself - hugely useful. I have been working with and monitoring busineses for the past 14 years(small, large, domestic and international), as they transform their business processes and working practices.

I read your blog and map your story onto what I know happens in practice in other companies. I look for patterns and principles; of course there is no one best way.

What I love about your blog is the story it tells, its candidness (not flinching from reporting resistance) and your awareness that this is your company's story - others may experience similar things but every journey is unique.

I would urge you to write a book. I would buy it :-))

[Rachel Happe]

I think doing some sort of write up on this would be fabulous.

I am thinking about doing a series of eBooks (or book) organized by the following elements:
* Strategy
* Leadership
* Culture
* Community Management
* Content & Programming
* Policies & Governance
* Tools

Would be very interested in collaborating if you have any interest.

[Gypsy]

I have a question. If you have already addressed this elsewhere, I apologize! If other readers have a view, please chime in.

The recession may make organizations focus on concrete measurable results, to demonstrate ROI and justify budgets.

This would be a step backward, and social media is here to stay. But in your view how big an impact - if any - will there be?

[Chuck Hollis]

Not every organization is the same.

Many organizations are trying to figure out how to improve productivity, raise morale and increase job satisfaction.

That's a different kind of ROI, but just as important in tough times.

Does this help?

-- Chuck

[Gypsy]

Yes, thanks for reply.

[Iain]

Hi Chuck,

We're about to embark on the first steps you took way back when you first adopted Clearspace at EMC.

Your blog has almost become required reading for our team. So please keep writing those posts and also I think a book would make good reading. I'd certainly buy it.

Iain

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[Cindy Shannon]

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