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Social Networking & Social Media

Some things to think about

Mike Hughes BSc (HONS)

23 September 2010

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Some things we’re going to review

What is it?Why should I care?How can I get started?How can I learn?How can I apply it?

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Some definitions

Social Technologies – the tools that allow you to create useful content

Social Media – the content you createSocial Networking – what happens when you

share your content and develop relationshipsWeb2.0 – an umbrella term for everything to

do with Social Media\Technology\NetworkingThe Web as a participation platform,

facilitating creativity, collaboration and sharingUpload and Download

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Some common examples

Facebook – social networking LinkedIn – business networking YouTube – creating and sharing videos Twitter, Wordpress – Micro-blogging & Blogging Wikipedia – collaboration on knowledge RSS – content delivery mechanism, direct to your PC SocialText, Confluence – internet based collaboration suites Second Life, Entropia – virtual worlds Flickr, Snapfish – photo sharing networks OpenSource – free software (e.g. Compiere ERP, SugarCRM) Magcloud – on-demand publishing

It’s about creating, collaborating, communicating

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Some early implications

Technology has introduced a fundamental shift in how we communicate and collaborate• Which means:

– This will not die out– It’s not a fad– All the old rules are rewritten

Examples• Size of budget• Size of company• Control of publishing tools• Control of distribution channels

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“Pepsi Skips Super Bowl TV Advertising for Social Media”

After 25 years advertising on the SuperBowl, Pepsi diverts all advertising to Social Media

Yahoo Feb 2010

The old rules mean nothing in Social Networking

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Some changes in our world

A Web where people naturally share, collaborate, communicate…… without email!!

A generation, “Gen Y”, that has learnt to work and communicate in a completely different way

Exponential rate of change across many dimensions• People• Process• Technology• Culture

It’s impacting our lives, even when we don’t realize

“It’s just a fad”

“You just might want to watch this… “ Social Media Revolution

• http://bit.ly/9VY2s1

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Some new value systems

79% workers say ‘the most important thing to them in a job included being trusted to manage their own time’ – over and above pay

21% would turn down a job that did not allow them to access social networking sites or personal email during work time

'Web 2.0 in the Workplace,‘ report from Clearswift Ltd covering U.S., Britain, Germany, Australia – Jan\Feb 2010

This figure is only going to increase.

Interesting quote from Jeremy Siegel"The demographic trends of the past have just not been strong enough to offset all the other influences on the stock market, but this is the granddaddy of all demographic shifts. We have never witnessed anything like this and I am convinced it is going to be a determinant of asset prices going forward. Stocks and other assets could plunge by as much as 50 percent.”

Jeremy Siegel, Professor of Finance, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania

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Some hard numbers

The business results are becoming apparent

“People who do surf the Internet for fun at work – within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office – are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t”

Dr Brent Coker, Dept Management and Marketing

The University of Melbourne

Social Media ROI• New studies emerging• http://bit.ly/caikS2

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“54% of businesses have completely prohibited social networking sites in the workplace.”• Robert Half Technology survey of 1400 US CIOs

Banning social media in the work place is:• Like... banning the Internet because you might surf - remember this?• Like ... banning the phone because you might make a personal phone – remember this?• Like... banning paper and pens because you might pass a note that is not related to

class or work - my parents remember this!!• It signals to people that “we don’t understand it”

And most importantly• What are your competitors doing?

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Some things not to do

Some waste of time

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@elraidor: Because I can do

it all on my phone!!

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Some home truths

Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Gen Y are going to do it whether you like it or not• It’s happening regardless• If you hired right

– Your employees will not waste work time on social media

• If you hired wrong– Your employees will waste time anyway, social media or not

Gen Y have grown up with this• They are the experts• This is how they communicate• This is how they work• This is how they create• This is how they innovate

Take it away and you risk losing their skills

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Some ways to start

Step 1 - You must have a communications & collaboration strategy for• Customers• Partners• Employees

If you don’t have this, how do you know what to try ? Start here whilst you learn

Step 2 – Define your governance model Step 3 – Go fast – you need to experiment quickly Step 4 – Learn, adjust, go again

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Some strategy ideas

Basics of Communication Collaboration Enablement and Effective Work Practices Knowledge and Intellectual Capital Management Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Marketing (brand management; awareness) Human Resource Management (recruitment;

retention; development) Company Culture

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Some things to remember

Listen first – don’t try to sell• Don’t advertise, create useful content

Change starts at the top• You cannot delegate relationship building

You have to commit, don’t be half hearted• You must have a strategy, goals, objectives• Or you won‘t maintain the initiative

It’s about building relationships, not selling• Start conversations and provide useful information• Build trust, become the expert• Sales will follow

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Some ways to learn YouTube, there are lots of 2 – 5

minute videos explaining everything you need to know• What the HELL is Social Media

in 2 minutes http://bit.ly/dcatNB• Social Media Marketing in 3

minutes - http://bit.ly/ddEwFv• Social Media in Plain English -

http://bit.ly/9eTfvv• The Machine is Us_ing Us -

http://bit.ly/bm30Au All YouTube videos have a

related video list to offer suggestions

All YouTube videos have user ratings

Get a coach!!

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Some things to do first

Governance first• What are your rules and guidelines?• What’s OK? What’s not OK?• Publish and educate your

employees

Many companies are sharing their policies on-line• http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php

• Leverage the experience of others

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Some ideas on communications Corporate communications

• Replace cascaded email communications with Blogs– Team blogs, organization blogs, personal

blogs, project blogs, product blogs....

• Leaders get to know what their employee’s think– It flattens an organization– The message doesn’t get diluted– It’s a 2-way conversation– It’s a personal approach that encourages

more discussion– Negative comments can be turned into

positive messages

• The email lists don’t have to be maintained

• RSS takes any update to people’s desktop automatically

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Some ideas on collaboration Company collaboration\Projects

• Sometimes called ‘Enterprise2.0 software• Brings together wikis, Blogs, micro-blogs, RSS, social

networking, tagging etc into one coherent environment– Every Project has a separate, controlled space– Allows internal and external staff to work together on-line– Everyone networks\learns from each other, travel minimised

• New companies emerging– Examples - SocialText, Jive, Confluence (Atlassian)

• Multiple deployment options– SaaS, OpenSource, Traditional In-house, Cloud

• Typically piloted via a new project

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Some ideas on effective work practices Intranets - replace with Wikis

• Easier to keep up to date• No static HTML pages that are complex to develop, review and approve

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Decide what information needs to be controlled• Create the structure for your company• Allow your employees to create and update

the information they need to do their jobs

Keep governance lightweight• Incorrect

information tends to be corrected by the community very quickly

Mediawiki software is free

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Some ideas on marketing and intellectual capital

Start your own TV Channel YouTube

(http://www.youtube.com) Kyte

(http://www.kyte.com)

All you need is a webcam

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Some ideas on CRM

Listen to Twitter first, you’ll learn a lot Go to this site http://spy.appspot.com/ and enter your search

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Summary

It’s the result of technology change, it’s not going away It’s fast and it’s developing faster It’s happening whether you participate or not It’s about communications, collaboration and trusted

networks who will recommend you…. or bury you It’s experts will always be 20 years old It can reduce your costs and increase your revenue It can make you look stupid very quickly if you ignore it

It’s about managing change and it starts at the top

That’s where we come in as change management is difficult

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