social intranet
Dear Senior Manager – please play nicely in our social channels #internalcomms #intranet #socialmedia
If I had to give a senior manager a bit of advice about how to be successful in using social channels on our intranet, it would be something like this:
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The critical success factor for engaging in a social channel as a senior manager is getting the tone of your engagement right. You need to ensure that you maintain the right balance between being authoritative as a senior manager and being an individual engaging in a conversation with another individual. Influence in social channels is something you earn over time by engaging in the right way and not something automatically conferred upon you because of your role in the organisation.
Influence comes from being part of the conversation, not part of the establishment.
It is also important to accept that your people need to collaborate in social channels to be effective in their jobs – they need to trust that you endorse this activity and that they are not being judged negatively for being active participants. Your early interactions, as a senior manager, will be critical to the health of social collaboration by your people going forward.
The following points should help you find the right tone in your responses. When responding to an individual in a social channel, you should never:
- preach at them or talk down to them
- hide behind quotes from company literature or use management speak as a surrogate for authentic engagement
- use jargon, abbreviations and marketing/business language
- throw your weight around and act in a heavy handed manner because of your position in the company.
You should always:
- listen first
- be honest, open and authentic in all your responses – which includes owning up to mistakes as quickly as possible
- deal with negative sentiment head on – ignoring negative sentiment inevitably results in it spiralling out of control – remember … negative sentiment almost always comes from an un-met need which you can probably meet
- stick around and follow-up on comments you might make in a given conversation – making a comment and then leaving is not engaging in a conversation.
What does a healthy internal comms ecosystem look like? #internalcomms #intranet
This is a bit of a basic diagram, but something like this I think:
In conversation: social media and corporate culture
The fourth in the series of in conversation with Red Sky Vision talking about social media and corporate culture. It’s quite long (6 mins: 53 sec) but I think it’s quite interesting (I would wouldn’t I 
).
In conversation: the impact of social media on internal comms #internalcomms
The third in the series of in conversation with Red Sky Vision talking about the impact of social media on internal communications. The conversation weaves around the changing role of internal comms and how and why internal comms people can thrive in the social space.
In conversation with Richard Dennison – Social Media and Internal Communications from Red Sky Vision on Vimeo.
In conversation: social media and the BT Intranet
The second in the series of in conversations with Red Sky Vision – this time a short sound bite or two about why we introduced social media onto the BT Intranet (this one is much shorter … only 1 min 20 sec ).
In conversation with Richard Dennison – Social Media and the BT Intranet from Red Sky Vision on Vimeo.
Social media at work video
Last Friday, Red Sky Vision launched a video about social media at work. Amazingly, I was asked to be part of it! It’s very well produced and the key strength of it for me is that it’s not about hyping up social media and creating a frenzy. Rather, it’s a well-balanced and calm assessment of the issues and benefits of social media in work – with a particular focus on internal communications. It’s about 15 mins long – so grab a coffee and a chocolate biscuit and take 15!
As well as me, you’ll hear from the following:
- Marco Forgione, IVCA
- Rebecca Richmond, Melcrum
- Stefan Stern, Edelman London
- Helen Dunne, CorpComms magazine
- Neil Gibbons, Communicate magazine
- David Ferrabee, Able and How
- Madeleine Kavanagh, Deutsche Bank
- Livio Hughes, Headshift
- Neville Hobson, Communicator and entrepreneur (from whom I stole this lits of participants – see his blog post).
Enjoy! I’d be interested to know what you think of it …
[If you can't see the embedded video - you can watch it on the Red Sky Vision site]
Wondering about intranet evolution …
Following a lively conversation on the Thought Farmer blog, I was wondering about the relationship between the thing we call the intranet and the digital workplace. Which model below looks right to you?
The challenge for internal comms in the social enterprise
I spoke earlier in the week at the Melcrum SharePoint User Forum on the subject of: the challenges facing the internal comms (IC) profession in the social enterprise. I wasn’t able to talk as much about SharePoint as perhaps I was expected to as, quite frankly, we don’t have a lot to show yet … which is another story entirely! 
Anyway, I thought I’d share some thoughts on the challenges facing the IC profession in a social enterprise. The slide below pretty well sums it up …
A community of internal comms practitioners embedded into the social fabric of BT as power-networkers influencing the conversations and culture of the organisation to meet its business objectives. A community engaged in communications activities underpinned by social interactivity and conversation to help BT employees arrive at shared understanding of what is expected of them from the communications we create and disseminate.
[PS - my slides from the Melcrum event are available on slideshare]
Outside-in social media skills
With the continued growth in both volume and influence of social content inside organisations, how should internal comms managers respond?
How can an internal comms manager keep up with the buzz in social channels inside their organisation?
You can try to use technology to monitor the buzz, but the only really effective way to keep up with what’s going on is to be in the thick of it yourself … connected to those with the greatest influence and to those who comment about the bits of the business for which you have responsibility. Internal comms managers need to be the super-networkers inside an organisation … the alternative is to become out-of-touch and irrelevant.
Social content is a rich seam of intelligence for the internal comms professional … for example: it offers real-time feedback (no need for any more employee surveys!); provides the seeds for future campaigns and messaging; allows you to see the REAL impact of what you communicate; and makes you accountable for what you communicate … in real time. Why wouldn’t you want to have access to all this …?
How should an internal comms manager engage with employees in social spaces?
I believe we should adopt the same tactics being played out on the internet by marketing and PR people representing brands in public social spaces. As an internal comms manager, you are effectively a spokesperson for your organisation … inside your organisation. The same basic rules apply whether you represent your company to external stakeholders or internal stakeholders … i.e. employees.
There are loads of great case studies on the internet for how to do social stakeholder engagement well … and an equal number illustrating vividly the dangers of getting it wrong. While these case studies might not be exactly transferable inside an organisation, the underlying principles are identical:
- set goals
- target the influential – get connected
- monitor what is being said and by whom
- do some experimental engagement adopting an appropriate tone and see what happens
- review
- repeat!
My top-tip for becoming a super-networker is get in early. As soon as a social channel appears on your intranet, get involved as a user straight away … get connected to as many people as you can (you can tidy up your connections later) … build up trust and a strong personal brand as quickly as you can.
In social channels, influence comes from being part of the conversation … not part of the establishment!
SharePoint 2010 unleashed into the corporate social media space
SharePoint 2010 unleashed into corporate social space
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