Uncategorized
Back from blog black hole …
It’s been a bit quiet around here recently … sorry about that. Inspiration has eluded me … smothered by the thick woolly blanket of work!
We’re *still* in the midst of an intranet migration to SharePoint 2010 … which actually means we haven’t really started yet but have done the ground work – the only small nut to crack now is how to get tens of thousands of pages out of existing content management systems into SharePoint 2010 while causing everyone – users and publishers alike – the least amount of pain possible … answers on a postcard, please! 
I’ll probably share more about this over the coming weeks …
The impact of social media on internal communications seems finally to be creating some buzz about the place … which is great news. On that note, I recently made a small contribution to a free eBook about how internal comms is changing in the modern workplace – it’s a light read and I think worth a browse.
I’m also speaking at the annual conference of the Institute of Internal Communications (May 23-25) which I’m really looking forward to … although I seem to be the last speaker of the whole event just before lunch on Friday … not sure what to make of that! If you’re going, please say hello …
Anyway – just thought I’d pop-up for air to reassure myself that I still exist … more soon … promise … maybe …
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]
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!
Integrating social media into internal communications
How not to do it!
Having been part of a social media panel at this week’s Melcrum Strategic Communication Management Summit, I was moved to write this post about how to integrate social channels into an internal comms campaign.
As a recipient of internal comms stuff, it can sometimes feel like internal comms has become a check-list activity … someone from the business comes up to you and says: “I need to communicate something” … and you launch off on auto-pilot with a menu of channel offerings. And, when new channels come along, they get added to the bottom of the list to amplify the noise. I get the feeling that social media is often just being added to the bottom of the list.
So, for what it’s worth, here are some thoughts on the subject. Social media should never be handled as a standalone item or activity … this is true if you’re writing comms strategy, preparing a business case, writing a comms plan or trying to justify ROI. The power of social media is in its integration with other stuff … as a standalone activity, it has limited value as a comms enabler.
-
Define very clearly what your desired business outcomes are. As an aside, I don’t think that either pride or awareness are valid business outcomes! There is nothing inherently useful in a business context in feeling proud or in knowing something … it’s what people DO as a result of that feeling or with that knowledge which should be your desired outcome. All too often we don’t press the business to say exactly what they want to be different as a result of an act of communication … if we don’t know this, how can we decide if we should do it at all, or what channels to use to do it effectively?
-
Once you’ve agreed a set of tangible outcomes, you need to agree how you’re going to measure those outcomes to know if you’ve been successful.
-
With this knowledge, you can then begin to define the activities which you need to undertake to deliver the outcomes … one or more of these activities may well be social media related in nature.
-
You’ve then got enough information for normal comms planning to kick in …
In adopting this approach, you not only create a context for social channels and social content, but you also create a mechanism for measuring their value – as part of a group of comms activities, rather than on their own. By positioning social channels alongside the more traditional, and accepted, methods of communication, it also gives them gravitas in the business which often regards them as toys.
I apologise if this sounds like teaching grandma to suck eggs … but sometimes we could all do with a bit of egg sucking!
Five random learnings from enterprise social media deployment
While preparing for last week’s Simply Summit, a number of random points floated into my mind about things to consider when deploying social media tools onto a corporate intranet. I kicked off with these points which I’ve re-produced below:
1. The old rules still apply
Over many years, intranet managers have learned hard lessons around the best ways to manage intranets and intranet content. Some social-media-types will tell you that social media changes everything … it doesn’t … and the lessons we’ve learned over the years are still relevant. However, while the old rules may be the same, the issues will almost certainly be different. The best example of this is governance … social content still needs to be governed but you’ll need to think about different and more appropriate ways of doing this with user-generated content.
2. It’s a journey, not a magic bullet
As obvious as it sounds, change takes time to happen … if someone is selling you an all-singing-all-dancing social media platform which will “transform you organisation overnight …”, I recommend you ask them to leave. Years ago, when I first started working on intranets, I had a slide with this simple equation on it … the technology in question back then was a basic intranet – but the sentiment is as relevant today as it was back then (see bullet point 1 above!)
The other thing to note about this is that you need to stick with it and not get downhearted when it feels like you’re getting no where.
3. A bottom-up culture needs top-down support
While social media evangelists like me like to think of ourselves as subversive freedom fighters taking on the might of the corporate machine, you’re going to find it pretty tough to get anywhere without support from your leadership team – even if that support is tacit rather than openly exhibited. The technology can’t do it alone … (see bullet point 2 above!)
4. Content types should complement each other rather than compete against one another
I covered this in my last post, so won’t bore you by repeating it here again.
5. Sometimes the only form of transportation is a leap of faith!
Don’t get sucked into endless debates about ROI etc. … sometimes you have to do stuff because you know it’s the right thing to do. Social media is right for organisations … it’s right for employees … and it’s right for customers.
… here endeth the lesson
[P.S. ... don't you just hate it when people use the word learnings ... euchh!]
Five steps to effective social engagement
Building on the stuff I mentioned in my last post about socialising with corporate stakeholders, I’ve been thinking about a workable process which we can go through to begin external engagement in a managed way. I hope that by following steps like these we’ll be able to make some pragmatic and sensible business decisions around the types and scale of engagements we can reasonably make in social channels with external corporate stakeholders.
I’m also hopeful that by showing that we can do this incrementally and at our own pace, it will allay the fears of those who are more sceptical and/or fearful of entering into this whole volatile space … we’ll see.
What do you think??
They thinks it’s all over … it is now …
I’ve been wondering what to do with this blog for a few weeks now. I couldn’t make up my mind as it’s been a labour of love for over a year and I’ve picked up a fine following of interesting peeps along the way.
While I hope it will remain a useful resource for those starting their own corporate social media journeys, I’ve decided I’m pulling the plug on this blog and not posting here again
My role at BT has changed and I don’t have the time to be clever anymore …
Also, while my back was turned my personality escaped and rushed off to the other side of WordPress Land where it’s calling itself: Richard Dennison Uncut. Frankly, I think it’s being very irresponsible and I wouldn’t go over there if I were you. And, if I catch anyone subscribing to its blog feed I’ll be VERY, VERY annoyed indeed. Enough said!
« Previous Entries
