Social media in Employee Communication

Mistakes:

1. Selling this as a communication issue rather than a business tool. Executives care about business issues; social media can address these issues.

2. Pushing it when you should not; conversational rather than corporate. If you’re not ready, don’t do it. Community creation needs to be considered. Executives don’t feel comfortable talking in first person and writing it down. Our role is to be a coach and counselor to push when it’s appropriate. This is still a tool. (AMEN! Just because it's out there doesn't mean you have to use it!)

3.Not tailoring it for the internal world: Corporate environments can’t have uncontrolled social media; the culture won’t allow. We need to tailor it for the internal world; working with lawyers and corporate executives. One size doesn’t fit all. (Guidelines can be simple; please be respectful, stay on topic and limit to 10 lines or less.)

Why develop the tool? Make one way communication into two-way.

Benefits: Employees solve their own problems! Management doesn’t need to be involved. Everyone is talking to each other. Ideas get to the people who matter. Ideas are brought forth and can be business-focused. (Lots of internal tools start with a business article.) Chat rooms and comment posting is a simple way to start. It encourages return visits. People can talk in real language.

Why does a social media tool work in a corporate environment? Needs a business purpose; configured for the internal environment, it’s the right tool for the job (blog vs. wiki vs. chat room vs. LinkedIn vs. myspace.)

What stops orgs from putting social media tools and strategies in place? Risk is a huge watch out; people see this as uncontrolled with no guidelines. It’s up to us to recommend the right tools with the right boundaries. For example, if an executive is not comfortable blogging, have then use voice mail to record their thoughts, that can then be posted! It’s still their voice, but is real and authentic. It needs to be doable! Guidelines, learnings from experience and rules help get people used to the inherent risk. (Like driving a car; rules in place to keep everyone manageable and safe.) (NOTE: I LOVE THIS ANALOGY!)

More benefits: Benefits range from interactivity to the ability to get messages out...employees are empowered. Social media is self-policing for the most part.

Definition of social media: No one owns the story (consumer-generated); feedback is genuine and transparent!

This is the best conference I have been too in a long time where common, like minds actually share and give advise rather than competitiveness. 

This is from Brenda Manry, internal communications specialist for the Integrated Supply Chain at Motorola in Arlington Heights, IL. 

I just wanted to highlight some of what I shared at the UnConference on internal comms uses of social media. 

1) My biggest use of social media is utilizing Wikis - they allow for easier edits of stories and other content within our comms team, they make it MUCH easier to allow other group members to provide content and ideas for their organizations' web presence within the supply chain functions.  They have served as a web log for people in other countries that haven't had much if any exposure to blogging.  The key element of Wikis that I've learned has been to tell people about them, show them how to use it and offer a monthly opportunity to talk about how you're using them so others can see for themselves.  The term "Wiki" alone can be intimidating to those that aren't familiar - so tell them up front what it means.  Start in small groups and empower others to share the word and their work with Wikis. My work with Wikis has received the attention of our corp. intranet team to capture some of the tips I've shared with my team specifically, so they can be shared with all of Motorola - so that is motivating that I'm doing the right things.

2) I have an editorial blog that I use for the portal that I manage.  I update it weekly, sometimes more if news comes up.  But I use it as a two-way vehicle to capture feedback on stories from the portal or to ask for help with improvements for navigation or asking for more ideas for tools for the portal.  It was very slow to start but now I have about 30 subscribers and about 4-5 people that offer their comments.  It's been slow, I've heard, because people cannot blog anonymously and they fear repurcussion.  I've been blogging for a year and can see that it will just take more time, dedication, patience and training on my part to make it work.  I did help someone create their own blog for the IT department last week - so I think that's a positive sign.

3) Polls are an easy way to ease into a social media option.  They can be anonymous and can give you at least a pulse of people that seek interaction or how many people are coming to your site.  I have one on my portal that changes each week and am now starting to incorporate a poll now and then for key stories that we run, asking if people found it of value.  So far it's slow - but these things take time.

If any of you have questions for me directly, you can find me on MyRagan as bmanry.  Thanks, Brenda