Collaboration in Social Media

My name is Thomas McHardy and I am a recent graduate from James Madison University with degrees in Public Relations and Corporate Communication.  Each person in my Web Communications class was required to create a blog looking at various aspects of social media.  My blog is dedicated toward answering the question of whether or not social media tools make it easier or more difficult to collaborate in a professional setting.

Relationships: A Key to Collaboration

In this post, I will look at an important factor in deciding how well a company will be able to communicate with its stakeholders.  For a company to be successful in creating an atmosphere where employees and customers feel comfortable
collaborating with each other, they must first build and maintain trust in order to have successful relationships with their publics.

 

In her 2003 article titled Guidelines For Measuring Trust in Organizations, Katie Paine mentions ten dimensions of trust that are necessary in building mutually beneficial relationships.  These dimensions include competence, integrity, dependability, honest, vulnerability, concern for employees, identification, control mutuality, satisfaction, and commitment.  These dimensions shape every stage of the relationship between an organization and its employees.  The company must be transparent, which is reflected in Paine’s dimensions of honesty, integrity and dependability.  I believe that control mutuality one of the more important dimensions in building trust.  While it would seem that the company would have most of the control in company/stakeholder relationships, it is just as important that they recognize how important the stakeholders are in allowing them to be successful.

 

Once all of these components of trust are in place, the organization may begin to effectively collaborate with its publics.  When deciding on which social media tools to use, the company should keep their stakeholders in mind.  Decisions should not only be made on what would be easiest for the company, but more importantly, on what their publics feel would be the most effective way to communicate.  Whether it be a blog, wiki, social network, podcast, or video podcast, the consumer must be kept in mind.

 

After the company has implemented the tactics that they feel will promote the most collaboration, they must continue to evaluate the relationships they hold with stakeholders to ensure they maintain them.  It makes sense that there are definite overlaps in maintenance and quality indicators, including control mutuality, trust, and commitment.  The better that companies are able to maintain their relationships with their stakeholders the more likely they will be of better quality.  While social media tools are making it easier for companies to collaborate with internal and external publics, in order for these tools to be successful the company must ensure that they are engaging in mutually beneficial relationships with the stakeholders.

Best Buy’s Collaborative ‘Blue Shirt Nation’

Over the lifespan of my blog, I have looked at how several companies are using new social media tools to collaborate better with their customers and other external stakeholders.  In this post, I will look at how Best Buy has adopted a new tool of their own to increase internal collaboration among employees.

In 2006, two corporate marketers named Steve Bendt and Gary Koelling, created Blue Shirt Nation.  Blue Shirt Nation is a corporate social network site that aims to flatten the organization through increased communication between employees of all levels.  The network provides a voluntary outlet where employees can share encounters with customers, tips for best practices, and ideas to help the company grow. 

 

According to an article by Patrick Thibodeau titled Best Buy Getting Results From Social Network, the network has already helped the company tremendously.  Today there are over 25,000 regular users of the network, from top-level executives to store clerks.  Employees have the chance to share their thoughts, or comment on someone else’s idea.  An example of this collaboration working to help the employees can be seen through the exchanges surrounding an executive’s idea to change employee discounts.  Shortly following the posting of this idea, many employees gave negative feedback on the idea.  The contributions led the executives to reassess their idea, ultimately deciding not to implement any changes.

 

Below is an interview with Jason Falls from Social Media Explorer-TV.  In this clip Jason interviews Steve Bendt and Gary Koelling to find out more about how they came up with the idea for Blue Shirt Nation and some of their initial goals for the online community.

 

 

 

Best Buy is not the only company that is using social media tools to help foster internal collaboration.  Dell Computers has created their own version of Blue Shirt Nation.  Their device is called EmployeeStorm, which illustrates their enthusiasm over the possibilities that may come from having their employees share their ideas.  Sun Microsystems has also created an online community.  According to their website, the goal of this community is to create a space that is accessible to any Sun employee to write about anything.

 

These tools have helped raise morale, as well as revenues at these companies.  With the amount of success that these new technologies bring to organizations, it begs the question of why more companies are not following suit and creating safe online communities for their employees to participate in.

A New Starbucks Collaboration Tool

As you can see, there are various types of companies that are accepting new social media tools to help them collaborate more easily with employees and customers.  In this article, David Cummings, founder and CEO of Hannon Hill, talks about some advantages that these tools may offer a company.  In this post, I will look at how Starbucks is using these tools to hear more from their customers about how they would like to see the company improved.

Since Howard Schultz became the head of marketing for the company in 1982 the company has placed lots of emphasis on their customers.  Beginning in 1991, the company implemented the use of mail-order catalogues and licensed airports to help raise sales and to make their products more accessible.  Today, the company has advanced to allowing customers to buy company CDs and coffee online.

Their newest feature, “My Starbucks Idea,” is perhaps their greatest illustration of how much the company values its customers.  This feature is similar to Dell Computer’s IdeaStorm, which I wrote about in a previous post.

 

Once users sign up for a Starbucks.com account, My Starbucks Idea implements a simple process of only four steps for customers’ voices to be heard by both employees and other customers.  First, anyone with an account can share ideas for new products, or how to improve existing ones.  Users then discuss and vote on ideas that they think would be good for the company.  Following the voting process, members can then see which ideas the company chooses to implement.  If Starbucks decides to use your idea, they even give you credit for coming up with the idea on their website.

 

I believe that features like this are the best way to stimulate collaboration between a company and users.  Giving customers a chance to have their ideas heard give them more incentive to participate in issues.  This also provides an easy way to prove your company’s authenticity and dedication to customers.  Time will tell if more companies create tools like this and Dell’s IdeaStorm to allow for easier collaboration between their executives and customers.  

ESPN: Collaborating Over The Airwaves

As you can imagine, there is a wide variety of companies that are now using social media technologies to better collaborate with employees and customers; ranging from airlines to computer companies.  In this post I will look at ESPN, a completely different type of organization that is effectively collaborating with its customers to make their product more viewer-friendly.  If your are channel surfing you might come across this commercial by ESPN, which takes a comedic look at how social media technologies are influencing today’s media.

 

 

 

While the commercial may lead you to believe that the company is not taking the advances in social media seriously, the way they run their organization makes it clear that they do understand the value that these tools can bring to their product. 

 

A large part of their movement to embrace social media has been their creation of “SportsNation.”  This is the term that the company created to denote the large portion of America that enjoys following sports through the company’s website or cable channel.  On their website, there is an entire section dedicated to SportsNation.  In this section, users may participate in polls and company-generated questions, or view or take part in online conversations between themselves and other fans.  The results of these polls and online conversations often go a long way in helping executives decide on which topics to emphasize and which should not be given too much attention.

 

Their focus on fan opinion does not stop at their website.  On Sportscenter, one of the channels most popular programs, they show the results to several polls throughout each episode.  The company even goes as far as to split up results by state, giving fans a chance to see how regional biases play in to the outcome of each poll.  Along with this, the hosts of the show will read several emails from fans about important issues of the day.  These collaborative features are not limited to only Sportscenter; nearly every show on ESPN uses these tools in a unique way.   By including these segments in nearly each program on the channel, ESPN has given viewers a greater stake in the programming, making them more invested and more likely to watch.  Perhaps this is the reason that ESPN is now the worldwide leader in sports.

Socialtext: “Social Networking with Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration”

In my last post I wrote about a couple of social media tools that companies are using today to help make collaboration in the workplace easier.  This post will focus on Socialtext, a company that uses these social networking and wiki technologies to help organizations collaborate more effectively.

 

Socialtext was founded in Palo Alto, CA with the vision of creating a new social context that offers far better social dynamics for the people working within organizations.  The company’s most highly regarded product is Socialtext Workspace, which was the first enterprise wiki.  This product not only fights against information overload for their customers, but also gives each company a solid foundation to expand their vision for a social software platform.

 

Tied in closely with the wiki was the ability for users to hold conversations through a unique blogging capability.  This function was designed specifically for collaboration within the organization.  Each user is given the ability to set their personal filters to match their individual interests and priorities.  This is also available for teams to use so customers can prioritize at both the individual and group level without being inundated with information that they do not need or want.

 

Along with Socialtext Workspace is Socialtext Unplugged, a tool that allows users of the wiki to access the information on the wiki when they are offline.  Below is a short video describing this cutting-edge tool in an interesting way. 

 

 

The company recently completed its creation of a social messaging application that they believe will bring a new “awareness dimension” into the enterprise.  This application is similar to Twitter, which I mentioned in a previous post, but provides additional benefits because the messaging takes place in the framework of people inside a company working transparently and collaborating on common goals.

 

On their website, company executives state that their focus is to meet business objectives through an increase of the dissemination of knowledge while increasing the feeling of unity throughout your company.  The fact that over 5,000 companies use Socialtext today illustrates the idea that they have been able to efficiently accomplish these goals for the numerous companies that use their products.  To read more about how Socialtext is influencing businesses, check out this article by William-Arthur Haynes.

Tweets and Wikis: Tools for Collaboration

There is no doubt that there are many tools on the Internet that make collaboration between companies and their customers possible.  While I have already written about several companies that are effectively integrating these tools into their business communications strategies, I would now like to look at which tools are most prominent today.

Twitter- Twitter is a microblogging website that allows users to post “Tweets” about what they are doing at any point in time.  Each “Tweet” can be no longer than 140 characters.  This allows your followers on Twitter to easily stay up-to-date on your life.  Below is a clip from the CommonCraft Show that describes how Twitter works.

 

In a recent article on TwiTip.com, Darren Rowse writes about five ways a company can benefit from using Twitter.  One of these benefits he mentions is collaboration.  He states that no matter how large or small the collaborations efforts he has made through Twitter, they have combined to be great.  It is due to experiences like this by people all over the world that Twitter is quickly becoming a popular collaboration tool for companies and individual professionals alike.

Wikis- These are tools used by groups to share information easily over the Web.  The use of wikis allows for group members to meet and get work completed in the time or place most convenient for each individual member.  The sites are created and maintained by the users, so the information on the site stays current.  The most popular wiki on the Internet today is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that can be edited by users all over the world.  Below is another clip from the CommonCraft Show that helps describe how wikis work.

 

Companies all over America have used wikis to help gather information efficiently so it can be passed to customers.  The use of wikis has even spread to book writing, as I wrote about in an earlier post on We Are Smarter Than Me by Barry Libert and Jon Spector.  Wikis not only support convenience among users, something that was previously overlooked by collaboration tools; but also necessity.  Thanks to wikis, time restrictions and geographical locations are no longer limitations on group work. 

These are just two examples of tools that companies are using to increase collaboration between themselves and their customers.  In my next post, I will look at how social networking sites are also helping to initiate collaboration on the professional level.

Dell’s new Idea(Storm)

Although it took Dell some time to embrace social media, today they are successfully implementing several Web 2.0 technologies into their business strategy.  Following a very public dispute with Jeff Jarvis, creator of BuzzMachine, over the quality of their customer service department, the company created several tools to help.

 

The first of these tools that the company created was IdeaStorm.  The premise behind this tool is to give customers a way to have their ideas heard by executives at Dell.  It is an electronic suggestion box where anyone can post an idea for a new product, or a way to improve an existing product.  After the ideas are posted, the online community votes on the ideas that they like.  Following this step, executives at the company discuss whether or not the ideas are feasible.  Finally, the ideas that pass through all of these steps are put into action. According to  the company’s website, since the inception of IdeaStorm the company has implemented over 200 of the nearly 10,000 suggestions.  This form of collaboration between employees and customers was unprecedented in the business world.  Many people have seen this as a great way to initiate conversation between users and employees following the massive amounts of negative press the company received from Jarvis and other online bloggers.

 

Here is a video interview by Ragan Communication featuring Vida Killian, the manager of IdeaStorm.  In the clip she talks about the concept behind IdeaStorm, as well as how the company uses the tool in great detail.

 

 

Along with IdeaStorm, Dell also initiated a new blogging strategy targeted at consumers and small businesses.  Through this blog, Dell has found out that the more controversial topics that they blog about yields more participation from readers.  This is just another avenue for the company to share ideas with their customers. 

We Are Smarter Than Me: An Exercise in Collaboration

It is undeniable that there have been several key moments that have changed the way we use technology in our society.  From Gutenberg printing the Bible with movable type, to the televised Presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960, to the dot com boom of the late 1990s; these events have all had an impact on how technology shapes the way we live our lives.  Perhaps another key moment took place in 2008 when Barry Libert and Jon Spector published their book We Are Smarter Than Me:  How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business.  

The goal of the book was to answer two questions.  First, the authors wanted to know why community approaches work (or not) when it comes to marketing, business development, distribution, and other business practices.  Secondly, the men were interested in finding out what companies have to do to make those community approaches even more successful.  What makes this different from other books is the fact that the two men used social media to put it together.

Libert and Spector invited over 1 million users to contribute their answers to these questions in a wiki community.  The men gathered answers from comments made by members on the wiki, forums, podcasts, related blog posts, and in-person comments.  Web 2.0 technologies have never been used to this extent when creating a book.  This collaboration by a wide audience highlights the idea that individuals are more likely to participate if you give them more opportunities to voice their ideas.

As Web 2.0 technologies make mass collaboration like this easier, it will be interesting to see if the publication of this book will be looked at as a turning point in the process of book writing.

This is a clip of an interview with Barry Libert where he talks about the goals of writing and process behind creating We Are Smarter Than Me with Jon Spector.

 

Avanade Study: Social Media Maximizing Deeper Customer Relationships

In May 2008, Avanade, a IT consulting agency, compiled a study of 541 responses from top executives on how businesses around the world used social media to attract and maintain customers.  The research returned a wide array of information, but the more successful companies surveyed seemed to have certain similarities in how they viewed and utilized these technologies.

The survey states that of the people surveyed, nearly 90% agree that as younger generations enter the workforce, there will be an increase in the use of social networking sites in the corporate world.  Despite this, less than 10% of people polled said the have developed and implemented a plan to integrate these technologies into their company’s  everyday business.  This lack of effort to adapt to the new technologies associated with social media and Web 2.0 keep these businesses from strengthening relationships with their intended audiences.  Through interactivity and collaboration, social media can allow these companies to enhance their reputation among their publics, as well as evolve their online relationships with customers from solely managing transactions to a establishing a deeper connection where their thoughts and views can be shared freely.  Executives at Avanade believe that if companies refuse to adopt these technologies their customers will leave them for companies that they believe do care about them.

The study also points out that 67% of North American companies surveyed believe that social media is the next major step in collaborative activities and technology for a business.  I think that this statistic is interesting because it illustrates the fact that over two out of every three businesses in North America see the importance of social media in collaborating with publics across varying industries and geographies.  

In time, it will be interesting to see if more companies will adopt social media to effectively collaborate with their publics, as well as how long those companies that do not adopt these technologies are able to stay afloat. 

For more information on Avanade’s findings and how to overcome company social media fears, check out this blog by Laura Farrelly and Karyn German.

Cisco: Leading From the Middle

Today’s post will look at Cisco, a company that has successfully used social media to collaborate with its publics.  Beginning in the late 1990s, CEO John Chambers began to shift the company’s management style from a command and control approach to more collaboration and teamwork.

The shift began as the company started using the Internet to enter orders, as well as handle customer and employee satisfaction.  As a result of this shift, Cisco announced that 95% of all their products were never touched by an employee and all orders were entered on the Internet.  Chambers claims that this change ushered in a “decade of productivity.”  

Following this move to the Internet, the company created ‘business networks,’ which are similar to social networks, and are designed to facilitate a common vocabulary among employees, common evaluation cycles, and resource allocation throughout the company.  According to Chambers, these networks include the ‘operating committee’ that runs the company; the ‘councils’ which run $10 billion opportunities; the ‘boards’ that run $1 billion opportunities; and ‘working groups’ that can support the other networks or handle other transactions within the company.

Today, members from each group work together to create ‘operating committees’ for each topic.  The shift to implementing these committees and allowing members of each group to collaborate freely on nearly any topic has made the company much more efficient.  According to Chambers, it took the company  six years to successfully move their philosophy from command and control to this view highlighting collaboration. 

A breakthrough came when Chambers realized that he and his executive board had to “lead from the middle” by micromanaging less and acting more as overseers of the multiple networks within the company.  With this, there is still an element of command and control in the implementation stage of new ideas.  

This viewpoint allowed ideas to flourish within the company, leading to more productivity.  A great example of this leadership style increasing productivity has been the advent of the company’s use of teleconferencing.  According to Chambers, this idea alone has saved Cisco over $150 in transportation costs since its inception.  

Watch the interview below with Chambers to hear him talk about this transition and how it has positively affected his company.