How to use every social media tool in the box to engage employees

Use every social media tool in the box to engage employees
IABC Social Media Conference
Nov. 5, 2009 – New York, NY

Today’s Presenters
Justin Goldsborough@jgoldsborough
Becky Ericson @beckyericson
Twitter Hashtag
#iabcsmc

Social media is changing the employee communications landscape.

Moving Mainstream & Maturing

Adoption Rates
300+ million users
55+ million users
50+ million users
AverageAge
27
31
40+
37
Trends:
Boomers, and specifically women 54+ are the fastest growing adopters
Globalization

Source: Nielsen Online, Global Index, December 2007-2008; Nielsen Global Faces and Networked Places, 2009

3 out of 4 Americans use social technology
2/3 of the global internet population visit social networks
Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popular online activity—ahead of personal email
Time spent on social networks is growing at 3x the overall Internet rate, accounting for ~10 percent of all internet time
Nearly 7 billion text messages are sent every day

In the Workplace, Digital Doesn’t Replace Face-to-Face…
2%
1%
2%
4%
What channel do you find most effective for communicating to employees?
16%
75%
Source: New Frontiers in Employee Communications

…But Adoption is Heating Up
79% of business communicators report using social tools frequently to engage employees and foster productivity
75% of employees have used social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) for business purposes
70% of companies allow / encourage employees to use social media
50% of employers allow employees to speak freely (without moderation) on corporate social networking sites
Source: Awareness Networks 2009

Social Media as anEmployee Engagement Tool

The Elusive “It” Factor
“It” is employee engagement:
A heightened emotional connection that influences an employee to exert greater discretionary effort for the benefit of the company

What Drives Engagement?
Companies that communicate effectively are 4.5 times more likely to report high levels of employee engagement
Senior leaders who care
Managers’ feedback and dialogue
Frequent and authentic communication
A voice that matters
Learning and growth opportunities
Focusedon customer satisfaction
Good cross-business unit collaboration
Quality relationships
Source: Gallup 2009

…And Engagement, In Turn, Drives Business Results
Knowledge-sharing
Collaboration
Speed and quality of problem-solving
Innovation
Job satisfaction
Profitability

Turnover
Operating costs

Sources: Aberdeen Group, Melcrum

Before you jump in to the social media waters head first…

Social Media Building Blocks

Understand the Conversation
Face-to-face Conversations
Mobile Marketing
Social
Networks
Search
Personalized
Online Communities
Blogs
Direct Mail
Rewards
Programs
Online Display Advertising
TRUST
Targeted
Online Brand Content
Personalization
Opt-in E-mail
Print
Media Relations
Radio
TV
Mass
Trial
Advocacy
Awareness
Loyalty
Consideration
Relationships
Digital
Traditional

Trust

Who do your customers trust?
3rd
6th
9th
16th

of people trust the recommendations of their peers
78%
14%
Only
of people trust
advertisements
{One-Way}
{Conversation}
It’s all about conversation.

8
New Tools of the TradeBest Practices, Best in Class Brands

1
Mobile Tools
19

Mobile Messaging

AT&T’s ExecTxt
Short-code system sends text messages to employees’ mobile phones
Opt-in, voluntary
Employees subscribe to executives/lists of their choice
Alerts employees to urgent, time-sensitive news and big announcements
Reaches the distributed workforce

Mobile Videos and Podcasts

Kraft
Kraft Casts from CEO/executives
Keeps workforce connected and aligned on the go
Glidden
Product line and branding training tool for mobile sales force
Glidden paint reps review handheld videos with Home Depot reps

There’s An App for That

Trek Apps for Training and Sales
Trains sales associates on latest products
Sales floor selling tool
AT&T 2009 Officers Conference App
App supports conference content
Agendas, calendar, maps, videos, messaging

Townhall 2.0
2

Virtual, Socially-Enabled Events

Interactive Town Hall
Used to hold company-wide town halls
Avatar-based, interactive meeting system
Employee –generated profile pages and avatars
Live, moderated, real-time
Submitter’s questions and answers are converted to a computerized voice that reads them aloud

Advanced Virtual Meetings

From Skype…
More companies are using Skype and other custom solutions to collaborate across offices
File-sharing and instant messaging optimizes collaboration
…to Telepresence
Advanced telepresence technologies simulate in-person meetings with high interactivity and richness

Social
Learning
3

The Starbucks Partner Cafe
Unites a business unit or function as more cohesive team
Encourages easy exchange of knowledge and collaboration
Dialogue is tied to business unit objectives
Offers a more private, yet collaborative, solution for teams to knowledge-share

Digital Self-Development

Social, Collaborative Training Platforms

Rank/rate training modules and can recommend to others
Supports multiple learning-styles
Employees submit content for training
Quick adoption – 100 employees submitted ideas for training in first 60 days
Creates a “Results-Only Learning Environment”
Best Buy’s Learning Lounge

Social Portals
4

In the absence of an internal
playground, employees will post their graffiti outside your walls….
30

Portals Adopt Social Functionality

AT&T’s Insider Employee Portal
Serves 300,000 employees
More than 120,000 unique users hit the site daily
Social media elements: page customization, commenting, ranking, polls
Newest features: tReader RSS and Twitter news feed

Allows employees to self-manage their employee directory information in a LinkedIn-like environment
Creates more robust employee data – interests, experience
Strengthens “weak” connections to aid networking and collaboration

Internal Social Networking

Hello.bah.com

Finding a SME in a 50,000 person company can be like finding a needle in a haystack
People search employee socnets provide can save time and effort
Employees profile, blogs, tags provide clues to his/her expertise and passion, make building community easier

People Search and SME Locator

Sprint Space

External Ning Communities

Coca Cola’s Employee Community
Internet-based alternative for companies without intranets/ custom technology solutions
Customizable platform for building your own employee social network
Provides chat, blogging, forums, groups, and photo/video sharing
Over 1.2 million unique social networks and 27 million users

Digitizing the Frontline
5

Frontline Manager Sitelet

Merck U.S. Commercial Operations Managers Site
One-stop destination for managers
Password and user id-secured for managers and up
Contains tools to support culture and change cascade communications
Self- development materials (reading lists, etc.)

Crew Communities

McDonald’s StationM
Connects geographically dispersed franchise crew employees
Integrates video/photo sharing with Flickr, YouTube
Features blogs by nominated employees
Builds employee connections and shared cultural understanding
Helps McDonald’s gain insight on topics like training, career development, incentive programs and benefits

Best Buy’s “BSN Mix”
Blue Shirt Nation ReMixed

2.0 version of its touted Blue Shirt Nation
Blends social community and micro-blogging functionality
Employees interact and share business-related content
Accessible via SMS, Web or e-mail
Allows senior management to “mix” with retail employees

6
Targeting Your Audience
Crowdsourced
Innovation
Art direction: Change to an Aiming / Target graphic

Innovation Jams

3M InnovationLive
Live, virtual sessions solicit ideas, comments and ratings
Fosters global product and service collaboration
Post-session review necessary to identify viable ideas
Pilot session with 25,000 employees from R&D, Sales and Marketing
Thousands of ideas generated within 24 hours

Social Brainstorming

Dell EmployeeStorm
10,000 ideas submitted
45,000 site users
48,000 votes in first 60 days
200 ideas implemented
My Starbucks Idea/ Ideas in Action Blog
70,000 ideas submitted
160,000 site users
658,000 votes
25 ideas implemented

Collaborative Games and Simulations

Boehringer Ingelheim’s “BI Collaboratory”
Month-long virtual, team-based competition
144 teams developed a concept to bring value to BI’s customers and patients in new ways
Teams post presentations of their concepts to the site for peer voting
Winning ideas earn reward and recognition
98 percent participation

7
Employees as Digital Ambassadors

Your Employees, Online…
Brand Ambassadors?
…Or Brand Assassins?

Employee-Voiced Company Blogs

Southwest Airline’s Nuts About Southwest Blog

Employee Word of Mouth Blogs

AT&T’s Calm, Cool & Connected Parent Blog

“Best ROI I’ve ever seen.”

Employee-Generated Video

Deloitte’s Employee Film Festival
2,000 employees participated
400 submissions received
Posted internally for peer voting
Winning videos shared on YouTube

Twitter Ambassadors

Best Buy on Twitter

Early
Warning System
8

In a 1.0 world…

PR served as broadcasters

“Hey, look what Marketing did!”
“Check out what the Product team launched!!”

But in a 2.0 world…

PR has more to bring to the table

Execs
PR
Marketing
IT
HR
CS
Product

Surfacing Business Issues

Palm Pre launch at Sprint
Sprint Space brought PR into the conversation
Employee convos microcosm of customer device issues

Why Easy-Listening Matters

Today PR teaches depts to react to employee conversations

Source: CEC

Behind the Firewall Twitter Chat

#btf is the hashtag

Building a bicycle while you ride it
“When it comes to a social media strategy, like most companies, we’re building the bicycle while we ride it.” – 3MJane

Portals and Sitelets
Videos and Podcasts
Digital Newsletters
Ambassador Programs
Social Media Policies
Governance Models
Monitoring and Metrics
Innovation
We can help

Q&A