Using social networks to engage employees - Abi Signorelli, CIPR Digital Focus Conference 2009

Digital for internal comms Using social networks to engage employees Abi Signorelli

A bit about me
Freelance Communications Consultant
Over 15 years in senior communication roles:
Director of Internal Comms at Virgin Media
Head of Internal Comms at Virgin Mobile
Senior Manager, Internal Comms & Knowledge at Vodafone
Senior Manager, Internal Comms & Knowledge at Alcatel Lucent
Communications Consultant at O2
Passionate about all things social media
More at www.abisignorelli.com

Some thoughts on social media

Is social media a fad?
Years to reach 50 million:
Radio: 38 years
TV: 13 years
Internet: 4 years
iPod: 3 years
Facebook 100 million in less than 9 months
1 billion iPod app downloads in 9 months
96% Gen Y have joined a social network
80% of Twitter usage is on mobiles – people can update anywhere, anytime
Gen Y and Z consider email passé
78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
Only 14% trust ads
Social media isn’t a fad It’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate

Famous examples - great When Obama arrived at the White House, he’d gained millions of names of supporters who could be engaged almost instantly through his political social media campaign. “ By engaging with supporters, he was able to create that all important sense of connection – “he's talking to me, he's in my network and he's someone I feel like I know’ . He provided a chance to challenge, question and connect and by acknowledging the discussions, he made it feel like everything had been read and taken on board."
c7 million facebook fans
>2.5 million twitter followers
3 million online donors = $5 million
92% in increments of less than $100

Using social networks to engage employees Case studies

With over 15,000 McDonald’s locations across the US and Canada, they asked “how can we connect all of you with one another”
They built something where employees can:
Connect
Participate
Give feedback from the frontline
Showcase new products
Explore McDonald’s brand and values
Celebrate successes
Build community online with each other
“ stationM is…
… giving you a voice
… connecting crew
… creating a community
… 100% pure fun”

McDonald’s stationM

McDonald’s stationM
McDonald’s ranks #32 in top 100 “most social brands”
McDonald’s viewpoint
All about the relationships you have and build with your key audiences
All about cultivating those relationships so that…
… you enable those key relationships to become brand ambassadors…spread the word!
"It provides us the opportunity to get information to the people who are interacting with our customers day to day. And [it] provides us with a channel back to hear what's on the minds of our crew people, what they're excited about and what questions they have. We can use that information to better handle our future communications.”
“ Internal blogging is a great way for employees to feel connected, not just to one another, but also to top management and ultimately the brand itself. It is a positive way for a company to build creditability among its employees by acknowledging and addresses what is happening at any given moment within the corporate community.”
Ben Stringfellow, senior director of U.S. communications at McDonald's.

In 2008, O2 launched their new brand promise “we’re better connected”
They asked “how can we lead the way with innovative approaches that would help O2 people connect?”
O2 people wanted an online community where they could…
… collaborate
… share
… learn

O2’s mingle

O2’s mingle
mingle is an internal social networking site just for O2 employees
It adds real business value through collaborative group working, cross-directorate networking, as well as blogs, videos, images and more
The user-centred design approach involved O2 people through creative workshops, so employee engagement and ownership levels reached unprecedented levels.
In a social climate rapidly adapting for ‘Generation Y’ employees, mingle has already shown massive potential in affecting O2’s talent management, employee engagement and organisational effectiveness workstreams
“ With a diverse audience spread across many locations in the UK, effective and innovative channels like mingle play a key role in our communication strategy at O2…putting audiences first and designing concepts, messaging and delivery methods around our specific needs were integral to making our new channels a success.”
James Allen, former Head of Internal Communication

BT wanted every employee to have a place of their own on the intranet, where they could…
… create web pages and allow others to edit them (wiki pages)
… share photos and files
… create as many blogs as they wished
… connect themselves with other people in the organisation

BT’s MyPages

BT’s MyPages
‘ MyPages’ is their killer application
“ The fact that individuals could manage all this functionality through a single ‘portal’ was incredibly powerful and sent adoption rates through the roof.”
“ With only viral marketing, within a couple of weeks over 1,500 people had activated their MyPages. Activity and traffic on this tool was so heavy that it sent the JotBox into meltdown and all our social media services disappeared overnight!”
Richard Dennison, Senior Manager Social Media, BT

Using social networking to engage employees

Some engagement benefits
Aligns and galvanises the workforce
Helps to become an authentic listening organisation
Creates true two-way conversation
Everyone can connect – remote / dispersed workers connect with people they’d never normally meet
Water-cooler / cigarette break moments not confined to a single office
Opportunities to share ideas and best practices wherever, whenever
Fantastic way of building relationships – with anyone – on a professional and personal level
Everyone has an outlet to express their opinion
Non hierarchical - allows comms to flow from the top to bottom, bottom to top and side to side
Leaders become more accessible and authentic – they become human beings

Can we ignore it?
If people are using these tools at home, they’re ready and willing to use them at work
People are doing it anyway
Younger employees expect social media - Gen Y are so used to two-way communications that they don’t really pay attention to anything else
96% Gen Y have joined a social network
Gen Y and Z consider email passé
78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
Only 14% trust ads

Actually doing it

Integration and alignment
It’s vital to seamlessly align your social media approach with your brand values, culture and company strategy – and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach .
With clear goals and outcomes outlined, your social media objectives should fully integrate with your internal comms strategy and should be an evolution of your internal comms approach, rather than a separate strategy.

Leadership buy-in
Many leaders struggle to understand the power and benefits of social media in the workplace.
Producing a strong business case will help ensure your leadership team fully buy-in to your strategy and lead by example.

Getting social with your employees
Fully embracing the tools and techniques is the best way for your leadership team and internal comms team to lead by example and get social with your employees.
Engaging and involving your people at every opportunity is vital to ensure the success of any social media objective.

Some (but by no means all) tools

Chatter

Facebook

Yammer

In a nutshell

In a nutshell…
Social media isn’t a fad – it’s a fundamental shift in how we communicate
Social networking is a fantastic engagement tool providing endless and enhanced opportunities to…
… connect
… communicate
… collaborate
… innovate
People are doing it anyway
Younger employees expect it
Getting social is a natural and essential evolution of how you communicate with your people

Thank you! My blog: http://abi-signorelli.blogspot.com

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Using social networks to engage employees - Abi Signorelli, CIPR Digital Focus Conference 2009

by Abi Signorelli Ltd on Dec 07, 2009

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Using social networks to engage employees - Abi Signorelli, CIPR Digital Focus Conference 2009 — Presentation Transcript