The Impact of Corporate Culture on Social Media (An IBM Case Study) Adam Christensen, IBM January 22, 2009

Corporate culture v. Social media Corporate Culture + Social media = Fail = Success

= Fail

= Success

Enterprise social media formula Business Model + Corporate Culture + Desired value = Social media success

Business Model

+

Corporate Culture

+

Desired value

=

Social media success

Proper roles of management & employees Top Down Empowerment Trust Tools (availability) Guidelines Value Bottoms up Interest Tools (selection) Participation

Top Down

Empowerment

Trust

Tools (availability)

Guidelines

Value

Bottoms up

Interest

Tools (selection)

Participation

IBM’s starting point Business Model B2B NOT consumer Company of experts 386,000 employees 170 countries Culture Intensely diverse Progressive Highly collaborative Risk averse

Business Model

B2B NOT consumer

Company of experts

386,000 employees

170 countries

Culture

Intensely diverse

Progressive

Highly collaborative

Risk averse

What did we do? Empowered everyone to participate Learn from mistakes (or near mistakes) Social Computing Guidelines Building a culture for participation started inside first Experiment. A lot

Empowered everyone to participate

Learn from mistakes (or near mistakes)

Social Computing Guidelines

Building a culture for participation started inside first

Experiment. A lot

1. Empower everyone Trust employees. They are the brand

2. Learn from mistakes (or almost ones) Near shut-down of ValuesJam 2003

3. Community- developed guidelines IBM Social Computing Guidelines http://www.ibm.com/blogs/guidelines.html tag cloud by www.wordle.net

tag cloud by www.wordle.net

4. Started inside. Like to swim, but afraid of the ocean? Photo courtesy of David Sifry: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsifry/2173895296/

5. Experiment. A Lot. BlogCentral - 67,000 users, 16K blogs, 140K posts, 140K comments Beehive – 53K members, 63K photos shared, 2.9K events WikiCentral – 150,000 users, 1 million views each day InnovationJam – 4 Jams, more than 500,000 participants GreaterIBM Connection – 50K in alumni network on Facebook/LinkedIn Media Library – 8M downloads

BlogCentral - 67,000 users, 16K blogs, 140K posts, 140K comments

Beehive – 53K members, 63K photos shared, 2.9K events

WikiCentral – 150,000 users, 1 million views each day

InnovationJam – 4 Jams, more than 500,000 participants

GreaterIBM Connection – 50K in alumni network on Facebook/LinkedIn

Media Library – 8M downloads

Final thoughts Projects without regard to culture fail If current culture doesn’t align, start to create it Top-down mandates generally don’t work (but neither do completely grassroots efforts) Experiment and learn

Projects without regard to culture fail

If current culture doesn’t align, start to create it

Top-down mandates generally don’t work

(but neither do completely grassroots efforts)

Experiment and learn

Connect This presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/adamclyde Twitter: http:// twitter.com/adamclyde LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/adamchristensen

This presentation:

http://www.slideshare.net/adamclyde

Twitter: http:// twitter.com/adamclyde

LinkedIn:

www.linkedin.com/in/adamchristensen