The document discusses what employees want from internal social media programs at their companies. It lists features employees value, such as easy-to-use and integrated platforms, interesting content, and opportunities for feedback and participation. The document also summarizes key insights from a survey on internal social media use, finding it can support employee retention, innovation, collaboration, and advocacy when implemented properly. Companies should understand employee needs, establish clear strategies and guidelines, and ensure leadership support for internal social media programs to be effective.

2. What do social media users want from a company?
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3. When it comes to internal social media,
what do employees really want from a company?
• Ensures that all of its content is accurate and reliable
• Ensures its Intranet and its social media integrations are easy-to-use
• Posts content that is interesting and valuable to the user
• Ensures content is readily accessible and easy to find
• Develops visually appealing online designs
• Consistently updates and keeps content fresh on all social media platforms
• Offers content that is easily shareable
• Provides its users with access to exclusive content or information online
• Establishes open dialogues with employees
• Regularly solicits feedback and criticism from employees
• Invites employees to interact with each other
• Encourages employee participation on the social networks it operates
• Uses social media to mobilize its employees to engage in offline activities
• Has a visible and active CEO or senior leadership presence online
• Uses a targeted social media approach to reach different types of people
• Makes use of the most relevant, popular and trend-setting social media platforms
• Has links to each of its social media platforms on the home page of its Intranet
• Actively engages users through the use of several social media or interactive platforms
• Integrates its content throughout all of its social media platforms
• Is willing to take risks to try new and innovative social media strategies that enhance the user experience
• Has a committed team of company ambassadors that participate online and act as the face of the company
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4. So what? The business case for ISM
If you provide the right tools, can Internal Social Media
initiatives…
 Engage and motivate employees?
 Create brand ambassadors?
 Bolster reputation internally and externally?
 Help employees contribute to bottom-line business results?
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5. Internal Social Media effectively engages employees
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6. ISM is one tool among many
• My supervisor takes the time to listen to the opinions and ideas of others • In my company, I am comfortable sharing information and ideas
• My supervisor responds to my feedback • I have all the information that’s necessary for me to do my job
• My supervisor provides clear direction and priorities for our work group • Information and ideas flow freely within my organization
• My colleagues are comfortable sharing information and ideas with peers
• Uses a targeted social media approach to reach different types of people • Encourages employee participation on the social networks it operates
• Consistently updates and keeps content fresh on all social media platforms • Is willing to take risks to try new and innovative social media strategies that
• Develops visually appealing online designs enhance the user experience
• Makes use of the most relevant, popular and trend-setting social media • Invites employees to interact with each other
platforms • Ensures its Intranet and its social media integrations are easy-to-use
• Integrates its content throughout all of its social media platforms • Provides its users with access to exclusive content or information online
• Actively engages users through the use of several social media or interactive • Establishes open dialogues with employees
platforms • Posts content that is interesting and valuable to the user
• Uses social media to mobilize its employees to engage in offline activities • Ensures that all of its content is accurate and reliable
• Ensures content is readily accessible and easy to find • Regularly solicits feedback and criticism from employees
• Has a committed team of company ambassadors that participate online and • Has links to each of its social media platforms on the home page of its
act as the face of the company Intranet
• Offers content that is easily shareable • Has a visible and active CEO or senior leadership presence online
• The executive team in my company supports and lives our values • My company’s executive team exemplifies authentic, open and honest
• My company’s values are clearly aligned with our business strategy communications
• My company’s executive team clearly explains the direction the company is • The executive team in my company communicates regularly about our
heading company values
• My company has a set of clearly defined values that drives all of our behavior • My company’s executive team clearly explains the reasons behind decisions
• My company’s executive team shares positive and negative news openly • I receive consistent information from all the leaders in my company
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7. The investigation
APCO Worldwide and Gagen MacDonald jointly
sponsored an online survey among U.S. adults who have
been employed full-time at least one year
at a company with at least 500 employees.
The purpose of the study is to determine the state of the
U.S. workplace as viewed by America’s workforce.
This year’s study explored employment-related issues
and how companies communicate with their employees,
with a particular focus on the use and prevalence of
internal social media (ISM)
in the workplace.
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8. How are companies using social media?
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9. The study’s top insights
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10. Insight 1: Employee retention & recruitment
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11. Considerations for retention and recruitment
Social media is a job search fact of life …
18.4 million Americans
credit Facebook with helping find their jobs1
… and promising candidates bring high ISM expectations:
2/3 of college students
ask about social media policies during job interviews2
56% claim they’ll forego a job
at a company that bans social media — or they will circumvent the policy2
ISM can empower employees to become better brand ambassadors
— your stealth recruiting team
1 Source: Study by Jobvite, as reported at mbaonline.com
2 Source: 2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report, www.cisco.com/go/connectedreport
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12. Insight 2: ISM demonstrates & supports innovation
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13. Considerations for innovation
• ISM can help drive new discoveries, but alone is not
a panacea for innovation
• Tailor innovation tools to your innovators – the way employees
engage ISM depends on industry, function and demographics
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14. Considerations for innovation
Intuit’s Innovation Management
• Created Intuit Brainstorm to launch an innovation initiative
• Broke down barriers for communication between silos
• Innovation development timeline decreased by 60% (from 13
months to 5 months)
• Idea creation increased a reported 1,000%
• Participation in idea creation increased 500%
• More than 3,800 ideas were generated
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15. Insight 3: ISM supports collaboration
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16. Considerations for collaboration
To foster collaboration, you need to balance fears with
potential opportunities
• The enterprise cost of not finding information is extremely high
• Fostering a culture of reciprocal trust is essential
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17. Considerations for collaboration
Wells Fargo taps into the “Wisdom of Crowds”
• Only pilots ISM tools after business lines identify a specific need
• ISM tools have helped break down hierarchical, organizational and
geographic boundaries
• Employees report ISM tools eliminate duplicate efforts and make meetings
shorter — and the company feel smaller
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18. Insight 4: ISM supports active employee advocacy to uphold brand & reputation
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19. Considerations for employee advocacy
Just like other employee engagement channels, ISM must
support employee buy-in and effective communication flow
• Leaders need to know the role of ISM in company advocacy —
and how to use it
• ISM should reinforce dialogue up, down, and across the
company
• Employees should consider ISM an open and honest arena
• Employees should consider themselves ISM co-creators
ISM strategy and Social EQ: social media cascades from internal
to external channels
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20. The Internal Social Media Model
• Ensures that all of its content is accurate and reliable
• Ensures its Intranet and its social media integrations are easy-to-use
• Posts content that is interesting and valuable to the user
• Ensures content is readily accessible and easy to find
• Develops visually appealing online designs
• Consistently updates and keeps content fresh on all social media platforms
• Offers content that is easily shareable
• Provides its users with access to exclusive content or information online
• Establishes open dialogues with employees
• Regularly solicits feedback and criticism from employees
• Invites employees to interact with each other
• Encourages employee participation on the social networks it operates
• Uses social media to mobilize its employees to engage in offline activities
• Has a visible and active CEO or senior leadership presence online
• Uses a targeted social media approach to reach different types of people
• Makes use of the most relevant, popular and trend-setting social media platforms
• Has links to each of its social media platforms on the home page of its Intranet
• Actively engages users through the use of several social media or interactive platforms
• Integrates its content throughout all of its social media platforms
• Is willing to take risks to try new and innovative social media strategies that enhance the user experience
• Has a committed team of company ambassadors that participate online and act as the face of the company
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21. Quality content is king – but varies by audience
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22. ISM is nice, but leadership matters more
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23. Unisys: A 138-year old tech firm “goes social”1
Understanding its culture, Unisys determined:
1. The why — not the what — should come first
2. Employees value most what they help to build
3. Executives must lead by example
4. ISM must be embedded in the culture
1 Source: Meister, Jeanne C., “Increase Your Company's Productivity With Social Media,” Harvard Business Review Blog Network
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24. Unisys: ISM investments support business goals
“Inside Unisys” fosters collaboration and productivity
• Fosters broad array of well-read executive and employee postings
• Has become a crucial sales tool to share wins and learn from losses
“My Site” spurs innovation with “Ask Me About” feature
• In 18 months, 15,000 Unisys employees world-wide (out of 23,000)
built profiles and created hashtags
• Tool quickly matches expertise with cross-functional challenges
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25. Three key lessons
1. An ISM strategy should be built from within —
informed by its culture, driven by distinct business
needs, and embraced by early adopters
2. Executives and leaders should not only align around
strategy, but embody the change they envision
3. Social media guidelines are good, but training for
social media literacy makes them sustainable
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26. What steps should you take next?
1. Diagnose
– What business dilemma you’re solving for
– How employees currently engage social media and your Intranet
2. Mindset for Design
– Understand all your fears and limitations: cultural, psychological, legal,
financial and technical
– Align leaders around business goals and practical limits
3. Establish Guiding Principles
– Determine cultural stance
– Develop social media guidelines and metrics for success
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27. What steps should you take next?
4. Implement Sustainably
– Choose only the ISM tools (wikis, chat, blogs, microblogs, etc.) that are
relevant to your culture and business challenge
– Train for across-the-enterprise social media literacy
5. Measure and Adjust
– Use surveys, ISM diagnostics and agreed-to metrics to determine use
patterns and enterprise value
– Keep what works, tweak what doesn’t
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28. Today’s presenters
Evan Kraus
Maril MacDonald
Evan Kraus is senior vice president of APCO
Maril pioneered a discipline that initiates Online®, a service group that delivers
collaboration with corporate leaders to powerful, results-focused online
optimize business performance by communication strategies for APCO
engaging and mobilizing stakeholders Worldwide’s clients around the world.
behind a company’s strategic goals, its Under his leadership, APCO Online has
culture and its brand. Maril founded Gagen emerged as a recognized leader in helping
MacDonald in 1998 and serves as the clients leverage the online channel to
firm’s CEO. The firm’s clients include some shape their reputation and influence issue
of the most recognized brands in the environments.
world. From 1993 to 1997, Maril served as
vice president, corporate communications, Mr. Kraus has served as a senior strategic
and was a member of the executive counselor for many of the world’s largest
management committee for Navistar businesses – helping them optimize their
where she directed the company’s highly Web presence, tell a better corporate
successful turnaround. She also held story, “push” their messages out to target
leadership positions with Pitman-Moore audiences, shape online issue debates,
Inc., Bayer USA Inc. and The Standard Oil identify, attract and mobilize supporters
Company/British Petroleum. Maril is past and endorsers, conduct outreach to
president of the board of directors of the bloggers and other new media channels
Arthur W. Page Society and a trustee of and analyze the online environment to
both the Institute for Public Relations and form strategy.
the Arthur W. Page Center. Maril is also
the founder of Let Go & Lead
(letgoandlead.com), an online community
dedicated to leadership in the 21st century.
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29. Research methodology
Survey Population: U.S. full-time employees
Sample Design: Online panel screened
Eligibility Criteria: Employed full-time at least one year at
a company with at least 500 employees
Sample Size: n = 1000
Margin of Error: ± 3.1% (at 95 percent confidence level)
Data Collection Methodology: Online
Field Dates: October 7-11, 2011
Employees represent a cross-section with respect to company size, industry,
job responsibility, tenure, gender, and age.
Data were analyzed using crosstabulations and advanced analytical techniques to understand the
underlying relationships within the data set.
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