http://w w w .flickr.com/photos/spacesuitcatalyst/536389937/
The value of
social software Chris Sparshott, IBM Social Software (@sparkbou
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Part 1: Value
Part 2: Adoption Strategy
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Two ways to focus on a
social software projects
1. Business Process
2. Collaboration Process
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Three segments of value
Vitality
Perception
Business
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Vitality: Is it zingy?
Do you want to go
back for more?
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Profiles Communities
Quickly find the people you Create, find, join, and work with
All your social software needs communities of people who
need by searching across your ready for business share a common interest,
organization and connecting to
responsibility, or area of
others. expertise
Bookmarks Blogs Activities
Save, organize and share Use a weblog to present your Organize your work, plan next
bookmarks; discover idea and get feedback from steps, and easily tap your
bookmarks that have been others; learn from the expertise expanding professional network
qualified by others with similar and experience of others who to help execute your everyday
interests & expertise blog deliverables, faster
Homepage
Files Wikis
Manage your attention by
Upload and share any type of file Create wiki spaces for
viewing relevant social data
with colleagues and individuals, groups, and
aggregated across your
communities. Store versions and communities to coauthor pages.
subscriptions, notifications, and
view downloads, comments and View changes across pages,
network of colleagues.
ratings. ratings, and comments.
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Metrics: Profiles
• Number of:
Profiles
– Profiles
Quickly find the people you – Edited profiles (and %)
need by searching across your – Profiles with pictures
organization and connecting to
– Users who have added pronunciation
others.
(and %)
55 – Employees logged in today/last week/
50 last month
45
A bout M e
40 B ackground
P h o to s
35
30
25
28/2/08 17/3/08 25/3/08
There are 52 About me, 37
background areas populated.
41 photos have been uploaded.
48 tags have been used to
describe the individual profiles.
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Metrics: Bookmarks
• Number of
Bookmarks
• Bookmarks public
Save, organize and share • Bookmarks private
bookmarks; discover • Bookmarks total
bookmarks that have been • Creators
qualified by others with similar • Tags
interests & expertise • Unique tags
200 • Bookmarks per user
175 • Bookmarks for top 10%
150 • Number of watchlisted items
125
A c cess • Tags/unique tags
B ookm arks • Tags per bookmark
100
• Tags added in past 7 days
75
• Users with at least one bookmark
50
28/2/08 17/3/08 25/3/08
• Users with a watchlist
• Users logged into bookmarks in 24 hours/7
Dogear Bookmarks: days/30 days
• Users who posted bookmarks in past 7
91 bookmarks have been days
created by 16 people. • Users with more than 10 bookmarks
These bookmarks have been
accessed 145 times.
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Metrics: Communities
• Number of:
Communities
• Public communities
Create, find, join, and work with • Moderated communities
communities of people who • Private communities
share a common interest,
• Distinct owners
responsibility, or area of
expertise • Distinct users
200 • Number of communities
180
• Users logged in today
160
140
• Users logged in last week
120
M em bers
• Users logged in last month
100
C o m m u n it ie s
80
60
40
20
0
28/2/08 17/3/08 25/3/08
Communities:
121 Communities has been
created by 19 people. There
are 173 members associated
with the 19 communities.
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Metrics: Blogs
• Number of:
Blogs
• Blogs published
Use a weblog to present your • Group (team) blogs
idea and get feedback from • Community blogs
others; learn from the expertise • Blog creators
• Bloggers
and experience of others who
• Hits
blog
60
50
• Responses
• Notifications
40
B lo g s
• New blogs today/last week
30
C o m m e n ts • Tags
20 • Users logged in today / last week / last month
10 • Users posting today/last week/last month
0 • Users commenting today/last week/last month
28/2/08 17/3/08 25/3/08
• Users posting on community blogs today/last
Blogs: week
• Users posting on community blogs today/last
There are 30 blogs which have week
been viewed a total of 1476 • Users commenting on community blogs
times. xx blog is the most today/last week
popular xx blog receiving 270
hits. 51 individuals have
commented.
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Metrics: Activities
• Number of:
Activities
• Activities
Organize your work, plan next • Total entries
steps, and easily tap your • Entries by type
expanding professional network • Members
• Unique activity owners
to help execute your everyday
• Creators of more than two activities
deliverables, faster
• Users logged in today
90
80
• Users logged in last week
70 • Logged in last month
60
50 A c tiv it ie s
40 M em bers
30
20
10
0
28/2/08 17/03/08 25/3/08
Activities: There are 25
activities utilizing 79
members.
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Metrics: Homepage
• Number of:
Homepage
• Deployed widgets
Manage your attention by • Enabled widgets
viewing relevant social data • Visitors in past hour/24 hours/7 days/30
aggregated across your days
subscriptions, notifications, and
• Unique users
network of colleagues.
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Metrics: Files
• Number of:
Files
• People who have logged in today/7 days/30
days
Upload and share any type of file • Total size of files
with colleagues and • Files updated today 7 days/30 days
communities. Store versions and • Public files/shared files/private files
view downloads, comments and • Files downloaded today/7 days/30 days
ratings. • Tags
• Times files have been shared
• Comments/recommendations
• Collections/files added to collections
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Metrics: Wikis
• Number of:
Wikis
• people logged in today/7 days/30 days
Create wiki spaces for • Wikis/ size of wikis
individuals, groups, and • Wiki pages
communities to coauthor pages. • Updated today/7 days/30 days
• Wiki attachments/size
View changes across pages,
• Wikis total/today/7 days/30 days
ratings, and comments.
• Tags used
• Popular tags
• Comments/average
• Recommendations
• People who have recommended
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Suggested Tasks Project Team Leadership
• Create project blog / activity / wiki /
community and invite all participants
• Update profiles and upload files
• Spend 30 minutes per day commenting,
sharing, recommending, building
collections
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Return On Contribution is a ratio of
benefit divided by cost
Benefit
Return on Contribution (ROC) =
Cost
*No direct monetary costs, the metric is therefore based on people
*Assume employees make appropriate and strategic use of available
collaborative resources
Number of people who
benefit from a resource
Return on Contribution (ROC) =
Number of people who create
or contribute to that resource
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

An example: Dogear / Bookmarks
Measure Social-Bookmarking
Consumers 10896
Bookmark Originators 4213
Return on Contribution 2.59
(Consumers)
Consumers 10896
Return on Contribution (ROC) = = = 2.59
Originators 4213
* Some consumers may also be originators
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

What does the number 2.59 mean?
Bookmark- 2.59 consumers benefit
originator from the work of each
bookmarks a bookmark-originator
resource
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Social Network usage by employee tenure
100
Percent of group actively using Social Networks
75
50
~ 60% of employees are actively using social
networking – mostly outside IBM
30+
25 < 5 year tenure 5 - 10 10-20 20-30 Retirees
0
45% 26% 12% 13% 4% 26% of current
Population percentage 2008 IBM population 6
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Return On Contribution can help us understand
the impact on “Vitality”
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Suggested Tasks
• Define the use case scenarios
• Define the tools capabilities to be used
• Define the measurements which will be
reported daily, weekly, monthly and at the
completion of the pilot
• Define the analysis to be completed e.g.
Return On Contribution
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Perceived Value: Does the
software taste good?
Does it make my job easier?
Have I made valuable
connections?
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Perceived Value
Psychology Sociology
Economics
(Business Philosophy
value)
Intrinsic Value: worth having for itself, not as a means to something else
Instrumental Value: a means towards getting something else that is good
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Build Questionnaires
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Suggested Tasks
• Design initial survey for participants
before the pilot begins
• Design the surveys that are sent out
every two weeks (these may change
depending upon metrics)
• Design the final survey to assess the
participants perception (value)
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Business Value:
Show me the money
(savings)
Does it speed up business
processes?
Have I increased the flow of
information around the
organisation?
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Business Value and ROI
Sample Benefit Areas & Value
Propositions
 Faster response to customer facing
Improved Growth issues
Through Innovation  Improved effectiveness of intra- and
Benefits inter-company communications
 Greater hit rate / faster time to value
on innovations
 Faster access to current information
Faster Task about people
Execution  Faster execution by ‘taking tasks out of
the inbox’
 Better reuse of best practices via activity
templates
ROI Improved Efficiency
 Reduced recruiting costs for expertise
already available in the company
 Reduced rew ork on overlapping
projects
 Improved compliance via use of an
Increased integrated set of tools versus
Empowerment of disparate internet w eb applications
Key Resources  Avoid duplicated IT infrastructure to
support siloed collaboration
technologies
Hardware
 Greater leverage of key experts across
Software an organization
TCO  Improved retention of younger
Implementation
Services employees
 Faster development of high performing
Maintenance resources
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

IBM ROI Too
The output of the ROI session is developed into a traditional financial business case. The
End Result: A final report that includes relevant financial business case NPV and IRR
calculations, as well as 5-year cash flows and cost/benefit breakdown charts
$ in '000 Year 0 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 TOTAL
le
Benefits $ - $ 526 $ 631 $ 757 $ 908 $ 1,090 $ 3,912
Costs $ (733) $ (79) $ (152) $ (152) $ (152) $ (152) $ (1,419)
Net Pre-Tax Cash Flow $ (733) $ 447 $ 479 $ 605 $ 757 $ 938 $ 2,493
p
Less: Pro-forma Tax Estimate $ (84) $ 93 $ 103 $ 144 $ 242 $ 300 $ 798
m
Net After-Tax Cash Flow $ (649) $ 354 $ 376 $ 462 $ 515 $ 638 $ 1,696
FINANCIAL METRICS 1-YEAR 2-YEAR 3-YEAR 4-YEAR 5-YEAR
Net Present Value (NPV in $'000)
@ discount rate
@ discount rate
@ discount rate
Internal Rate of Return (IRR in %)
Payback Period (in months)
10%
15%
20%
Sa $
$
$
(327)
(341)
(354)
#NUM!
N/A
$
$
$
(16)
(57)
(93)
8%
21
$
$
$
331
247
175
36%
N/A
$
$
$
682
541
423
49%
N/A
$
$
$
1,078
858
679
57%
N/A
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Suggested Tasks
• Build TCO for hardware, software,
services and maintenance
• Identify benefit areas and gains
• Prioritise gains and required capabilities
• Build ROI model
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Business Value Assessment
BVA Approach BVA Output
Business Collaboration Thought Leadership / Mentoring
• Collaboration Value
Business Collaboration Value Workshop Alignment Summary
Workshop Business Value • Customized Day in
Business
Research / Value /
Day in the Business
Analysis and the Life Demo
Life Case / ROI
Preparation Visioning Presentation
Session
Session Session • ROI Summary
• Next Steps
What project are In which scenarios “How can we
• Customer Input we going to use will Connections financially
Connections play justify an
on? investment in
Connections
• Customer Business Input and Analysis
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Unified spreadsheet of value
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Part 1: Value
Part 2: Adoption Strategy
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Adoption – why bother
• Value
• The organisation will increase information
flow by initiating an adoption program.
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Ladder of social software adoption
Publish a blog
18% Creators Publish your own Web pages
Upload video you created
Upload audio/music you created
Write articles or stories and post them
25% Critics Post ratings/reviews of products/services
Comment on someone else’s blog
Contribute to online forums
Contribute to/edit articles in a wiki
12% Collectors Use RSS feeds
Add “tags” to Web pages or photos
“Vote” for Web sites online
Maintain profile on a social networking site
25% Joiners Visit social networking sites
Read blogs
Watch video from other users
Groups include people 48% Spectators Listen to podcasts
participating in at least Read online forums
one of the activities monthly. Read customer ratings/reviews
Base: US online adults
Source: Forrester Q2 2007 44% Inactives None of the above
Social Technographics Survey
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Benefits of capability
• Increased
Productivity
• Reduced Costs
• Enhanced employee
engagement
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Approach – Which one?
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Do Nothing?
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Top-down
Middlespace
Bottom-up
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Bottom-Up
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

The difference in the Generations
Generation
Traditionali Gen Y
Boomer Gen X (Chris)
st (Chloe)
Born 1946 - 1964 1965 – 1976
1922 - 1945 1977 – 2000
between…
Too much and I’ll Required to keep Continuous &
Training The hard way
leave me expected
Collaborative &
Learning style Classroom Facilitated Independent
networked
Communication
Top down Guarded Hub & Spoke Collaborative
style
Problem-solving Hierarchical Horizontal Independent Collaborative
Decision-making Seeks Approval Team informed Team included Team decided
Command & Get out of the
Leadership style Coach Partner
control way
No news is
Feedback Once per year Weekly / Daily On demand
good news
Unable to work Unfathomable if not
Technology use Uncomfortable Unsure
without it provided
Part of my daily
Job changing Unwise Sets me back Necessary
routine
Lancaster, L.C. and Stillman, D. When Generations Collide: Who They Are. Why They Clash. How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at Work. Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)
Wheaton, IL. Harper Business, 2003.

Identify the Human Hubs
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Train the advocates
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Sell
Sell
to the users
& detractors
* Directly
* Indirectly
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Direct Selling: Marketing 101
• We know what the key problems are
• We already have a solution
• We have identified advocates (bottom-up)
• Create a story line / hook that generates interest
– Story 1: W ho wants to do less email?
– Story 2: W ho wants access to accurate documents?
– Story 3: W ho wants access to information immediately without
using email?
– Story 4: W ho wants to have a video conference and not travel?
– Story 5: W ho wants to share information in real-time with a
colleague working remotely?
• Explain how these tools will help
• Identify key Evangelist by business unit
• Create Volunteer Evangelist team
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Other Promotions
• Print – notice boards
• Freebie – pen and brochure
• Lunch-and-learn
• Departmental team meetings
• Voluntary team
• Be involved with employee communities
• Get feedback and publish
– “How it helped” – cash / kudos incentive
• Videos – YouTube, internally published
• Newsletters / email / notice boards
• Invite to Lotus Connections communities.
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Conversion through training
• Convert key users into
advocates
• Convert advocates into
trainers
• Convert detractors into
happy users
• Encourage voluntary
participation
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Indirect Selling
• Seeing value
• Indirect
Encouragement
• Peer enthusiasm
• Word of mouth
(Conversation)
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

IBM’s Adoption Approach
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

IBM’s Adoption Program
• The social software adoption program
primarily focuses on enabling employees
to help one another
• Participants have a clear path to do so:
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Frequent and Open Communication
• Communication about social software adoption
efforts abound:
– Intranet news articles written by corporate
communications
– Wiki, managed by the dedicated team
– Blogs, shared bookmarks, shared files, and
forum entries, written or identified by
individual contributors – tagged with a
codeword for easy findability and ease of
subscribing
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Employee Participation
• The Ambassadors community, launched November 2007 and
is comprised solely of IBM volunteers – includes a participant
awards program
• Ambassadors are self-defined social software experts who
help individual IBM employees, teams and communities with
using social software
• As an ambassador, you can volunteer to:
– organize and run clinics, lunch and learn sessions
– lead or work as a consultant in jumpstart engagements
– create and/or recommend material for Getting Started
– share success stories, evangelize at events
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Top Down
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Management
* The process is…
* All new projects will…
* Our success depends
upon you doing…
* I participate so should you…
* Encourage and foster
adoption
* Investment ($$) for
* Training
* Communications
* Recognition & Rewards
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Summary
• Generational Resistance
• Bottom-up & Top-down for success
• Open communication
• Rewards and Encouragement
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Will any of this work for you?
• Where has your organisation been
successful at deploying tools and getting
(near) universal employee uptake?
• What methods sit well with your business
culture?
• How do you measure your success?
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Summary
Part 1: Value
Part 2: Adoption Strategy
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Where
to next
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)

Suggested Next Steps
• High level project plan
• Use cases Vs capability requirements
• Architecture solution design
• Implementation and test plan
• Communication plan with participants and
interested parties
• Enablement plan
Chris Sparshott (@sparkbouy)