UBM Online Community Lessons
•Download as PPT, PDF•
0 likes•263 views
The document discusses UBM's implementation and use of an internal wiki for collaboration. Some key points: - UBM deployed a wiki to break down silos and improve collaboration, communication, and efficiency across its 30+ countries and 6,000 employees. - The wiki has seen successes like 4,800 user accounts in 50 countries contributing 16,000 documents and 13,500 discussion messages. - Critical factors for its success included community management, local ownership, setting an open culture, and training. - The wiki is used for projects, conferences, executive blogging, rapid sharing, and cross-divisional knowledge sharing. - Challenges include overcoming resistance, legal concerns, and
![Lessons Learned: UBM’s Online Community August 18, 2009 David Michael and Ted Hopton [email_address] | [email_address] © 2009, United Business Media Ltd.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jivewebcast-aug2009-builds-100809090827-phpapp01/85/jive-webcast-august-2009-1-320.jpg)
![The Resources of United Business Media ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],David Levin Group Chief Executive UBM Information CMP Asia](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Recommended
More Related Content
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (10)
Similar to UBM Online Community Lessons
Similar to UBM Online Community Lessons (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
UBM Online Community Lessons
- 1. Lessons Learned: UBM’s Online Community August 18, 2009 David Michael and Ted Hopton [email_address] | [email_address] © 2009, United Business Media Ltd.
- 17. Conference & Tradeshow Planning
- 21. Office Workflow
- 23. Rapid Sharing of Breaking News
- 28. Reporting Visits Around 5000 visits per day from 4800 accounts
- 29. Reporting Around 300K monthly page views ~10 daily pages views per logged in user
- 30. Participation levels are rising, with 30% logging in daily. Content creators are 1-2% of all users.
- 62. Knowledge Sharing Improves Sales
- 66. You Have a Voice
- 70. ubm.com [email_address] | [email_address]
Editor's Notes
- Its great to be here today to tell you about UBM and how we have leveraged Social Business Software within our company. UBM is a $2.6 billion company, listed on the London Stock exchange with over 6000 employees and 30 countries. Our various companies (over 80 at the last count) connect buyers and sellers with online products and services, face to face events and print publications. Some of our big name brands in the US include PR Newswire, InformationWeek, Interop, Web 2.0 Expo, EETimes and Games Developers Conference. We host the worlds largest chemical and pharmicutical ingredients trade show, the worlds largest furniture show in Shanghai and Jewelry Show in Hong Kong. Altogether we run 400 live events and 1000’s of web sutes all around the world.
- So what was the problem we were trying to solve? We are 80 companies – literally. There is no central IT department, there is no common network, there is no email directory – in fact we don’t even have a complete list of all our employees. UBM’s strategy is to create small and nimble businesses which collaborate with each other. But as the business has grown the collaboration becomes harder and harder. A marketing person for a trade show based in Dallas could be trying to solve the same problems as a marketing person based in London. Historically they would not have known each other existed. The opportunity to share experiences and knowledge was huge. This was the initial driver for UBM to look at colaboration tools, its also how our community software got its name – the UBM wiki. In early 2008 a wiki was setup to allow senior executives around UBM to share information prior to a strategy conference. It was very successful but usage stopped once the event was over. A combination of lack of critical mass of users and content, coupled with the learning curve of typical wiki software stopped the project dead. However our CEO was convinced that we could use technology to connect people and open up opportunites for communication and ultimately colaboration. Jive software was selected because it is amazingly easy to use but feature rich and does not require an IT involvement to setup.
- 4,800 users later we have a vibrant, online group of people. We have a global company address book (well almost – its hard to get people to join who don’t have English as their primary business language). So how did we get from zero to 4,800 users – the answer is a lot of hard work, dedication and leadership of our Wiki Community Manager, Ted Hopton. One man could not do this on his own, so he recruited volunteers from across UBM to act as part time community managers and spread the word. Over time, this viral approach was key to our success – no mandate was ever issued to use the wiki. So let me now hand over to Ted so that he can elaborate on how we used Social Business Software to accelerate a culture of collaboration and innovation.
- Thank you, David. As David told you, our first attempt to roll out wiki software flopped. You can't simply install this technology and expect to get full value from it. It's an *initiative*, not just a technology. So this time we created community manager roles. You really need people to manage the development of communities. We’ve found that's the single best predictor of success in our communities.
- We also decided to get buy-in from each of our divisions by giving them a measure of control. We told them, "we'll give you access to this great system for free."
- “ In return, we expect you to make sure the money spent on your licenses isn’t wasted.” Each division had to designate a local community manager. We estimated 10-20% of one person's time, but it turned out more like 50% during the initial rollout period. Then they had to set up a local steering committee to develop their rollout plan and determine how they would use the system. So, we gave them the keys to the car, but insisted they designate a driver and map out their route.
- We also set up an Advisory Board with representatives from each division. We felt the Advisory Board, steering committees and local community managers were consistent with the participatory culture we wanted to have in our community. Ben asks: How would you describe your community's culture now, and how did you establish it?
- We set the tone right from the start. We kept the writing and communications light and informal, and included humor where appropriate. We wanted the feel of a personal blog, not a company memo. I blogged frequently in the community to lead by example.
- And we simply declared that the culture of our community was one of openness and transparency -- a message we repeated frequently. We tied this back to the reason corporate was funding this technology: to encourage collaboration throughout the enterprise.
- Overall, I'd say that's one of our biggest successes: communities and content are for the most part open to view and participation by anyone across the company. That's key, since you can't collaborate on what you can't see. Ben asks: Are there other elements of your culture that affected adoption of the technology?
- Absolutely. I think another key was our (almost) anything goes attitude. We made very few rules. “Use your judgment. Try things and experiment. Act professional, of course! If it's not appropriate to say in the office, then it's not appropriate to say in our online community.” We made clear that we were all figuring this thing out as we went along, and that it's never going to be finished -- it will always be evolving. That's encouraged people to act. They aren't waiting for *leaders* to tell them what to do. They’re diving in and creating stuff. And that's really exciting and empowering.
- Another key for us was training. Even though the technology is pretty easy to use, we find that training provides significant benefits. It's your chance to set the tone, to demonstrate how simple it is to use, and explain to people *why* they should use it. If you can get someone’s attention for an hour and make your pitch, there's a much greater chance they’ll have a positive experience when they try it on their own. Ben asks: What are some of the ways people are using the technology?
- I'll give you a quick look at some specific examples. Starting with our CEO, David Levin, we have more and more execs blogging, either instead of or in addition to sending emails. David no longer sends his monthly messages to all staff in email -- just the link to his blog post.
- And instead of monthly, they tend to be more frequent, often less formal, and deliberately inviting comments and conversation. As you can see on this example, people are sharing their thoughts in response – 19 people have written comments.
- We find the technology to be a great aid in event planning, something that's core to our business, as we run hundreds of events every year.
- Having a central repository for files, conversations, questions and answers, and team communications works nicely.
- Similarly, we have hundreds of websites, and for many of the same reasons we have people using the community for web design projects, too.
- The project management features help teams keep track of tasks and responsibilities.
- Certainly the most common use we see relates to various kinds of routine business workflow -- just getting things done in the office or across multiple offices.
- In some ways it's like having a souped-up fancy whiteboard and you can put almost anything on it.
- A terrible tragedy brought to light a use we never anticipated. When the terrorists struck in Mumbai last year, we had many staff in the city preparing to open two of our large conferences.
- We saw weekend traffic in our online community spike like never before as people logged in to read updates from their colleagues in India.
- We’ve also found value in groups people have created around specific business topics. This was one of the earliest indications that new ways of collaboration were happening as a result of our online community. I'll show you a few brief examples.
- The search engine optimization group has over 150 members across the company sharing ideas, tips and instruction. Most members have never met and did not know who to consult for help before.
- As a global media company with hundreds of websites, Social Media and Web 2.0 are hot topics. This group shares the latest news and engages in spirited dialogue.
- Our community also allows us to develop new products more effectively by leveraging the success and learning from the setbacks of other groups within the company. Ben asks: How are you measuring your community's effectiveness? What kind of reporting are you providing about your community?
- Reporting is definitely an area where we continue to try to find our way. I saw a demo by Jive of the embedded and integrated reports planned for the October release, and I am eagerly looking forward to them. In the meantime, reporting remains a challenge. This is one of the reports I pull from Omniture, a website tracking program. As you can see, we had around 5000 visits per day in July from a total user community of about 4800 people. But I'm not sure what to do with that information, frankly. So I've used the all-purpose analytics tool known as Excel, and created some of my own metrics.
- Here I've taken data from Omniture to calculate the average daily page views for the people who logged into the system -- about 10 pages daily for the past few months. Taken against the entire user base, our page views are less than three per day. But I haven’t decided if either stat is really meaningful.
- There's a lot going on in this chart. The bars represent numbers of users, on the left axis. And the lines are percentages, on the right axis. You can see the continued growth in people logging in, even as the number of active participants -- those who are creating content -- remains fairly steady at less than 100 people per day. What I really like on this chart is the growth in the percentage of account holders who are logging in daily. Getting 30% of them in the system daily is pretty exciting for us! But most of these numbers aren't what I would call actionable, and that's my goal. I want metrics that we can act on to improve the way our communities are working and how the technology is being used. I'm still searching for more of those. Ben asks: We promised people we'd talk about your struggles, too. What's causing you pain?
- Pain and struggles are unavoidable in any worthwhile endeavor, and ours fall into a handful of buckets. Our biggest struggle is simply resistance. In every organization, you have some people who resist change -- in their technology, their processes and their routines.
- Our response has been to “wait them out” while continuing to explain the benefits this technology has to offer. But saying there’s resistance doesn't help us understand how to overcome it.
- For one thing, there's a good bit of fear underlying the resistance.
- It’s important to listen to people’s fears and respond thoughtfully. Sometimes people just need to be heard. So what are people saying they are afraid of?
- “ theft, espionage, betrayal -- the tool will make us vulnerable”
- We’ve responded by explaining, and enhancing, our security measures.
- “ legal liability -- people will use the tool in ways that expose us to legal penalties”
- We’ve responded by issuing clear and comprehensive guidelines and requiring everyone to read and agree to them.
- “ inaccuracy, errors, misleading information -- it will become a garbage heap”
- We’ve responded by offering training, tips and the leadership of our community managers, as well as starting up a corps of wiki gardeners to help fix up and improve the site.
- “ chaos, disorder, sloppiness -- it will be inefficient and ineffective”
- We’ve responded by explaining it’s a continuously evolving ecosystem that will improve over time.
- “ wasted time, idle chatter, not serious -- it will be a distraction”
- We’ve responded by reminding people technology is no replacement for management. Managers need to set expectations and hold people accountable for using their time wisely.
- “ making mistakes, being shown up, looking foolish -- it will expose people unflatteringly”
- We’ve responded by pointing out the positive aspects of showing one’s imperfect, human side in building trust and relationships. That’s a long list of fears, and there probably are more...
- One of the toughest struggles I face is the difficulty of getting people to commit time and resources when they’re already stretched thin. It takes time to learn new technology and even more to get the most out of it. It also takes resources to develop online communities. We still have divisions which haven’t committed enough resources to this. That's holding us back, but it's a real tough challenge.
- We’ve responded by continuing to identify and explain the benefits they’ll get by making this investment.
- Another battle we're fighting is misunderstanding. Many people don't have any idea what the full potential of this technology is, and some have simply tuned it out as a fad that may go away if they ignore it long enough.
- Again, it’s essential to keep the education flowing through as many channels as possible.
- Let's make one more catch-all category, even broader than resistance. I think it's fair to say that social media technology does not appeal to everyone.
- Here again, we just have to keep coming back to the benefits and making the case persuasively. It's not much fun to talk about these obstacles we're facing, but recognizing and acknowledging them is a necessary step in overcoming them. We still have plenty of work to do. Ben asks: OK, I know you have plenty of success stories, too. How do you hear about those?
- I much prefer to talk about our success stories, and I’m convinced there are far more of them than I ever hear about. My Iceberg Rule of Success Stories is that for every success I learn about, there are nine others no one bothered to mention. But I do have a technique for soliciting these stories which I'd like to tell you about.
- In my search for meaningful metrics, I realized that at the most fundamental level what we want to achieve are wins -- any positive outcome from using this technology and having an online community. (And I particularly like large financial wins!) So I created the Wiki Wins Knowledgebase. It's a space where people log their success stories and learn about others’. Most of the examples I’ll share with you are pulled from the Wiki Wins Knowledgebase. Ben asks: What are some of your favorite financial wins?
- A manager in Belgium posted a question in a group to get a recommendation for a general contractor for an exhibition in the UK.
- Within 48 hours she had three replies, all recommending the same company. She contacted the vendor and within a week she had an offer that saved her $20,000. And they hope to see additional cost savings on printing, too.
- That same manager -- she really loves the community -- posted a message in another group to ask for feedback on whether they should launch a new awards event or not.
- A manager from another division that has experience with award events replied, and as a result of that posting, the two divisions are working together to develop a brand new event which they expect to bring in over a hundred thousand Euros in revenue this year -- and they hope to make it an annual event. Plus, the teams have been able to communicate more efficiently as a result of the online community. The people involved in the project are in three different countries and time zones and come from two different divisions. They set up a group in the system that has allowed them to easily share documents and discuss options for the event. Without the wiki this would have been a lot harder. Ben asks: What other kinds of wins have you seen?
- A manager created a directory page on the wiki to pull together all the competitive market intelligence gathered by his division's product group.
- Organized by competitor, this document gives staff a single place to find documents, blog posts or discussions with competitive information. A link from this page leads to a discussion thread where staff can post any intel they come across in the field, which should further build out the information our staff has on the competition.
- This next Wiki Win started in a user-created group called Global Sales and Marketing. Tiffany in Singapore posted an excellent piece on how to improve sales presentations (one of the many extremely useful posts she’s has put on the Wiki and in this group!)
- A VP in another division, in Brussels, saw this post and contacted Tiffany to get input on a presentation he wanted to put together for a new product launch. Tiffany went out of her way to help the VP, who she's never met and doesn't report to, working on the weekend and evenings. As a result, the new presentation is a departure from the usual Powerpoints and fits well with the new product. This is a great example of how two people in totally different divisions in different time zones have met through the Wiki and been able to collaborate on a project.
- Another manager was asked to speak to a Global Marketing Team at a large Distributor on the trends in Media and social media for B2B Marketers. While they wanted to know specifically what we were doing as a company, they also wanted outside data and opinion.
- The manager was able to look up "social networking" on the wiki and found several great links to articles posted by folks in other divisions that provided all the information she needed for the presentation -- as well as an education for herself. She was able to pull and print in 30 minutes what would have taken hours before. She now recommends to anyone working on a presentation to check out all the great research data available across the company.
- This last story is strictly at the personal, individual level, but I think it speaks to where this technology's power truly lies. One of our local community managers, Matt Donnelly, wrote this story up in our blog. I'll just read it as he wrote it, as if I were him.
- When I walked over to a colleague's desk to ask about something completely unrelated to the wiki, I noticed something interesting. On her PC she had an open wiki page with some text typed in it. But she was working on something else. Since she's never posted anything on the wiki, I was intrigued. "Ready to post something?" I asked her. "I'm not sure," she replied. "Why not?“ She just looked at me for a few seconds. "Don't worry about posting something. All ideas are welcome.“ "I'm not sure," she replied. "Just go for it. With thousands of people on the wiki, you never know where your idea might go.“ She thought for another second, turned to her computer, and hit Publish. "Good for you," I said. She was visibly relieved. Less than 5 minutes later, she had her first reply -- from her manager, no less. He thought her idea had legs. Without the wiki, I wonder if it would ever have seen the light of day. Ben asks: OK, we want to leave plenty of time for questions, so let's bring this to a close. What's on the horizon for your community?
- Wow, that's the big question, Ben. I can only begin to answer it here. What's that pop song? "The future's so bright I have to wear shades?" I see tremendous upside for our community. We're just one year in and we're still figuring out all the potential uses for this technology. We really think we've only just begun, and can go much further, in terms of adoption and usage. We’ve got lots of viewers but we want to develop more participants in a true culture of information sharing.
- We expect to achieve significant cost savings over time in a number of ways. There’s huge potential here and we’re only crawling, not even walking, yet.
- And we certainly expect to see new and greater revenue opportunities resulting from our online community, as well. There’s a rich vein to be tapped via this technology, I’m sure. We have many more plans, but at the highest level, that’s what we’re working towards. Ben opens up the Q&A. Ted advances slides to the last one (next one).