Policies are dull. No one wants to create them, no one likes to read them and certainly, few desire the job of enforcing them. But they can play an important role in outlining the rules of engagement around a particular set of online behaviors and have a strong role to play in the face of new situations where the there are no standards. This is especially true with the wild west world of social media in business.
There are so many (too many?) social tools available to employees - for free, any employee can create a Twitter or Facebook account, create a LinkedIN or Xing profile, hook their email to Plaxo, start a blog, write a post in a forum, leave a comment, rate an article and the list goes on. But what can and should they be doing with these powerful tools? In one fell swoop and well-meaning person can damage another person's reputation or threaten the confidentiality of a corporate initiative. Just yesterday, for example, I saw a colleague has tweeted about a new contract providing social media guidance to a company that is on one of my client's competitive watch lists. We now know, with some degree of certainty, that we need to watch that competitor closely in the future as they are likely to emerge with some social media footprint. This information, in turn, has accelerated my clients competitive approach. The Tweeter was just expressing joy about a new client. But the ripple effect was used to impact change.
Most companies enter seriously into the social media sphere as a result of a crisis. Something bad happens and then it is like a peewee soccer league where everyone reacts and runs towards the ball. This is not an ideal situation to be in and mistakes are often made as positions are not well played. These social media crisis situations can happen to anyone and can be minimized with proper planning. On the flip side, organizations can *create* positive opportunities for the company by helping employees understand what is OK so they can be free to communicate positively. If you have 20K employees you now have the power to engage millions of people by leveraging the reach of your staff. But if staff are uncertain about what they can and can't do online, many will avoid the social channel which can be a missed opportunity for the company.
As Enterprise-level social media gains widespread adoption in 2010, it is time to help guide staff to understand what is expected of them online and as a representative of the company. In many ways, the goal of an effective policy is not to squelch social media usage but to clearly define what is and is not acceptable for employees as a representative of the organization.
Some questions to consider when formulating a plan: What is your company culture like? Make sure that the social media policy reinforces company culture - an informal organization will have a different policy than, say, a government agency. How do you want the employees to engage with clients and prospects? Take into account the in-person sales and marketing channel strategy and align the social media policy to those best practices. What is considered confidential to your organization? Spell out what hind of information can and can't be shared publicly. How should staff represent them selves to others? Standardize or provide guidelines so that there is an evenness to your online footprint. Should all sales staff, for example, use a similar moniker in their twitter name or is it up to the person to decide? What does transparency mean to your company? Too often people confuse personal opinion with company-representation. Can a staff of your organization share displeasure with the company's product or services online without disclosing she work for your company?
Once a policy has been developed - don't stop there - people need help understanding what it all means. Provide training and examples to illustrate the points. Social media is so new to many people that there is no single shared understanding and skill level.
Social media policy is more complicated than a list of do's and don't - it need to account for human behavior and focus on how to leverage the social channel appropriately. Your staff are online, and here is the opportunity to make the most of it and help them succeed personally and professionally along the way.
A community is only as strong as its membership base. The members of any community are the lifeblood of the organization - be it online or offline. A successful community is a vibrant organism - rich with peer connections, collaboration, content and knowledge sharing. Each member who makes a contribution to the community should be appreciated for taking the time and effort to put forth some of their knowledge for others to benefit. Each contribution makes the community a more valuable destination for others. When a professional offers insight publicly, shares a an idea, a comment, contributes to a survey,connects to a peer the benefits ripple across the community.
Companies who sponsor or create an online community are the hosts of a potentially global, 24X7 salon of ideas. Yet, too often, community members are thought of as marketing "targets" or "constituents" and not valued for the contributions they make to the community. Ironically, the more senior the professional, the more "targeted" they often are - which is exactly the wrong approach with relationship building. This was reinforced by the New Symbiosis For Professional Networks research that Don Bulmer and I recently completed where professionals reported that the most important thing a professional network can offer them is access to information they couldn't get elsewhere, where the primary goal of many companies is to market to members!
Community members - especially those within professional networks - need to be properly valued and thanked for keeping the community alive. A great social infrastructure without members is an empty place. There are many ways that a company or community host can show appreciation for their community members. When developing community operations, Member Retention programs are essential and should become a visible part.
1) Select key community leaders or newcomers to the community and feature them - showcase their knowledge in order to validate their efforts
2) Issue them "knowledge-gifts" - information or content from your organization that they couldn't get elsewhere that could make their jobs easier. A product roadmap, an article or something of intellectual value
3) Provide them access to a thought-leader - If a community member holds a key IT role within their organization, for example, they may benefit from being virtually introduced to an esteemed peer or someone within your company who can help them do their job better
4) Send a thank you note to key contributors to let them know you value their efforts. Heck, paper and pen still work and can be an unanticipated treat!
5) In-person events are always appreciated - host a reception at an industry event and invite members to attend a private event. This allows you to meet them in person and it is always fun to be invited somewhere.
6) Be accessible and supportive when key contributors participation drops off. Typically, when an active member of a professional community wanes in participation, chances are they have undue work burdens or a problem they are dealing with. Reach out to them and offer to be of assistance. Perhaps they need some information or content from the community to support their work challenge but don't have time to gather it. Such assistance can get them through a tough time.
While these efforts can seem daunting with larger online communities with many members, it is important to keep in mind that they can be applied selectively and over time as part of a Member Retention Program. In this age of digital scale, we are programmed to think and service customers and clients with batch processes. However, at the end of the day, each and every community member matters. The sum is greater than the parts.
Trust is an elusive thing - we as professionals have spent a large part of our careers finding and relying upon people to help make decisions. We apply criteria when figuring out who to trust or who to believe when we are in search of information and validation. Sometimes, trust is established due to proximity - I see you often and we have built a relationship and therefore your opinion matters to me. Other times, trust is steered by expertise - I know little about a certain subject matter but believe that you know more or a lot, and therefore I seek out your point of view to inform my decision.
Trust is typically dependent upon a relationship with another and the medium by which we communicate with trusted people rarely sways the outcome - An email from a trusted colleague is not less trust-worthy than a phone call, for example as the information relayed remains the same.
Through the use of peer networks, professionals are now able to reach their trusted peers and find trusted experts more easily. Through the use of professional networks, a "stranger" - someone we don't know - now has a visible and traceable trail of information associated with their persona. Using online networks, someone's body of work and ideas are "out there" on the internet for the viewing over time.
Armed with curiosity about the role social media could be playing in relationship-building activities, Don and I explored how online and offline trust compares in the business arena to see if social media is being considered a trust-worthy source of information as compared to offline networks or whether people still need to shake someones hand in order to establish or support relationships. How much do people trust those that they meet online? Can online support decision-making in similar ways as offline networking activities? Do people trust the information they get from the social channel? Are companies wasting time building up online referral efforts, social media influencer programs and customer communities?
The New Symbiosis for Professional Networks survey results indicate a strong increase in trust from information obtained through online and offline networks. This increase in trust can be explained as people engage more and gain comfort with online community and professional networking. These data reinforce the reality that online is not a silver bullet and that online strategies need to compliment offline activities. They go necessarily hand-in-hand. However, it is also clear that offline is strengthened by online engagement – to extend relationships and collaborate. Information obtained from offline networks still have highest levels of trust with slight advantage over online (offline: 92% - combined strongly/somewhat trust; online: 83% combined strongly/somewhat trust).
Personally, I often consider a tweet chat or an email exchange to be a "conversation" - and experience the feeling that I "spoke" to someone even if the exchange was virtual. Especially as a community builder - as I am facile with social tools and technologies - I often experience kinship with peers who also belong to the professional communities I belong to. I know them because I understand their ideas, I see their background and the roads they have walked, and I experience their point of view more frequently because of the social channel than if I simply relied upon (infrequent) in-person meetings. The interviews we conducted in support of this research reinforced this experience. With all this in mind, I can't help but wonder how much the lines between offline and online will continue blur over the coming years.
The complete findings of the research can be found here.
Please visit Don blog later this week where he will discuss additional findings from the study.
The methodology for this study involved a mixed methods approach supported by quantitative data gathered via online survey of 356 professionals to understand their perceptions and experiences with social media in support of their decision-making. Select interviews of 12 professionals were also conducted using a semi-structured interview guide as part of the second phase of the study. Key demographics of the research include:
Close to a quarter (23%) of respondents identified themselves as CEO of their organization; 50% as “Director” (24%) “Manager” (24%)
Company size ranged from less than 100 to over 50,000 full-time employees
Age was well distributed with the greatest proportion in the 36-45 range
25 countries were represented, with 58% of respondents living in the US
All respondents were either the decision makers or influenced the decision process within their company or business unit
Companies worldwide are focused on how to influence and manage online communities to grow their company brands. This is all well and good -- so long as those companies respect the rights and expectations of their community members. But as our New Symbiosis of Professional Networks research findings show, many companies do not respect the needs of the very individuals they are trying to influence.
As a member of a number of professional networks, I am visible online. However, marketers who do not respect my rights and expectations for professional networking do me a great disservice, and reduce my incentive to use social media to connect with them. Professionals engage with each other online to collaborate, learn about innovations and experiences, get fresh ideas and deepen relationships -- not to be targets of direct selling or overt marketing efforts. Just as I regularly invoke my do-not-call right with telemarketers, I should have the same right to avoid badgering by online marketers who target me because I am active in social media.
In our recent research fellowship with the Society for New Communications Research, Don Bulmer and I were excited to learn that this sentiment is widely shared among professionals who use social media for business. Our survey results and follow-up interviews indicate there is a profound mismatch between what professionals want online and what marketers want to give them.
Our research data strongly suggest that professionals use social media tools with the express desire of connecting and collaborating with others. Their goals include gaining access to information they cannot easily find elsewhere and efficiency when working with peers across geographical and time boundaries.
This list of activity drivers can help guide any organization's efforts when developing social media programs that will be used by decision-makers.
The incentives for professionals' use of social media for business and decision-support are clear, but those incentives are often ignored by the businesses actually using social media. These companies focus on using social media as a marketing channel instead of a key component of a customer engagement strategy. Too often, a social media marketing push simply re-packages web page content into social media tools.
As the data show, social media programs dedicated to innovation or customer relationship building rank far lower on this list of future investments than perhaps they should - if a company were paying attention to the decision-maker's needs.
Professional networks for business are still evolving, and many corporate social media initiatives have not determined where they fall on the marketing and customer care spectrum. These findings suggest companies would be well-served by designing their social media programs to align more closely with the goals they are trying to achieve, such as educating the buyers, helping them find information they can't find elsewhere and building customer intimacy in support of client retention and engagement. Not to mention offering a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
The complete findings of the research can be found here. Please visit Don's blog tomorrow where he will continue to discuss findings.
The methodology for this study involved a mixed methods approach supported by quantitative data gathered via online survey of 356 professionals to understand their perceptions and experiences with social media in support of their decision-making. Select interviews of 12 professionals were also conducted using a semi-structured interview guide as part of the second phase of the study. Key demographics of the research include:
Close to a quarter (23%) of respondents identified themselves as CEO of their organization; nearly 50% as "Director" (24%) or "Manager" (24%)
Company size ranged from less than 100 to over 50,000 full-time employees
Age was well distributed, with the greatest proportion in the 36-45 range
25 countries were represented, with 58% of respondents living in the US
All respondents were either the decision makers or influenced the decision process within their company or business unit
The New Symbiosis for Professional Networks research suggests that social media plays a starring role in the decision-making process as professionals increasingly rely on their networks to inform and validate their decisions. In the past, before the emergence of online communities and professional networks, decision-makers were limited to information gathering mainly through the people they knew and trusted. Decision-makers would typically research the organization by either contacting them directly or searching online, or through secondary sources such as analyst reports. The actual customers or clients a decision-maker came in contact with were limited to either the reference list supplied by the company itself, or through peer word of mouth. There were very few occasions where a decision-maker could actually query a variety customers or clients in a quick and transparent way – until the advent of social media.
Now, if a decision-maker wants to learn more about a company they can either go public via networking tools like Twitter and broadcast a request for information, or leverage private gated communities such as a group within LinkedIn or an industry practitioner private community in addition to using traditional methods. The social information gathering channel now accelerates and potentially clarifies the answers to support the decision because one can reach farther and faster than ever before.
Specifically, the research suggest that decision-makers find a variety of reasons to engage the social channel for decision making:
·Keeping track of peers and access to thought leadership are top reasons why professionals participate in online networks
·Professionals who use more than three networks are likely to be more collaborative and have higher reliance on networks to support decision making process
Be it crowd-sourced or the ability to access trusted peers quickly and globally, the decision-making process is fundamentally different due to social media. The reliance on online networks to support decisions is especially significant for people who utilize multiple networks – of three or more.
Additionally we found that:
•Final Decision Makers are more likely to indicate that they conduct research via a search engine (82% vs. 70% of Decision Supporters)
•Those professionals with more networks are more likely to gather opinions through their online network, read blogs and query the Twitter channel as early steps in the decision process
•Younger respondents are more likely to read a company blog and to query the Twitter channel vs. an older demographics
These trends represent a clear indication in the shift of company control of messaging (e.g. website and blogs) as decision makers broaden their reach to peers, networks and community to support their decision making process.
The methodology for the New Symbiosis of Professional Networks study involved a mixed methods approach supported by quantitative data gathered via online survey of 356 professionals to understand their perceptions and experiences with social media in support of their decision-making. Select interviews of 12 professionals were also conducted using a semi-structured interview guide as part of the second phase of the study. Key demographics of the research include:
Close to a quarter (23%) of respondents identified themselves as CEO of their organization; 50% as “Director” (24%) “Manager” (24%)
Company size ranged from less than 100 to over 50,000 full-time employees
Age was well distributed with the greatest proportion in the 36-45 range
25 countries were represented, with 58% of respondents living in the US
All respondents were either the decision makers or influenced the decision process within their company or business unit.
I am thrilled to share key findings from research that Don Bulmer and I conducted called The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks. The research was conducted as part of our 2009 fellowship with the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR).
Don and I began this research this summer in efforts to explore a greatly overlooked area in social media - how decision-makers are using social media in their work. A great deal of attention and research has been devoted over the last few years to evangelizing social media as a new form of customer-centric relationship building. Build a network or use social media to deepen customer intimacy has become the mantra of today. However, what is often overlooked is the impact of social media to change behaviors, and the potential to use social media to impact a professional’s decision-making processes. While everyone is endeavoring to capture the mindshare of the buyer, few understand what success truly looks like.
In an effort to better understand the impact of social media on business, we conducted research (as a first step) to examine the role that social media has on decision-making among business professionals. Specifically, we sought to understand the following:
Is social media typically regarded as a trustworthy source of information for professionals?
Does social media offer effective tools to access information, advice and engage in professional collaboration? How do they compare to traditional off-line networking?
What are the tools and sources of social media that professionals rely on to make decisions?
Will social media change the business and practice of enterprise-level operations?
The methodology for this study involved a mixed methods approach supported by quantitative data gathered via online survey of 356 professionals to understand their perceptions and experiences with social media in support of their decision-making. Select interviews of 12 professionals were also conducted using a semi-structured interview guide as part of the second phase of the study.
Key demographics of the research include:
Close to a quarter (23%) of respondents identified themselves as CEO of their organization; 50% as “Director” (24%) “Manager” (24%)
Company size ranged from less than 100 to over 50,000 full-time employees
Age was well distributed with the greatest proportion in the 36-45 range
25 countries were represented, with 58% of respondents living in the US
All respondents were either the decision makers or influenced the decision process within their company or business unit
Below are key findings and an executive summary of the research. The full report will be available over the coming weeks through SNCR. A presentation of results with detailed charts are available on the SNCR website, now (located halfway down the page).
Six Key Findings From The Research Include:
1. Professional decision-making is becoming more social - enter the era of Social Media Peer Groups (SMPG)
Traditional influence cycles are being disrupted by Social Media as decision makers utilize social networks to inform and validate decisions
Professionals want to be collaborative in the decision-cycle but not be marketed or sold to online; however online marketing is a preferred activity by companies.
2. The big three have emerged as leading professional networks: LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter
The average professional belongs to 3-5 online networks for business use, and LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are among the top used.
The convergence of Internet, mobile, and social media has taken significant shape as professionals rely on anywhere access to information, relationships and networks
3. Professional networks are emerging as decision-support tools
Decision-makers are broadening reach to gather information especially among active users
4. Professionals trust online information almost as much as information gotten from in-person
Information obtained from offline networks still have highest levels of trust with slight advantage over online (offline: 92% - combined strongly/somewhat trust; online: 83% combined strongly/somewhat trust)
5. Reliance on web-based professional networks and online communities has increased significantly over the past 3 years
Three quarters of respondents rely on professional networks to support business decisions
Reliance has increased for essentially all respondents over the past three years
6. Social Media use patterns are not pre-determined by age or organizational affiliation
Younger (20-35) and older professionals (55+) are more active users of social tools than middle aged professionals.
There are more people collaborating outside their company wall than within their organizational intranet
Executive Summary of the The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks Report:
The convergence of the Internet, Web 2.0 and mobile technologies has created a disruptive shift in business. The era of Business-to-Person (B2P) communications driven by all things social (social media, social networks, and social influence) has emerged as a new model for engagement and Social Media Peer Groups (SMPG) have evolved to take important and influential shape in a new business and economic environment.
This shift has disintermediated many long-standing marketing, communications and selling beliefs that have traditionally guided how companies interact, support and collaborate with their customers. We now work in an environment where companies have diminished control over the reputation of their brands, products and services as the wisdom of crowds increasingly dictate the rules of reputation management and selling. Through the use of social media, customers and prospects now have an almost instantaneous platform for discussion of their ideas, experiences and knowledge. Increasingly, the use of social media is playing an important role in the professional lives of decision-makers as they utilize the tools and mediums before them to engage their decision-making processes. The social nature of decision making has increased with impressive strength connecting generations of professionals to each other - changing the dynamics of customer relationship management, marketing and communications, forever.
In today’s global environment of a vast network of seamlessly connected devices (one billion people connected to internet and 4 billion mobile phones) information has the capacity to travel at a business velocity never before seen. 400+ million people are sharing billions of pieces of content and experiences each week through the online exchanges. Communities of practice, professional networks, e-mail, SMS are the sort of tools that enable multi channel access for individuals (employees, customers, partners and suppliers). We are finally a part of the long-promised global virtual and collaborative work environment.
Online communities and professional networks have arguably changed the way we do business and are, in themselves, new ecosystems, virally creating communities within communities that drive brand recognition and brand experience - beyond the control of most companies to manage. Professional networks facilitate vast interactions, connections and networks of people by enabling collaboration anywhere and at any time.
Through this research we focus on professional use of social media – and it all comes back to the strength of the relationship. Human relationships and peer-to-peer decision making are inherently interrelated. We make decisions about who we trust in work settings based on a number of factors – one often being proximity. With social media, proximity is often superseded in the trust factor by relativity or like-mindedness. Is this person knowledgeable? Credible? Believable? Do we share the same views and networks – on or offline?
Because belonging to a peer network or online community requires us to perform publicly, to share our background by way of a profile, to display our professional connections and networks, trustworthiness is in many cases more tangibly determined. Peer Groups can now be formed by idea sharing and virtual collaboration as easily as the proximity based groups that often form in office settings.
Enter the era of Business-to-Person (B2P) communications and the emergence of Social Media Peer Groups (SMPG).
Through the use of professional networks and online communities, decision-makers are connecting and collaborating with peers, experts and colleagues far and wide in an on demand environment, about the issues that keep them up at night. The impact of these far-reaching business networks is becoming clearer every day as millions of consumers, partners, suppliers and businesses discuss and share their professional experiences with each other with increasing levels of trust and reliance. It has long been known as truth that peer endorsement is the single greatest decision-making accelerant. Through social media, peer influence cycles are happening at a velocity never before seen, and in many ways, companies are losing the ability to control their messages. They need to get back into the relationship cycle but on the terms set forth by the SMPG. Participating in the SMPG relationship requires a behavior change on the part of organizations – one dominated by valuable content and genuine contributions, transparent honesty and a commitment to follow where the decision-maker wants to lead.
What does this all mean? 1. Social Media is supplementing the traditional professional decision-making cycle with great affect
The era of Social Media Peer Group (SMPG) has arrived and information will travel at a business velocity that has never been seen before enabled by the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies.
2. Challenges are facing marketers who endeavor to mange or control social media network content
Traditional cycles of decision-making are being disrupted by SMPG
Managing and influencing professional decision-making will be the major challenge as professionals often do not seek the information that marketers want to share online.
3. The greatest opportunity business has is to engage collaborative influence – via immediacy of impact through social channel
We look forward to your comments and thoughts about this study - Here is the link to the download.
"May you live in interesting times" is as much a Chinese curse as it is a blessing and in so many ways it can be applied to the recent happenings with the FDA hearings on social media in Washington late last week. The FDA invited more than 60 speakers to present their perspective on social media as it related to direct to consumer (DTC) advertising, media, reporting and essentially accountability driven by social media. Now that the floodgates are open in this remarkable event, there is now a requirement to react and to develop best practice guidelines and regulations around transparancy. One could argue that what is happening in pharma is just the tip of the iceberg of whats to come for business and organizations worldwide.
A good blog post by Econsultancy summarizes the thrust of the FDA hearings focus as being centered on answering the following questions:
For what online communications are manufacturers, packers or distributors accountable?
How can manufacturers, packers or distributors fulfill regulatory requirements in their Internet and social media promotion, particularly when using tools that are associated with space limitations and tools that allow for real-time communications?
What parameters should apply to the posting of corrective information on Web sites controlled by third parties?
When is the use of links appropriate?
How should adverse event reporting be addressed online?
In essence, the hearings really focused on the question of of accountability and transparency is an organization responsible for through the social channel. This is a real groundbreaking on the part of the FDA to consider and try to understand what is happening in social media. It is it changing the rules of engagement now that customers and consumers have a vibrant and ever present medium to communicate and share their opinions and experiences.
While much of this discussion and information exchanged is specifically related to the healthcare industry, in many ways it brings to light the disruptive and game-changing nature of social. While B2B face a different set of challenges than pharmaceutical, the lessons learned from this FDA event drive home that the social channel can not be ignored - or worse- banned from the enterprise. It is widely used and its impact is in fact significant.
Organizations need to figure out a way to appropriately integrate social media awareness, responsiveness and monitoring into their best practice operations. Brand managers can not turn a blind eye to the power and impact of social influence .Customers, clients, patients, users are engaging online and this is a force that can't be stopped. Clients are talking but are you responding? How should you react or respond to issues that fly across the twitter channel? How seriously do you need to take one customer's issues - whether or not they are raised in a public forum or not? Do you have a best practice triage plan or a social media policy to help guide employees use of social media as a company representative? These and many more are the business questions that emerge through the trigger of the FDA hearings as applied in a business context.
Whats to come of the FDA hearings remains uncertain but they are now armed and able to think strategically about how to make the best use of the information before them from the social channel. Are you?
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