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Intranets, Digital & Social Media

Social media and corporate persona: net-etiquette revisited

January 3, 2019January 3, 2019IABC UK Webmaster

 

When social meets corporate

As intranets and other employee communications evolve, adding new social capabilities for collaboration, the question about how to get the right behaviours in this “new” digital environment keeps coming up (it has been around since the invention of email, so not exactly new).

It’s probably because there is no one answer fits all. It depends on corporate culture, your personal background, where you are located. I’m Brazilian, living in the UK and deploying a corporate social network in a global environment (Workplace by Facebook in this case). I can see clearly the cultural background influencing what each one engages in the digital corporate environment. It was a pleasant surprise to learn how engaged my colleagues in Pakistan and Egypt are, just as my fellow Latinos.

 

New sharing platforms

I’m lucky enough to be part of a global roll-out of Workplace by Facebook, a fairly new product. Being around for some time, I had the chance to deploy different platforms, see how the social intranets have evolved and see the new and old blockers.

A quick win that I can see straight way is adoption curve. Because Facebook is a well-known platform, Workplace seems familiar and no specific training is required to access it. It’s easier to get people through the door. The real challenge is to turn it into a work tool, embedded in the business, and it demands a clear plan.

 

Collaborate with clarity

The first step is to tell people about the expected behaviours. Collaboration is the trend in corporate world, you are expected to contribute to discussions and help solve issues, but people don’t know exactly what to do. They need to understand that it’s not about the technology, it’s about getting the work done, faster and better.

The days of holding back information to maintain the status quo or working in silos are coming to an end, especially at organisations that will succeed in the 4.0 industrial revolution.

The big risk is we become great sharers, but with low adoption of best practices and no collaboration to solve problems together. Leadership plays the key role in getting the right behaviour, proposing challenges, asking questions and recognising new ways of working.

 

Introducing Facebook Workplace

As a new tool, Workplace is still evolving and learning to service the corporate world. A concern that I constantly heard from some users is about the noise it created, especially in the early deployment days.

Any new tool or process can lead to more communication and ‘noise’ in the first instance, and that can be overwhelming. Often users need guidance on aspects of any tool such as notifications and preference settings.

In this instance, although training was not required, drop in sessions and clinics, tutorial videos, etc were more than welcome and received positive feedback.

Now, the algorithm from Workplace is changing and users will see only the topics and people they chose, not the company trending topic – this, for instance, is a practical and welcome addition.

Another feature coming soon is for content administrators, giving more control and options to highlight relevant content to targeted audiences, which should help us communicators.

 

Personal v corporate profiles

When comparing social and enterprise networks, identity is the main difference to consider.

While some people hide behind anonymity in social networks and sometimes develop a completely different persona, there is no such a thing in the corporate environment. People know who you are in your company and expect to see the same person in the meeting room or on a digital platform.

You can still choose if, and how, you give your opinion on company issues or share your thoughts. You can express yourself with emojis and GIFs, you can ask for recommendations. Common sense tells you shouldn’t write or post on the digital workplace if you wouldn’t feel comfortable to do it face to face, so no changes to the old net-etiquette.

The big opportunity that corporate social networks create is for you to lead the way and inspire others, no matter where you sit in the organisation. Now it’s just up to the individuals to accept the challenge.

 

By Claudia Damato

IABC UK&I Blog, Innovation in Communications, Internal Communications, Intranets, Digital & Social Media communications, corporate communications, corporate culture, Facebook, social media Leave a comment

Recognition & Reward: The impact of Winning a Gold Quill Award

November 13, 2015November 28, 2015IABC UK Staff Writer

Anglo American Blog

 

What kind of impact does a Gold Quill win have? And how can you get closer to a win? We spoke to Ian Donabie, a 2014 Gold Quill winner and communications specialist for Anglo American to understand how this prestigious industry award has benefited him and his organisation. Ian developed a series of award-winning internal videos focused on Mark Cutifani, who took over as CEO at the company in 2013.

 

IABC UK: What did it feel like when you found out you had won?

Ian: I was very pleased that the project got this level of recognition. The video project that we won the Gold Quill for was very well received by the business but this award felt like validation for the amount of effort that had been put in to developing and executing it.

We created four ‘video diaries’ filmed in Chile, Australia, Brazil and South Africa, each one highlighting a different strategic aspect of our business, (e.g. our people, operational improvement, stakeholder relationships) and providing the view on each of our CEO, Mark Cutifani. They were used internally to introduce Mark to the business and provide a sense of his leadership style and approach [see all AngloAmerican videos here].

IABC UK: What made your submission so special?
Ian:
It was risky project to undertake. Mark’s visits to the business units were critical to further his understanding of the business and the work that needed to be done.

We couldn’t be seen to be distracting him from the sensitive work at hand and we couldn’t put the video project at the forefront. However, we were granted access to many of his interactions with both internal and external stakeholders which gave a fantastic insight into Mark as leader and also the atmosphere and feeling on the ground with employees.

The four films also proved to be a great demonstration of our leadership living our values and our brand in action.

IABC UK: What impact has the award had on your business?
Ian:
In our business we put a great deal of emphasis on visible felt leadership (“vfl”) – demonstrating strong leadership behaviours, setting the right tone and leading from the front. This project proved to be the epitome of this approach.

It sent out a clear message about Mark’s leadership style and what he expected from the business, the leadership team and all employees.

For many employees it was the first time they had seen or ‘engaged’ with the new CEO and so these video diaries had a significant impact on how they viewed him. It also set a precedent for how Mark Cutifani would treat communication. He clearly saw its value and was more than capable of effectively using the channels available to him.

As a communication team it opened up many opportunities, not only to present Mark in an impactful way but also the wider leadership team.

IABC UK: Why are awards such as these important to those working within comms?

While it is nice to get the recognition from such awards, they also provide the opportunity to properly review a project – something we as communicators are not always great at.

Ian: We will often finish a project and move straight into the next one, not always having the chance to take the learnings on board. Awards such as these help us take stock of what was done, what was successful and what could be improved on. They are useful as a benchmarking exercise and getting an idea of best practice. We can always learn from what others are doing.

Final Gold Quill submissions are due on 13 January 2016. Information on how to enter, fees and deadlines, and previous winners is available on IABC.

Imagine what being awarded an IABC Gold Quill could do for you?

Begin your journey, be innovative, get creative and enter the 2016 IABC Gold Quill Awards.

We look forward to you and your team entering this programme, and hopefully we can join together in celebrating a UK winner!

The Gold Quill Awards is an awards programme staged yearly by the International Association of Business Communicators. Recognising and awarding excellence in strategic communication worldwide, the Gold Quill is the only awards programme that honours the dedication, innovation and passion of communicators on a global scale. 

Ian Donabie is a communications specialist with 15 years’ experience across numerous media and industries, currently working in Marketing Communications for Anglo American. He was a Gold Quill winner in 2014.

Employee Engagement, IABC UK&I Blog, Internal Communications, Intranets, Digital & Social Media, News Leave a comment

Digital signage is catching on

August 8, 2015August 8, 2015Shel Holtz

digital-sign750x500

 

I delivered a keynote talk at a conference in Las Vegas recently. The conference was focused on digital employee communications, and was connected to a much larger event, the Digital Signage Expo (DSE). After the internal communication conference wrapped up, I spent some time walking the Expo floor.

Wandering among the booths from big companies I’ve heard of and small ones that were new to me, I was reminded of just how prevalent digital signage has become and how little it gets mentioned in summaries of digital communication platforms. The menu at the Popeyes Chicken near me is digital. The images move, attracting the eye, while making changes (new menu items and pricing changes, for instance) can be done once and distributed across the network. No need to print and ship hundreds or thousands of new menus.

Digital signage is catching on in malls. Digital billboards greet drivers approaching the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge.

Digital signage isn’t new. I remember visiting the offices of Southern California Gas Company in the early 1990s, where communication staff produced the content for signs using PowerPoint. Employees could spend a minute or two catching up on important messages in common areas where the screens were located, or at their desks via their PCs. Today, it’s not unusual to attend a conference where digital signs stream tweets containing the conference hashtag. In fact, when I checked into my hotel in Las Vegas, the massive digital sign behind the front desk displayed a constantly updated waterfall of tweets from guests featuring hashtags the hotel had introduced, focusing on events at their property.

Advances in a number of technologies are making digital signage even more compelling. About five years ago, I saw a fascinating example of a billboard in The Netherlands, that was designed to address a growing problem: Thugs would attack ambulance drivers and paramedics while passersby stood and watched, taking no action.

The billboard told just such a story, and with a camera pointed from the billboard to the street, it put those looking at the video into the scene. They were the ones standing around doing nothing. After the action ended, the billboard implored citizens to call for help should they ever encounter the situation in real life.

In another example, a video presented at the Expo showed how far the marriage of location-based marketing and digital signage has come. Women’s Aid—a campaign to end domestic violence—is conveying the message that “If you can see it, you can change it.”

The group’s billboard features the face of a battered woman. It’s not a static image; she blinks. Nothing else about the billboard changes as long as nobody looks at it. A camera notices when one person looks at the sign, which causes the bruises to start healing. The more people who notice, the faster the woman’s face returns to normal. A filmstrip at the bottom of the sign features those who are looking at it, which in turn encourages more people to stop and look.
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IABC UK&I Blog, Intranets, Digital & Social Media digital, digital signage, digital trends Leave a comment

Digital change is cultural change

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015Gerry McGovern

768x350_data

Digital speeds things up and allows for great flexibility and adaptability. It also facilitates greater transparency and openness.

As openness and transparency increase, an increasingly educated population realizes that it has long been manipulated by institutions and brands. Throughout the modern world there is a justifiable collapse in trust. If this collapse continues there will be serious consequences for societies and economies.

The biggest problem facing Greece, for example, is lack of trust. As a result, it will be difficult to achieve an agreement because both parties simply don’t trust each other. In the UK, there is a large amount of distrust of the European Union. As a result, a referendum is being held to determine whether the UK should remain in the EU. Trust is the issue of our age.

These days, we trust what we find easy to use. We trust in use. Digital transformation is about creating a culture that is focused on how customers use things.

“Government gets transformed by delivering stuff. Show me the thing. The strategy is delivery,” states Mike Bracken, Executive Director of Digital in the UK Cabinet Office. The customer says: “Show me. Let me do. Don’t tell me.”

Digital allows you to do much more quickly. Instead of developing a plan, you develop the thing, the beta. You must show how it works. Digital is fast. Digital is do.

Producing lots of digital content is not digital transformation. It is often the opposite. Digital is not a PDF. Digital is not content migration. Digital is not taking print, analog stuff and digitizing it. Digital is not about flooding the world with content. Thiery Breton, Chairman and CEO of Atos, one of the leading IT firms worldwide, with 75,000 employees, has talked about how email had become a scourge at his company. His staff were spending an average of 16 hours a week sending internal emails. Only 15% of these emails were useful. He put in place procedures that saw an 80% reduction in these emails.

Digital change is cultural change. If you give digital tools to an organization with an old mind you get lots of PDFs, lots of emails, lots of other useless content, lots of pictures of actors pretending to be customers and lots of news propaganda from senior management that nobody wants to hear about.

“Big Data will be among the most important stories of the next 25 years,” Thiery Breton stated. Big data is customer data. Because of digital we have never had more information on our customers. How to use this data wisely and effectively will be one of the great challenges of the Digital Age. A Pew study published in 2014, found that “A full 91 per cent of respondents felt that consumers have lost control over how personal information is collected and used by companies.”

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IABC UK&I Blog, Intranets, Digital & Social Media culture, digital Leave a comment

How to run a webjam

July 2, 2015July 3, 2015Gerard Richardson

768x350socialchat

Running a webjam for your organisation can be a game changer. They can literally be the catalyst to your social network’s success. In this post we’ll deep dive into what you need to do to make them successful. We’ll focus on internal (aka inside the organisation) webjams as opposed to external ones. Strap yourself in, this one goes deep…

First off, what is a webjam? Webjams are virtual ‘gatherings’ and to a large extent are platform agnostic. I have predominantly used Yammer to run mine, but there’s no reason why IBM Connections, Saleforce Chatter, Jive or any other enterprise social network won’t cut it. Webjams can be a refreshing alternative to the tried and testing (and often ineffective) teleconference or group phone call.

This is principally because webjams are active formats as opposed to passive –  webjams encourage you to participate by interacting, not purely listening. We all learn differently. Many of us find it hard to concentrate if one has to purely listen (me included). The webjam is a more exploratory way of learning.

So you’ve decided you want to try a webjam. Great. Your initial hurdle is going to be explaining what one is to your colleagues. Habit sticks, especially in the corporate world, and people are often perfectly happy with the existing way of things. Well, at least you may think they are.

In my experience many leaders are frustrated with how they reach out and communicate to their teams. So often the best way to get a leaders buy-in is to come out and say it: teleconference calls don’t work. Mention the awkward ‘any questions?’ silence at the end of them. Ask them if they wish their teams were more willing to voice their thoughts, opinions, objections. Most will say yes. Position a webjam as a way to bridge the communication gap.

Remember webjams are not necessarily a substitution for teleconference or any other meeting for that matter (although they can be). They are complimentary.

So we know what a webjam is. We’ve pitched it to management. They are interested. What next?

Ok, two things:

1. Purpose – what is your webjam about? If you aren’t clear no-one else will be either. The more concise the better. What is it about? What are people’s expectations? What learning outcomes do you have in mind?

Some ideas for purpose:

  • Senior leader webjam. Position webjam as ‘an hour with X to answer your questions around Y’  where a given topic could be a new strategy, vision, anything they please. Serves as a powerful message that leadership is open and transparent, and leaders genuinely enjoy the interaction.
  • Round table discussion webjam. Less hierarchical than the above, can still include senior leaders but the engagement is around a particular topic. The moderator manages posing the questions and timekeeping.
  • Live event webjam. That town hall event, the next results cascade, next month’s conference – all these can be opened up for anyone outside the event by throwing a yamjam during and after the event itself.

2. Process – these are the practicalities. who manages it? how do people know it’s even on? how should they behave once they join (the rules of engagement)?

webjams are like parties
Webjams are like parties – you are the host

Think of it like you’re organising a party. You’ll need to send invites, book a venue, work through the details so the ‘guests’ can enjoy themselves. That’s your job as webjam organizer, and the better job you make of this the better the outcome. Lets break it down for pre, during and after the webjam…

Before the webjam :

Announce the webjam with as much notice as possible (ideally 2 weeks prior to session) communicate the webjam on your social network (and any other channel for that matter, newsletters, posters, etc) and ask people to ‘like’ it – telling them you’ll send a calendar invite if they do.

Below is the calendar invite I sent to all interested parties (I got around 30 likes from the post). I sent this as a calendar invite, not just an email. This is vital if you want people to remember to join. Make the invite informal, informative, tell them what a webjam is (stress its an online discussion, no phones), include webjam URL in ‘location’ field in the invite. Encourage people to forward on to other interested parties – word of mouth can be really effective here.

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IABC UK&I Blog, Innovation in Communications, Internal Communications, Intranets, Digital & Social Media internal comm, social chat, webjam 7 Comments

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