Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is the social enterprise. Melanie Wheeler (@tweetwheeler) pointed out at the beginning of this year’s Social Media in the Large Enterprise conference: business has been social for a long time, it just hasn’t been as visible as it is now.
Social necessarily means human, and this resonates with the need of understanding human behaviour when it comes to finding digital solutions for any organization. At SMiLE discussions were tinted by the tension between, on the one hand, building on the past and, on the other, using new technology to help organizations succeed. I felt lucky to join the select group of practitioners along with my IABC colleagues to discuss all things social. If you want to know how the day went, just take a look at #SMiLELondon on Storify .
If you weren’t there and if like me, your day job goes beyond digital communications, you might be interested in three ideas that I think apply to all communications work:
1. Culture still eats strategy and platforms for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everyday.
The case studies presented, from industries as varied as construction, professional services and soft drinks, highlighted that we need to understand the culture of a company to make any communications solutions add value. Culture understood through people’s behaviour. So if you want to influence your company start with people.
As Marie Wallace from IBM demonstrated, when you base analytics on behaviour, the business case for your work becomes easy and you can make changes that matter. Which takes me to the second point:
2. Information is not only power, it’s key to survival.
Today very few colleagues have the luxury of driving change through intuition or support from leadership alone. You need data to really know if and when you are making an impact. It goes beyond demonstrating return on investment and we can’t rely on hits, clicks or views anymore.
Understanding your employees digital footprint can help you identify influencers and information brokers; knowing what motivates employees to join, engage or leave your company; and being able to know how your messages are coming across. Hard data is one tool. However, looking at a company as an organism -which implies using qualitative and quantitative methodologies-, mapping it and using that knowledge to drive success will set you apart.
3. Learn to love the “AND world”
We, as communicators, have to be comfortable with uncertainty, failure and ambiguity. We have be able to connect up, down and sideways. At SMiLE digital leaders embraced pushing AND pulling information, giving employees choices AND forcing them to use enterprise tools; giving leadership AND front-office employees power. It’s all about creating the right recipe for your company, making sure all the critical ingredients are in place. Easier said than done, I know.
These three ideas inspired me. Now what? Maybe it’s time to take the conversation to the next level. If you would like to join us, here are three IABC resources I think can help:
1. Benchmark your work against your peers. Globally. Gold Quills is a perfect way to do it AND get external recognition you can leverage to gain internal support.
2.Engage. Global members and the members of the IABC UK board, in particular, are keen to help you in this journey. Experts in all things communications, from culture to measurement, from innovation and storytelling, from social to getting buying from the C-Suite, are an email away.
3. Discuss. Spend a day or two putting your ideas to the test. EuroComm Conference in April and the IABC World Conference in June are two places to start.
Article written by Casilda Malagon, IABC UK President-Elect.
LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/casildamalagon
Twitter: @casilda1
