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: