Intranet
2.0 tools have become mainstream technologies and are transforming
employee communications, collaboration and organizational work and
knowledge management. According to the Intranet 2.0 Global Study
findings (more than 400 respondent organizations from across the globe), nearly
50% of the respondents have deployed some social media or intranet
2.0 tool. Among the adoption findings:
46%
of organizations have deployed wikis (16% with enterprise
deployments)
42%
have deployed blogs (12% with enterprise deployments)
48%
use discussion forums (29% with enterprise deployments)
For
those old-school organizations that are on the outside looking in at
intranet 2.0, the biggest barrier is executive support. In other
words, another 40 – 50% of organizations have managers or senior
managers that want to roll out social media on the intranet, but the
executive suite is handcuffing their good intentions. 34% of
respondents state that the biggest barrier to intranet 2.0 is
executive support. Many executives are concerned, scared, or plain
apathetic to those Web 2.0 technologies they've seen on the Internet,
and cannot mentally bridge the gap to employees via the intranet.
Related
to the lack of executive support is the lack of a business case,
cited by 32% of respondents that don't have intranet 2.0 tools in use.
To this end, executives need to be sold on the value of intranet 2.0
and want to see the business case. Intranet managers are having a
difficult time making the business case and even understanding the
inherent or nascent value of social media for employees.
The
barrier to implementation and success however is blocking
understanding at all levels of the organization: “Lack of
understanding by both management and staff,” says one survey
respondent. Another cites cultural barriers and the “lack of an
open culture.”
Full
results of the Intranet 2.0 Global Study will be released in the New
Year, accompanied by recommendations on how to overcome these
barriers and implement these new technologies with success.
About
the Intranet 2.0 Global Study: More than 400 resondent organizations from
across the globe, represented by all continents, with 35% from the
United States, 22% from Europe, 13% from Canada, 12% from Australia /
New Zealand, 11% from the United Kingdom. 60% of the respondent
companies have more than 1,000 employees; 23% have 10,000 employees
or more; 15% have less than 100 employees.
FULL RESULTS:
The
Intranet 2.0 Global Survey will remain open
for the holidays. For those that would like the full results in the
New Year, you will have to take the 10-minute survey. Take
the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey (there's a $400 prize for one
lucky participant)
JOIN
THE 2.0 REVOLUTION:
Join
the Intranet Global Forum community on Facebook
1. Avoid carrot sticks.
Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of
the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave
immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.
2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like
fine single-malt scotch, it's rare. In fact, it's even rarer
than single- malt scotch. You can't find it any other time of
year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000
calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into
an eggnog-alcoholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one
for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!
3.
If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of
gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of
your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.
4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made
with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother?
It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.
5.
Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control
your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat
other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?
6.
Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New
Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do.
This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the
buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of
eggnog.
7. If you come across something really good at a
buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of
Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as
you can before becoming the centre of attention. They're like a
beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going
to see them again.
8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin.
Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or, if you don't like mincemeat,
have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else
do you get to have more than one dessert? Labour Day?
9.
Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the
mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean,
have some standards.
10. One final tip: If you don't feel
terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you
haven't been paying attention. Reread tips; start over, but hurry,
January is just around the corner.
Remember this motto to
live by:
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave
with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well
preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one
hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out
and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
Why reinvent the wheel when you can steal from others? The trouble with intranets is that its difficult to steal what you cannot see.... enter the intranet conference. The learnings and examples from case studies from a single conference can help transform your intranet into the system your oraganization deserves.
One of the best intranet conferences of the year is in Copenhagen in March: IntraTeam on March 3-5, 2009. The line-up is star-studded with lots of big-wig expert speakers and case study presentations. Among the many highlights attendees will hear about:
Global intranet trends
How eBay uses their intranet to connect people
Enterprise search in Danske Bank
Topics of your interest in Open Space discussions
The merits of the intranet versus face-to-face communications
You will gain insight into many intranets:
BT (British Telecom)
eBay
Microsoft
Danske Bank
British Airways among the 10 best intranets in 2008 and Intranet Innovation Gold Award winner 2008
American Electric Power (among the 10 best intranets in 2007)
International experts:
Howard McQueen, McQueen Consulting
James Robertson, Step Two Designs
Jane McConnell, NetJMC
Martin White, Intranet Focus
Steve Crescenzo, Crescenzo Communications
Toby Ward, Prescient Digital Media
I'll be doing a keynote debate with my buddy Jack Goodman from Thomson Reuters on “The merits of the intranet versus face-to-face communications.” Not only are we going to have a rousing debate, but we're going to have some fun with this...
If you're going to attend any intranet conference this year in Europe hen this is the one. Readers of IntranetBlog.com also get a discount of 15%. Just use price code: "Prescient15" when you reserve on the IntraTeam website. Actually, that's on top of an early bird discount before January 10.
BT,
once known as British Telecom, has 160,000 intranet users in 170
countries. A key driver in its technology strategy is an overarching
corporate goal to be “recognized for innovation and great
service...” This innovation has many forms including a combination of
technologies that help "pull together" a wide-ranging and disparately
located population (at any one time, up to 25% of the population is "in the air."). A cornerstone of these technologies is the BT intranet, a mission critical business and communications system.
The
BT intranet has been in operation since the 1990s and has enjoyed a
modicum of success. However, the rise of social media at a time it
strives for innovation in a sluggish, if not desperate economic
climate has forced the English-stalwart to embrace intranet 2.0.
However, the innovative embrace wasn't delivered without executive
resistance.
BT's employee podcast center on the intranet, Podcast Central
Rewind
the fibre optic 2-plus years ago and all but a handful at BT had any
understanding, let alone acceptance, of social media. More than a few
eyebrows were raised when it came to management's attention that
12,000 employees had joined a dedicated Facebook community for BT
employees. While unaware here-to-date of the back-current of
conversation flowing through the popular social media site,
executives were forced to take heed: BT employees were using publicly
available social media to discuss business related issues without the
company's full knowledge or participation.
Now
the Senior manager of Social Media at BT, Richard
Dennison was quick to realize the adoption of social media by
employees and the potential impact on the company. While the first
Intranet 2.0 tool introduced to BT was a wiki on server under
someone's desk (as was the case at Cisco and many others), Richard
was an early champion that helped 'sell' the social media cause
despite an over-abundance of caution and skepticism from management.
"Many
believe that trying to stop social media tools seeping onto intranets
is a futile activity anyway, so it is better to introduce them on
your terms in a managed way,” says Richard1.
“If you don’t think about what value you can deliver in an
enterprise 2.0 environment, you are going to become irrelevant!!!”
What
followed management's acceptance and adoption of social media can
safely be called 'stunning' with little risk of exaggeration:
Wikis
have grown at exponential rates to more than 750,000 wiki pages (the
vast majority of which are dedicated to business issues, adds
Richard)
Thousands
of employees are blogging
Countless
executives and managers are podcasting & webcasting (even
vlogging)
Thousands
are connecting on the intranet social networking site, MyBT
500,000
Team Sites have sprung-up using Microsoft SharePoint and Confluence
(a service dubbed BT Collaborate)
BT
is quiet about the expense of these tools but Dennison says that most
of the social media tools were built on the cheap internally using
open-source or existing software (SharePoint and Confluence are
exceptions). Of course the business case to move to social media was
built on one of need, rather than ROI, and the value is self-evident.
“Using technology to break down traditional boundaries encourages a
culture that reaches out rather than locks out, and that is something
that the Digital Generation is ideally equipped to do,” adds
Richard2,
who told me himself on a recent trip to jboye08 in Denmark that ROI
is “overrated."Despite
the success, many naysayers openly muse about the deleterious affects
of social media on employee productivity. What if, for example, an
employee spends hours on Facebook? My response to this valid concern
is my typical response: “What if they spend hours chatting on the
phone? Or spend their break time snorting elicit drugs in the
bathroom?”
While
care and planning should not be thrown to the wind, employees should
be judged on results and not the clock. Results aside, Dennison is
quick to quip, “If we can't trust them then we have to ask
ourselves why we are employing them.2” Touché!
For
those with the temerity to pick-up the intranet 2.0 torch and to run
the extra mile required to adopt social media, Richard offers a
number of lessons that should be ignored at your peril1:
Focus
on value not risk!
Start
anywhere … start immediately
Start
small and build slowly – follow the energy of yes through the
network
We
learn what works by doing the work … so …
…let
users try as early as possible – ‘warts and all’ – succeed
or fail quickly … and cheaply!
Engage
legal/HR/security early… and emphasise evolution not revolution
Have
realistic expectations … the intranet is not the internet!
Harness
the enthusiasm of the enthusiastic … especially if senior
Sometimes
… ‘the only form of transportation is a leap of faith’!
At
the risk of imitating a broken record... there are many thousands of
you who still haven't taken the Intranet
2.0 Global Survey.
Come on now–it only takes 10 minutes! This is the way it works: I
give you free advice and case studies, you take the survey... !! PLUS
– YOU WILL NOT GET THE FULL RESULTS IF YOU DON'T TAKE THE SURVEY.
The study closes during the holiday, so hop to it!
By
now you're well versed with the concept of social media and its
power. So powerful in fact are some forms, such as social networking
on Facebook, that some employees are demanding newer forms of 'social
media' communications from the corporation.
"Communicating
is a tough gig," says Prescient Digital Media's Catherine
Elder. "Once you've nailed down to what you want to say you
need to consider how you're going to say it. "Different
generations prefer different methods of communication, for
Millennials instant messaging and social networking sites are the
norm but Baby Boomers are less comfortable with text messaging and
traditionalist prefer face to face..."
Consider
for a moment the powerful Telindus study
of 1,000 European employees that should serve as a warning to
all employers and communicators:
39%
of 18 to 24 year-old employees would consider leaving itheir
employer if they were not allowed to access sites like Facebook and
YouTube
A
further 21% indicated that they would feel ‘annoyed’ by such a
ban
The
problem is less acute with 25 to 65 year-olds, of whom just 16%
would consider leaving and 13% would be annoyed
I've
yet to see a similar study in North America, but nearly every single
18-34 year-old in Canada is a registered Facebook user – nearly 10
million people! My estimated guess is that North American employees
will be more demanding of an organization's use of social media. In
fact, we're seeing it in most of the client organizations we're
presently working with at Prescient Digital Media.
The
Intranet
2.0 Global Survey of
social media tools and vehicles on the intranet reveals that about
90% of organizations (of all sizes) are using social media or are
planning to do so (320 respondent organizations from all across the
planet, with an average size of a couple of thousand employees, but
including organization of fewer than 100 employees and a few with
more than 50,000). Enterprise-wide use of these tools are typically
around 20% (though higher for wikis and instant messaging, lower for
podcasting and social networking). The chief barrier to implementing
these social media tools on the intranet is lack of executive support
and a lack of a business case.
For
the full results of this study, you have to take the survey (which is
open for two more weeks). If
you haven't already done so, please take 10 minutes to
take the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey
and
you’ll get a copy of the full results including the good, bad and
learned lessons. Please also direct clients and fellow colleagues.
The more participation we get, the better the results and findings
that I share all with you. It doesn't cost anything, and I'm not
charging anything.
PLEASE
TAKE THE SURVEY EVEN IF YOU DO
NOT HAVE
INTRANET 2.0 TOOLS -- WE REQUIRE BOTH PERSPECTIVES!!
Respondents
who complete the survey will be eligible to win $400 (a random email
address will be drawn from all responses to the survey). All
respondents will also receive a full copy of the results at no cost.
The
Motrin Moms crisis sparked by a controversial Motrin ad on their website has
provided some interesting lessons on how companies must learn to adapt. In
short, Motrin ran an ad that summarized said, “Take Motrin if you wear your
baby in a sling or carrier.”
(Disclaimer:
I don’t support the ad or Motrin’s position, nor am I opposed to it, I’m merely
commenting on the influence and power of social media. My wife is not offended
either and both of us have carried our daughters in slings).
A number
of mothers were highly offended and started a firestorm on Twitter
and on the blogosphere. The protest erupted and began to garner media coverage.
Motrin eventually pulled the ad – then they took down the entire website! In
summary, a bunch of very vocal mothers on Twitter and blogs forced Motrin to
its knees within 3 days. Motrin apologized:
So…it’s
been almost 4 days since I apologized here for our Motrin advertising. What an
unbelievable 4 days it’s been. Believe me when I say we’ve been taking our own
headache medicine here lately!
Btw - if
you’re confused by this - we removed our Motrin ad campaign from the
marketplace on Sunday because we realized through your feedback that we had
missed the mark and insulted many moms. We didn’t mean to…but we did. We've
been able to get most of the ads out of circulation, but those in magazines
will, unfortunately, be out there for a while.
We are
listening to you, and we know that's the best place to start as we move ahead.
More to come on that.
In the
end, we have been reminded of age-old lessons that are tried and true:
When
you make a mistake - own up to it, and say you’re sorry.
I
personally think that the whole case is overblown – which the Web can easily do
– but there was damage, and Motrin has had to face the music. Motrin apologized,
which is sufficient for me, but not enough for others.
You need a community about
your brand -- private or public -- so you can test how these things will
play. This is essential market research.
You need a Twitter account
and/or a blog to be able to respond quickly when these things happen. They
do happen. They could and will happen to you. (They have certainly
happened to me, and it's a good thing I had a place to respond.) Otherwise
you have no voice.
Viral has two sides. Never
forget that.
Immunize your marketing and
brand staff by educating them. Show them what happened here, and ask them,
"Does this scare you? Do you see the power of this stuff?" Then
invest $20 and buy them a copy of Groundswell
or Secrets of Social Media Marketing to
help them get a clue, and use this incident to get them started.
Design Your Website For Rapid
Response - If your site has to be taken down in order to respond to a
crisis, re-design it so that it can be updated quickly and easily without
having to throw your organization and agencies into a panic. Worry about
your response strategy, not the design of your site.
Think Like A Blogger,
Tweeter, Community & Citizen Journalist - Look at how quickly the
mommy community organized and produced an authentic video. It's because
they don't have legal guidelines holding them back. You probably do—but of
you can figure a way around them, you can fight authenticity with
authenticity, which looks less like a fight and more like a conversation
anyway.
Have A Google Strategy In
Place - Aside from perhaps smoothing things over with the offended, the
real incentive for any organization to engage in situations like this is
to influence the search results and digital trail so that your
organization presents well on them. The best way to do this is to have
people saying good things about you which means you have to give them
something good to say and can't force it. The end goal needs to be helping
people. The ROI will be a much more positive long tail.
My
advice: when marketing a product or service, its best to stay away from
religion, and babies. And really, why the hell don’t you have a Twitter account
yet?
Now does
anyone think the Dr. Pepper campaign regarding Guns N’ Roses and their new
album was a smart move? I think it was brilliant… up until their site crashed
and people couldn’t redeem their coupons…
