Presented to Knowledge Workers Toronto on June 20, 2012. This was a facilitated session. Video of this session available on uStream: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/23449964 (it starts at the 6:40 minute mark). Earlier this year our Knowledge Workers: Technology group explored social media/social intranet layer offerings for the enterprise including Speechbobble, Working Rooms and Pintegrate. However, what is the business value of these tools? Why would an organization put money, time and effort into implementing social? External drivers for use of social media are familiar to us: public relations, marketing and recruitment. But what are the internal drivers? And how does this relate to Knowledge?

1. Making the Case for
Social Media Inside the
Organization
by Connie Crosby
@conniecrosby
Crosby Group Consulting
Knowledge Workers Toronto
#kwTO
June 20, 2012

2. Where is Enterprise 2.0
today?

3. • 2 years ago we were primarily talking about adding
in tools/applications such as blogs, wikis, and
Twitter-like microblogs such as Yammer to the
intranet.
• Today we are seeing a race to create/implement
full-on social layers to the intranet or social
intranet platforms e.g. Jive,
Speechbobble,ThoughtFarmer and others.
• Yammer is now a full-blown social platform and
there are rumours of Microsoft planning to
purchase it to fill the gap in their offerings.
• The Enterprise 2.0 conference is taking place in
Boston as we speak. Follow #e20 on Twitter.

4. What are the
challenges in making
the business case for
social?

5. Challenges (1)
• history of being an entertainment
tool
• keeping people engaged
• privacy issues
• investment in people needed, too
(e.g. training, support)
• cost to implement higher than
expected
• unmoderated; loss of control
• general business case issues, eg.
ROI, addressing risks, business use
“Why”

6. Challenges (2)
• reputational issues - for both
individuals and the organizational
culture
• “just don’t get it”
• who is going to pay for it?
• “free” tools are not free
• engagement/creation of content -
does the 1:9:90 rule apply? (i.e. 1%
create content, 9% comment, 90%
only read)
• information overload
• is the business case based on the
reality of the organisational
culture?

7. BARRIERS
Distrust Fear
Ambivalence
Insecurity
Paranoia
Skepticism

8. Will social create a sharing culture?

9. 5 Myths of Collaboration
1. The right tools will make us collaborative.
2. Collaboration is inherently a good thing.
3. Collaborating takes extra time.
4. People naturally will/will not collaborate.
5. People instinctively know how to
collaborate.
Gartner - Press release June 3, 2011
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?
id=1711814

10. Some invalid assumptions
• The purpose of collaboration is obvious
• Bigger is better
• Build it and they will come
• The real value in collaboration is connecting
people to content
Source: Sara Roberts, Roberts Golden Consulting, Inc.
& Margaret Schweer, Tammy Ericson & Associates
at Enterprise 2.0 2012 - notes by V. Mary Abraham
http://aboveandbeyondkm.com/2012/06/building-intelligent-organizations-e2conf.html

11. Here’s what T-systems says:
• Sharing knowledge is always voluntary. No
one can ever be forced.
• We share knowledge when we have the right
audience, that motivates us and creates the
right context.
• Social software alone is not the solution to
the old problems of knowledge management.
Source: T-systems Multimedia Systems
http://www.slideshare.net/TSystemsMMS/enterprise-20-knowledge-management-people-at-the-center

12. Building
the
business
case

13. Marketing /
Communications
• Communicating from the top down
• Getting staff on board
• Keeping a wide-spread team (such as sales)
on message

14. Human Resources
• Recruiting
• Employee on-boarding
• Training
• Employee work satisfaction
• Retention

15. Library / Research
• Current awareness
• Aggregation of resources - internal &
external
• Shared work / research space

16. Professional Development
• connecting with colleagues, mentors,
experts
• attending seminars at different times, in
different locations (webinars)
• learning on demand
• finding support from peers

17. Knowledge Management
• encourages culture of sharing / collaboration
• retaining content / knowledge (outside of
email)
• making tacit knowledge explicit
• sharing knowledge for succession purposes

18. Enterprise-wide
• space in which to develop policy
• record and maintain quickly changing
procedures
• engage everyone
• and: how can you “do more with less”??

19. And more:
• crisis/emergency communications
(internal & external)
• customer service -
co-ordinating issue resolution
• communicating & recognizing staff
success stories
• crowd sourcing (if big enough staff
• research - mining content for major
topics/themes of interest; providing
real-time info on these themes
• library - social layer in the catalogue
providing reviews, tagging, ratings,
recommendations

20. T-systems says:
• It is no longer about storing knowledge...
• but about knowledge just in time
• this happens in formal networks
• ...and even more in informal networks

21. Social tools
• Crossing boundaries between employees
• Crossing boundaries between organizations
• Crossing boundaries between organizations
and their clients or stakeholders
• Crossing boundaries among clients and
stakeholders to create communities

22. Social media is people!
•Connect
• Communicate
• Share
• Collaborate
• Learn

23. http://www.socialsignal.com/cartoon
used under Creative Commons

25. “Idle chatter” is how:
• staff learn to use the tools
• tacit knowledge is transferred
• teams are reinforced
• staff are engaged

26. Recommended Reading
The Social Organization
by Anthony J. Bradley &
Mark P. McDonald
Harvard Business Review Press, 2011
www.gartner.com/thesocialorganization

27. Recommended Reading
Open Leadership
by Charlene Li
Jossey-Bass, 2010
www.charleneli.com/openleadership

28. Recommended Reading
Leading Across Boundaries
by Russ Linden
Jossey-Bass, 2010
http://www.russlinden.com/html/
books_videos.htm

29. Recommended Reading
Business Cases for Info Pros
by Ulla de Stricker
Information Today, Inc., 2008
http://www.destricker.com/en/books.html

30. Effective Blogging for Libraries
by Connie Crosby
The Tech Set series,
Neal-Schuman Publishing
http://www.neal-schuman.com/ebl

31. Thank you!
Connie Crosby
Crosby Group Consulting
http://crosbygroup.ca
connie@crosbygroup.ca
@conniecrosby
@crosbygroup
416-919-6719
31

32. Image Credits
• “Podcamp Montreal 2008 71” (Jay Moonah) by Eva Blue - Flickr - used under Creative
Commons - http://www.flickr.com/photos/evablue/2875304911/
• successful business woman on laptop by Search Engine People - Flickr - used under
Creative Commons - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sepblog/3941048713/
• “A lot of networking going on..” by Jacob Bøtter - Flickr - used under Creative Commons -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakecaptive/15792280/