 At the CiB Conference in Brighton, Ross Chestney, head of communication services at BT looked at how social media is changing the workplace.
He kicked off by asking how many in the audience wrote a blog and how many people “Twittered”. The response showed that few people did (if you don’t know what Twitter is please visit the Twitter website), Steve Nichols reports.
Ross asked the question: “Is social media the next big thing or just a passing fad?” His view is that the technology is here to stay and will have a fundamental impact on our industry.
“We are at the stage,” said Ross, ”where we are in denial over social media, hoping it won’t affect us.
“What is happening now is that ordinary people are having conversations about us – about our products, our businesses and our services. We might not like what they say, but the fact is they are saying it. We need to be listening to what they are saying and how it influences our business.
“We need to join that conversation and create content and voices that add to that.”
Ross said that social media has removed the barrier to entry, making it very easy for people to publish their thoughts. “It has democratised publishing,” he said.
“Writing a blog is incredibly easy, which is what has powered their growth.”
Traditional
BT has been working on how it can introduce social media into its communications. As well as traditional channels, BT now has what it calls “crowd source” content like wikis. It also has personalised content like blogs.
“What you have to ensure is that your formal communications sit well alongside all the other communications tools in use,” Ross said. “We no longer control the radio tower in our organisation.”
He said that an example of centralised content might be HR policies, such as the use of the internet in the workplace. This might only be edited by HR.
But you might want to start a blog to encourage discussion about future policy or start a wiki for people to start writing it themselves.
Ross said: “The important thing is not the tools that people use to publish, but what they get out of it. The real value is the knowledge sharing and collaboration that people gain.
“I firmly believe that all our technologies can co-exist – that our formal intranet communications can sit nicely alongside the social media,” he said.
He added that rule number one is to set some behavioural guidelines as to what is and is not acceptable. BT’s number one rule is that you can say what you like, as long as it is not anonymous.
“Don’t tell people how to use it either,” Ross said. “Let people work it out for themselves. And don’t try and make a business case – the technology is cheap enough that you can just try it and see what happens.”
Realistic
You also have to be realistic as businesses are not democracies, but built on a military model of command and control, so clashes can occur.
Ross says that social media will have a fundamental impact on internal communications. In fact, will we actually be needed any more?
“How long will it be before a generation ‘Y’ person works into the office, gets to the top and says ‘why do we need internal communications’? These are people who have grown up with mobile phones, texting and the internet. They can condense a story into 150 words and are natural communicators,” Ross says.
“We will no longer be writing communications for other people – that won’t wash any more. People will have to write their own communications in the future – authenticity will be key.
In summary, Ross said:
- Listen to social media conversations and what is being said about us, our brand, our products and our competitors
- Learn and understand who influences our brand, what channels they use and how to join in their conversations.
- Create content and voices that will add value to the conversations and enhance our reputation with these audiences
- Recognise that social media is changing the nature of communications in business.
Steve Nichols is a technology journalist and the CiB webmaster. You can find out more at http://www.infotechcomms.co.uk |
