Connecting ourselves

Not written much here for a while, the odd link and video but this has been because I’ve been on holiday and also busy with a series of projects and activities at work that are just taking more and more time.

"Miles of files" drpritch

But I’m not neglecting my blogging entirely, in fact I’ve been blogging more internally as that is where, right now I need to focus.

I get a bit bored and confused when companies and especially Internal Comms folk start saying that they are using social media for Internal Communications.  To me it sounds like they have got the CEO to “write” a blog or get some “safe” employees to write. That misses the point. Sometimes though it means they have a “Facebook-like” system, which if they are really lucky turns out to be employee profiles, often several versions, none of which can be connected to any other applications running in the enterprise, hence making them nothing more than a time-sink.

I would hope Internal Comms is help employees to use social media to work better with each other.. not just utilise it as another “channel” which is fast rising on my list of Top ten twenty thirty most hated words or phrases – along with stakeholder.

How many have email clients, profiles, blogs, forums and micro-blogging integrated into an enterprise-wide platform for social media and a policy that encourages and enables employees to get stuck in (even if we do still have a fair few lagards)?

Even then it’s not the end of the story. Tools and policy are one thing (two I suppose) but a culture that is open, honest and trusting is needed to take advantage of those opportunities, not to mention motivated and questioning employees, part of which is grown out of the trust  that is displayed in behaviour by management (no one is perfect but things are relative) that means people take their responsibility as brand ambassadors seriously.  Quick note on brand ambassadors, your employees are whether you like it or not, for good or bad.. just try to make it good, eh? Get ‘em to make videos like KFC not Dominoes.

So back to what I was orginaly waffling on about which was a number of projects that I have been involved in. Working with a variety of people with different expectations and practices can get a bit perplexing at times, especially when you are sent 6mb after 6mb file. I’m by no means anti-email like some but I can see better ways of using it rather than being the default for all chat at work.

So I’ve been encouraging some people to get it on with Files on Lotus Connections (we have 2.5 deployed internally). This is made much easier by showing them the time and effort it saves, using other projects as examples.

I’m lucky enough to work with a bunch of people that are mostly pretty good at using things the right way (that is my way) instead of one tool for all jobs. Explaining how a file we were updating on an employee engagement package was being updated and handled between a bunch of us – then showing how Files kept the previous versions (so you don’t have to – as the advert says) went down a treat. Not only that but we could assign each person with certain level of access, and keep changing that level when we jolly well felt like it.

I could then bore you with the amount of time, (sending emails) money (sending emails to people with large attachments that never open them but leave them in their mail file, just in case) and more money (those attachments keep building up with each wave of emails) and confusion (because you all know which file is the right file – the one in Files) you save, but I won’t.

Don’t knock at the door, I’m out

What I have noticed more and more these days is how much time I spend in Lotus Connections rather than my email and how while I was away for a few days recently my status updates came in useful for people. I now not only leave an “out of office” message in Notes but in all my status points. This firstly cut down on un-required email as more people knew I was away before they sent me the damn thing. Secondly the updates that I had been posting related to things that I was working on, intranet pages, files, video etc.. links where people could find what they were looking for.. this useless track of information I had left behind which also included how wet I got on the way to work while cycling actually came in useful for some of the very people that say they don’t have time for such things.

To quote someone more sensible than me, “With social media, forget about the media and concentrate on the social.”

I’m afraid if I get the energy I’ll more rants coming your way too.. must be something to do with the clocks going back or something or my recent discovery and move to Ubuntu Linux. So I might also change my name to Karmic Karl in future.

UK Government in shock Twitter update

Little while ago I added a list of 10 reason why PR, Marketing and Comms people should be on twitter and the the Government come up with a rather good template strategy document for depts to use twitter themselves.

Not only is it useful but it is quite realistic about the criticism that one may expect when a dept sets up an account. One of my favorite parts is where it mentions that from time to time Twitter may not work and essentially says live with it, everyone else does.

This document is full of useful tips on how to measure effectiveness and use of the service and indeed how to set expectations.  Just as valid as anything written by a “social media guru” on this stuff. The only surprise is that it came from the Government.

The people who put this together have no future in politics.

You can read more about it on the Cabinet Office blog and follow Neil Williams (head of digital channel, BIS) on Twitter @neillyneil.

Today at the smartercities forum, Berlin

Today was the first day at the SmarterCities forum in Berlin, being held in the Grand Hyatt hotel.

We are staying down the road at the Marriott, which is a good job as the walk between the two hotels is the only time we have seen daylight in the last two days.  We get a little in the room we are in between sessions but it’s not much. Coffee and water on tap makes up for it and keeps us going. Have to say the breakfast was great this morning, lots of fruit, juice, meat, fish and lovely bread.

Sam was late to kick off the event today because of a problem with the plane he was on but Martin Jetter took over and did a great job not just opening the event but also taking on Sam’s speech.

Oh and btw, if you want to follow what is going on we are covering it on twitter, #smartercity and on asmarterplanet.com.

One of the things that got me today was the feeling of pride coming from the Berliners that the event was being held there. I guess an easier option from a language point of view would have been London. But the reasons for holding it Berlin are all around. The building, innovation and growth.  I really like anywhere that has cycle lanes which are for cycles, not for people to wander around and knock you off your bike.

So back to the pride, we had Dr. Richard von Weizsaecker, former President, Germany and former Governing Mayor, Berlin, which to be honest started off a little like a history lesson, and a lesson one had heard many times.  However, it turned out to be one of the funniest, most interesting and engaging talks I have heard from a politician, former or current.

In the backroom, on the w3 / social media side of things we have an international crew, Me from UK, Rebecca Reyes from USA, Thorsten Zoerner from Germany and of course, Charlie Ung from Canada who is always at these events sorting out the video for us.

Day two is an early start, apparently we have to go to rehersal for the breakouts at 7am!

CoTweeting

Blogging has slipped lately. Due mainly from a huge influx of work in new areas and not a few new toys that I’ve been playing with like our latest pre-beta of Lotus Connections that is causing quite a stir with all it’s new features.

Tweet together

Externally I have also started using CoTweet to manage the ibmevents twitter id I set up almost two years ago (where does the time go?).  I have to say it is a great tool.

The assign (screenshot) feature that lets you put ownership next to each tweet you get is very useful and means that your team isn’t answering the same tweet twice – but as I’m the one usually using the id I now have a way to hand off questions I can’t answer.  As the number of people using the ibmevents id has increased these sorts of problems come up. 

Built in stats for links and a nice way to follow id’s across a variety of your own id’s makes life simple.

The aggregation of conversations between tweeters keeps you on the ball and makes referencing chats easier.

Sending updates at a set time in the future means you don’t need to be online all the time.  Great especially for when you want to announce something but you are stuck in a meeting or driving somewhere.

But the most useful feature for me has been the On Duty roster, where you can sign yourself in or out so that you know who is available – and in addition get email notifications of replies and dm’s.  It means you don’t miss anything.

The search part of the tool is probably the weakest link. Being on another page I find it not as user friendly and other sites like twazzup do possibly a better job.  But you can’t be all things to all people.

Will have  to give some more meaningful feedback to the CoTweet guys and gals when I get sometime.

In other news

Have you tried Seesmic Desktop for twitter? You should.  Like TweetDeck but with multiple accounts.  Already the latest version has got rid of some annoying bugs and the general idea is working so well I rarely, if ever use anything else.

Creating social capital in the recession

Not often I promote an event but this one I have an interest in, Somesso London 09, well feature my colleague Andy Piper (IBM) who will be talking about security and information privacy.

As well as Andy, my bet for 2008, socialmedian, will also be represented by it’s founder and now Chief Product Officer at Xing, Jason Goldberg.

The event will focus on how social capital and earnings can be made in the relationship economy during this time of particular hardship. This is something that has been recognised for a while in IBM but even here it is gaining more and more momentum even with nay-sayers.

Also on the agenda will be Stowe Boyd “Evolution of the responsive brand” and Lee Bryant (Headshift) “Communities, Market Insights.” Plus many more..

In all it looks for a very promising first London event for Arjen and the Somesso team. Congrats on getting such a fantastic line-up.

Follow somesso on twitter

Everything you wanted to know about twitter but couldn’t put in 140 characters

I’ve mentioned twitter a lot here recently, then again so has everyone. But here is one page you need to tag, The Ultimate Twitter Resource.

Although the title talks about attracting and influencing people, but when you get down to the actual content you will find much more than just a way to build up numbers. Being a good citizen, encouraging and inspiring others, giving something to the community.. hopefully it will make plenty of corporations and individuals rethink the way they are currently operating.

This is a superb resource, well structured and laid out. There are other “resources” which are nothing more than a list of twitter related articles.

Contents (on prevential.com)

• Chapter 1: Twitter for Newbies
• Chapter 2: How to Use Twitter Effectively
• Chapter 3: How to Increase Your Twitter Followers
• Chapter 4: Why Twitter Helps Bloggers (and How they Can Use It)
• Chapter 5: The Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Business
• Chapter 6: Here are the Best Twitter Marketing Resources… Period
• Chapter 7: Does Twitter Provide Any SEO Benefits?
• Chapter 8: Where Else Does Twitter Apply?
• Chapter 9: Twitter Case Studies: What are People and Companies Doing?
• Bonus Chapter: More Twitter Tips

IBM rocks Web2.0 expo

I’m proud to say that I was one of the nine BlueIQ Ambassadors mentioned (not by name) in this article Inverting the Pyramid at Interactive Knowhow.

It was a great buzz to be with such clever people and not to boast about IBM too much, work for a company that is far ahead of so many in actually putting web2.0, social software in to practice.

It was also very odd to be around IBMers that are twittering or blogging and doing it much better than I ever could.

The last two weeks in Denmark

The four of us came over to Denmark a couple of weeks ago now, as I have a very short assignment in Copenhagen for work.

Last week I was actually in Berlin, while the family stayed in Copenhagen, for the Web2.0 Expo as part of IBM’s internal social software enablement program. So after getting used to moving to one country I was off to another with the knowledge that I have also been asked to go to Turkey in three weeks.  For someone that only takes a month off once a year and goes to one country and stays with family it has been quite a lot to take in.

One of the things about going to Web2.0 Expo is that being with a group of people means you have to be “on” for just about all your waking hours, which makes me very tired.  I enjoy a nice bit of quiet time at home. That is not to say it wasn’t enjoyable, it was. I just which I had more stamina to deal with it – or even a couple of hours in the afternoon/evening to chill-out. Meeting all those people that until now had been a handle on Twitter or a 115×115 image on Bluepages was quite something. So great to be around people that are into the samethings as you – and you don’t need to explain what BlueTwit is everytime you open your mouth.

OK, back to Denmark and in the office for one day – then on the same day to another office to meet up with the Denmark HackDay6 peeps in Alleroed.  Turned out we had a great conversation about social media, communications and Denmark with people that I had only met through Twitter and IBM’s internal Facebook-like Beehive.

Denmark is lovely, quiet, chilled and laid back.  Everyone seems friendly, the bread and cakes are lovely.  Children are more than welcome everywhere – unlike London where unless you go to a Chinese restuarant, children are often looked at as a problem.

Only one thing I have to mention, the lifts in train stations.  OMG.  I have never smelt anything like it.  They double as public toilets which never get a clean.  Having a pushchair for our youngest means we have to use the lifts in the stations.  The trains however are fantasticly clean, fast, efficient and regular – I keep expecting to hit crowds, something like you get at Waterloo but it never happens.

As a cyclist it is also great to see proper facilities for them on all trains.  It seems that here at least the trains are organised around the people and nothing else, like shareholders.  They provide transport for everyone, rather than excuses.

Tomorrow back in the N91 office and get ready to organise some training for the local Comms team on social computing. We will also have a meeting with the local social media ambassadors to help drive some of the program at grassroots level. The time is going to go past too fast here.. may be I can stay for another 12 months?

What to do in this rain today though?

Why most brands fail at social network marketing

Here Jeremiah Owyang, talks about his report on good and bad social network marketing.

This couldn’t have arrived at a better time considering the number of conversations I’m having with Marketing now about Social Media.  Having worked in Marketing Communications a few years ago I guess I can see what it is like from both sides of the fence.

One of the reasons I moved out of marcomms because I wanted to do more of this stuff and Communications seemed the best place to do it.  As it turns out, I was right, but now being dragged back to marcomms.

My cv as a wordle (tag) cloud

Here is my cv as a wordle or tag cloud.

As seen on many many blogs, the popular wordle.net keeps on thundering along like an out of control tank.

So far this week I have shown wordle to a number of people and everyone has gone mad for it.

Why not do your own? It’s a great way to start a meeting instead of name badges have these! Instantly find people with similar taste. I think we may use this to get across the idea of tagging in an education session coming up on social media we are running for the communications team in the UK.