What about permission?

Note to reader: I left at 1pm as I had another engagement so I don’t know what happened in the second half. Do tell if you know.

At an event yesterday organised by The Alternative in deepest Soho I was annoyed to discover that the place had no wireless access and my 3G card didn’t work as we were in the basement. Avery nice basement but nonetheless reception was rubbish.

tribe - Projeto Salamandra

The event was entitled “The New Brand Tribalism” and not being able to pump up my pc to tweet and share with the world what was going on was incredibly annoying. My tribal behaviour towards this brand was no off to a good start.

Note to all event organisers, wireless is as much an essential these days as tea and coffee.

My initial thought before going to this event were that I wonder how much people like Seth Godin and a whole host of others would come up. Not once unless I fell asleep.  Seth has his critics and I’m no fan-boy but c’mon, give a word for those that came before.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I didn’t feel that there was anything “new” here. Lots of talk of being authentic but the also more on being controlling. To my mind that sounded like, try and look like you are authentic. Kind of the opposite of being authentic. I was expecting more about giving employees brand permission, about employees being involved in the decisions that matter to them, the stuff that makes me come to work.

There were some mentions of brand ambassadors but it felt like that some gimmick or other had to be run so as employees would then go and talk about it. Quick fixes fade quick too.

Actually one statement that stuck in my mind went something like, ” We can take the tribal behaviours and control and shape them for the business.” To me that sounds like they way you kill it.

Great chats though with a couple of gents, those were insightful conversations on what is really happening, success and failures, fear and desire.  Wish I also got to meet Joanne and Rach who also attended.

Left a bit, right a bit, up, up, just there..nice.

The other day I mentioned at the end of a rather long and tiresome bleat about social media and internal communications that one of IBM’s biggest assets in this area after our culture is the social computing guidelines.

what?

Now you can watch this video (link on the right of the page) that Global Social Media Comms Manager and Power Lunch botherer @adamclyde made about this very subject during his lunch break with our VP, Security Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer, Harriet Pearson (honestly don’t know if she is on Twitter).

If you are wondering what the music is, it’s an updated version of the IBM anthem, which we are all forced to sing and dance to when we get to the office.

Please note what we think differentiates IBM from our competitors, us, the IBMers, because that is how people experience the IBM brand.

And for that matter, your brand too.

Adam is available for birthday parties where tacos are served.

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.

Inside out

“You’re the most external, internal comms person I know”

That is what a senior colleague of mine said to me a couple of weeks ago. Well I had just been briefing the external comms teams in Europe on an event that we were hosting about how we were going to cover it on Twitter and blogging. I was then asked to do the same for our Latin American teams.

I have to say I felt like a bit of a fraud until I realised the starting point for some of the people when it comes to using things like twitter, but everyone has to start at the beginning. I hate the social media guru title that get’s put about. All I do is use tools such as blogging, twitter and the like in a way that I feel works for me and in all honesty I can only say that others do the same too. Don’t get me started on social media marketing.

So was I doing external comms or internal comms for this event? Well, we were talking to employees, so it must be internal comms.  But hang on, we were also talking with non-employees, so it must be external comms? What about the employees?

We are and have been talking to IBMers in such places as Twitter for ages but it’s certainly not internal comms – it’s people talking to people.  It’s engaging anyone that wants to be involved in a conversation about something. Why would you exclude employees or only talk to them in a public arena to the exclusion of everyone else? For the record, putting your tweets through a protected Twitter id will not keep your “internal comms” hidden for long. Strategic internal comms, will be internal.  You certainly wouldn’t put your HR updates on Twitter, would you?

So what is it then? It’s communications. It’s all communications.  Some things you can share with the world and others you just can’t.

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.

10 reasons why PR, Marketing and Comms people need to be on twitter

I’m not one for these lists usually – especially when it comes to twitter as there are so many – but this one is pretty good.  Also it isn’t telling you the way to get 10 gazillion followers.  Just plain, simple, good reasoning.

But you know what, apart from the bit about selling a story to journalists and bloggers, these are great reasons for anyone: (Full details)

1. Twitter is an influential medium

2. Meet clever people

3. Build your network

4. Keep up with trends

5. Pitch journalists

6. Pitch bloggers

7. Tactical execution

8.. Get info…fast!

9. Build your personal brand (and sphere of influence)

10. Have a laugh.

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!

Just blocking Twitter doesn’t work

So another example of why every organisation needs clear social computing guidelines on how to USE this media. Simply stopping the access through computers just directs people to their iPhones or other mobile device.

A school teacher posting up to 38 post a day (not sure if I am supposed to be shocked by that statement but it’s what was on the web site) was talking about her pupils.

The BBC web site reports:

Argyll and Bute Council said it has a policy of blocking the use of social networking sites in all its schools.

It is thought the language teacher, who has not been named, may have accessed the site via her mobile phone.

You would think that the advertising billboards around most towns and cities telling you how just about every mobile phone service provider will get you on Facebook or Twitter for next to nothing or free would have been a hint.

What this really points to are problems in the school, disenfranchisement of students and staff with a situation that is not rewarding to either. The teacher needed to get something off her chest but didn’t have the policy that supported her.

With a policy that says you can only blog about professional topics of value Argyll & Bute seem to have a rather ridiculous policy. Especially for a school. What is professional and what is personal? It is hard enough to tell in industry but where you job is to handle the emotions of teenagers I doubt the divide could be even finer. Just saying someone can’t have their own blog is similar to saying you can’t have your own phone or email account.

The 21st century is here A&B, would you all please hurry up and join it.

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.

SOA is forbidden, virtually

Something I’m looking forward to in a couple of weeks is the IBM Virtual Forbidden City event which takes place at the end of this month (April 28, 29).  Here ithe host of the eventIBM’s John Tolva to tell you more.

So what’s it all about?

• Discuss SOA with IBM’s leading architects and strategists
• See a real-life SOA case study in action and learn the business benefits
• Learn how to solve complex architectural challenges through SOA without disrupting your existing systems
• Network with your peers in a unique virtual, SOA-based environment

Each session will be about 40 mins long and if nothing else will be a great chance to meet up with similar minded people from all sorts of organisations and a few of us from IBM.