Becoming a social business is more than engaging with your customers via social networking platforms. It also includes engaging socially with those who are internal to your own organization. Certainly, there are many definitions of a social business. Mine happens to be …
“A social business integrates social media tools and strategies, internally and externally, with the goal of enhancing the customer experience, and exceeding customer expectations, in a seamless fashion regardless of channels. It leverages these technologies to become more effective in those key areas that it already focuses on in real life.”
I ran across a very good article the other day titled “Tips for Small Businesses to Go Social” by Ed Abrams, Vice President, Midmarket Business at IBM. You can read the original article over at Small Biz Daily. I thought it would be great to review Ed’s tips (shown in italics) and then add a few of my own observations to each.
Start Small: One way to ease your small business into using social collaboration tools, and to make sure they get used, is to begin one step at a time. Rather than implementing a whole new system, perhaps start a wiki for team status updates – this will get your company sharing, and used to the process.
The tortoise won the race with the hare for good reasons and there are lessons for both to be gleaned from that experience. The chance for the success of any deployment is greatly enhanced by careful planning and measured steps. Certainly, it will be easier for your team members to absorb, and put into effect, smaller initiatives then it would be to attempt the full solution. Take this time to gauge their responses and adjust where necessary. I would much rather take care of any cracks in the foundation prior to erecting the entire building and then having to tear that structure down later in order to be able to correct that same issue.
Culture v. Technology: Culture is extremely important to a successful social business transformation, in many regards, it’s even more important than the technology you use. Place an emphasis on promoting a business culture of transparency and trust from senior leadership to those working in the field. Work to encourage a culture of sharing so that employees feel comfortable sharing their sentiment and collaborating across teams and departments. With these cultural elements in order, an organization is setting itself up for a successful social business transformation.
Absolutely! Your first and best customer is your fellow employee. By serving their needs you will greatly enhance any experience for your external client. Not only do I want trust and transparency from senior leadership, you will earn both from me if you take part in this as well! Everything rolls down hill.
You will have to forgive me for this but, I think like a salesman and this might make for a good example. Salespeople in general are known to jealously guard their accounts from any and all parties within their organization (trust). However, if we can effectively serve my customers (our customers) better as a team, that helps me sell more stuff. When I sell more stuff, I make more money. As a business, is it not in everybody’s’, including the customers’, best interest that we turn a fair profit? Of course it is! Without that, we are all out of a job and our customers will not benefit from our services.
Education: While most of us have become comfortable using social networking tools in our personal lives, not everyone recognizes the advantages of using these tools to get work done. Be sure to educate your employees about the new tools at their disposal and articulate how they will help increase efficiency in the workplace, break down silos within the organization. For example, host a workshop on how to create a community and share resources with a broader team using that community.
Through proper education we accomplish multiple goals: we demonstrate our commitment to the initiative’s success; we control and direct its implementation; and since our hands are in this just as deep and dirty as anybody’s, we show our solidarity. In regard to silos, while silos might be well designed for grain, I know of no case studies of where wheat has been asked to collaborate with oats. Therefore, these circular fortresses have no place in your organization.
Remember Your Audience: Social collaboration tools make it very easy to share data, thoughts, contacts, etc with both colleagues and customers. This convenience is incredibly useful for a productive work environment, but also comes with its own unique set of faux pas – I bet you can think of a few things you might not want to share, if you give it a second thought – so think twice before you share.
In the immortal words of Forrest Gump … “Stupid is as stupid does” so it is best that we install a strong filter between our brain and our fingers. While “whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” … social networking is the “gift that keeps on giving”. Make sure that your gift is both welcomed and appropriate!
Security Matters: Your content must remain readily available to team members while confidential information is protected from unauthorized access. Some collaboration software handles security requiring IT assistance each time you add or remove outside team members. A better choice is software that allows new members to be quickly added or removed from a workspace with full security without requiring IT assistance.
An excellent point and frankly, one that I had not previously considered! There are few more sinking feelings than when an employee leaves your organization and you come to find out that they have chosen to do so with your intellectual property. Small insignificant things like … your account list! Even that can be isolated. However, a system that contains proprietary company information, across departments, and is electronically stored and accessed, has the potential to be far more damaging. Being able to respond rapidly to close off access to these channels by those no longer authorized to utilize them is an absolute must!
Do these initiatives work? You bet they do and they are allowing organizations to provide outstanding levels of service in even the most challenging of environments! Follow this link to read a collaboration case study of how Colleagues In Care have utilized the IBM SmartCloud for Social Business to virtually connect medical workers and volunteers from around the globe in serving the medical needs of the people of Haiti.
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.
Craig M. Jamieson
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