The business of social media is here to stay

Not long ago, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and many other such social networking platforms were a complete "no no' in many organizations. They were either banned, or not accessible on office networks. In some cases, a separate room or time was created for employees to check their Facebook accounts. By and large logging on to such sites was seen as detrimental to office work and employee productivity. There were even instances of many organizations where the IT administrators were being told to look out for employees who were on these sites, wasting time, and possibly compromising with confidential data and information.

Not any more.

The Business Case

At a recent conference on social networking, Connect 2013, organized by IBM, speaker after speaker, ranging from Gerd Friedrich, the business focussed CIO of $ 71 bn Bosche Group, to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, founder of Hitrecord, where he has got together creative artists to produce videos, music, lyrics, literature, photography, screenwriting, graphic art etc, spoke about the way social networking is being deployed, and there is unbelievable gains for the organization as well as its people. For instance, Hitrecord's now famous video "The Man with a Turnip for a Head" was actually produced with the collaboration of 295 artistes from across the globe, most of whom never even met each other. "Talent is all around you. Social networking allows you to find and build a winning team," said Gordon. The interesting fact is that Hitrecord has only 8 employees but can get hundreds of people - enthusiasts and professionals - to collaborate on revenue driven time bound projects.

Friedrich has strong reasons for becoming a votary of social media in business. "I wanted to empower the whole organization to behave like entrepreneurs, and the first step was to get the employees to use it. And then it took just 4 months to evaluate the technologies, and only 6 months to implement it for 60 thousand people, which was fast," he says. Bosch is using social media for much effective community management of partners, and change management among its employees. Ross Grossman, VP of human resource of $ 466 mn Regeneron Pharma based in New York, informs that his company is aggressively deploying social media and it has, in a short span of time, resulted in hiring and motivating the best people in the industry.

All this sounds quite logical considering the fact that today relationships are increasingly being made and built online. Jeff Bowman, global head of e-business for Caterpillar, the $66 billion giant that is onto designing, manufacturing and selling heavy machinery, believes that "accelerating customer growth and loyalty at every touch-point is critical, and key to social media is a great tool for that". Based on this social media drive which also includes registering all past and present owners of Caterpillar machines, the company is soon going to launch an e-commerce site for selling their machine parts.

Beyond Corporates

Smaller set-ups are however much active. And Hitrecord's Gordon is not the only example of success. For instance Blue Cross Blue Shield, a health insurance company in Masachusettes, has deployed social media for internal processes as well as to reach out to its customers. According to Bill Fandich, its CIO, "using social media in our IT infrastructure gives us a 360 degree view of all our members which gives us a very comprehensive profile of our customer, and it is constantly updated. What excites Fandich even more is that with social media, they can give their members a very personalized touch, and she feels there is somebody with them.

Apparently, IBM has over 9000 customers of '5 person company' and their number if rapidly growing. "It is a good deal for small businesses. They do not have to buy any hardware or software, but just a service. And they are on," explained Carter. The company has already put in place 1200 channel partners who are out in the market convincing business leaders on the power of social, as it is has now been jargonized.

If you thought social media is only for IT savvy companies, think again. Dubuque, a small town along the Mississippi river in Iowa, US, with a population of about 58,000 people is turning the place around using social to engage with its citizens. Says Mike Van Milligan, city manager, "We are using social media with our people to save money, conserve resources, and support local economy and environment". Ever since the city CIO started using social media to connect with the locals, water usage has gone down by 7pc, there is an 800% increase in timely water leak detections, and people's monthly electricity bills have reduced by 4-7 percent. Milligan says that "besides enhancing quality of life of our citizens, they also see what efforts their Government is making to make life better. And more than that a smart city means smart citizens". Dubuque has recently won the award 'Best Small City in the US' to raise a family.

The Challenges

The solution might be great, but is also wrought with deployment risks and challenges. According to a survey, 57 pc of attempts to use social media in companies fail. The reasons are not unexpected - lack of clear policies and governance; work culture; lack of stakeholder's buy-in; and after building engagement, maintaining it. One very interesting reason, cited by Beverly Macy, CEO of Gravity, that is involved in social media education and solutions, is that 'in many places, C-level executives are still not social (meaning they are not on Twitter, Facebook etc) and that is why adoption at enterprise level is slow. It is here that the CIOs will have to be 'socially' active to help the C-level take those baby steps." To accelerate its deployment and acceptance there are some things all the social media proponents agree. First, it is important to have a shared social agenda, which the business leaders could drive, but the CIO is also very actively involved so that he can think of policies for all areas of engagement. Second, it has to be both internal as well as external facing.

"The big challenge, however, for everybody is to see how social does not go out of control," is Macy's last word on this.

The whole social business movement could see a roadblock coming from a very unexpected quarter: skill availability. According to experts there is already a shortage here, and the demand is high. No wonder, IBM has recently announced a new analytic center in Ohio, home to 27 Fortune 500, and 57 Fortune 1,000 companies, dedicated to advancing research, development, client services and skills training in the areas of analytic, big data and cognitive computing. The move aims to create 500 new analytics jobs and nurture economic development in the region over the next three years. While India is known to be a land where people love to chat, gossip, connect and collaborate, most action seems to be happening in the western markets. For instance, for the IBM Connect Solutions Champions 2013, out of 75 people chosen, there was hardly anybody from India.

Buzz to reality

While the ICT industry is known for hyped up but shortlived technologies and solution, this one looks like it is here to stay. Many are comparing it with revolutions like internet, cloud computing, and smartphones. "The current popularity might be high in areas like marketing and HR, but a true social enterprise is so far beyond, it's not funny," believes Mark Fidelman, MD of Evolve, a social business agency, and a columnist with Forbes. Experiments are therefore beginning to happen in newer departments like design, legal, channel management, R&D, and so on.

Maree Foti, HR manager at David Jones, a 175-year-old retail chain of 36 stores and 8000 employees has deployed social, and the results are quite encouraging. "We deployed this to start a 2-way communication with our employees. Within 3 months the uptake of this technology was over 65 pc. And 6 weeks later when we did an internal survey we found out that employees knowledge about the company and its products had gone up, employees felt they had more to their leadership and the CEO, and the size of community and collaboration was increasing". No wonder IBM has recently announced a new analytics center in Ohio, home to 27 Fortune 500, and 57 Fortune 1,000 companies, dedicated to advancing research, development, client services and skills training in the areas of analytics, big data and cognitive computing.

The move aims to create 500 new analytics jobs and nurture economic development in the region over the next three years. That HR is a great place for social media to take off is clearly evident from the fact that IBM recently acquired a $154 mn company Kenexa, that deals in hiring and retention solutions for companies for $1.3 bn. "In future social business will played a key role in how quickly and how well you attract, empower, motivate people and teams. And that will be critical for better business outcomes," says Rudy Karsan, Kenexa boss.

That social networking is moving from buzz to reality is evident from the furious pace at which market research is happening to figure out if there is tangible benefit for organizations. As per a McKinsey survey report of the organizations with social networking deployed, 90 pc believed that employee productivity has gone up by 20 pc. Sandy Carter, a marketing guru, author of Marketing 2.0, and worldwide vice president of IBMs' Social Business evangelism and sales, informed that after the success they saw with social media, IBM did a CEO study and discovered that 57 pc of them believed that the 'future is social'.

Ibrahim ahmad is Group Editor, CyberMedia