Everything that is not shared is lost

What do you get if you put nearly 200 communicators in a room to discuss all things social media related?

Well, based on experiencing exactly that on Monday, I can tell you it’s a full brain, some great ideas, new connections and a screen full of notes and Tweets.

Simply-Communicate @simplycomm, hosted Social Media in the Large Enterprise (#SMiLELondon) near St Paul’s in London on Monday, it was a jam-packed day.

It was terrific to see so many familiar faces, friends, clients and contacts in the room and to talk with people in real life who I’ve only ‘met’ online.

I enjoyed meeting Thomas Asger Hansen, @Thomasager, Head of Global Working Culture and Social Business, and Martin Risgaard @Risgaard, (pictured) who recently joined Yammer, hot on the heels of writing about the social business cookbook at Grundfos last week.

I recorded a series of short interviews during the breaks and will be publishing those in my upcoming FIR Presents All Things IC with Rachel Miller podcast. You can listen to previous episodes via iTunes or my blog.

Update: Listen to the podcast.

Highlights for me from SMiLE included:

Lafarge

I loved this presentation and could have listened to Jean-Luc Abelin all day. Aside from the fact he was using Prezi well, Jean-Luc had a real energy and enthusiasm and I couldn’t keep up with my note taking!.

See their case study for more info.

His quote “everything that is not shared is lost” is absolutely spot on and underpins so much of my thinking – was lovely to hear something succinctly capture how I feel!

Also liked the fact they recognise the “takers” as well as “givers” in their enterprise social network.

Will add a blog post with my thoughts on the sharing quote to my to-do list as want to think it through properly first, but it resonates with me.

Pearson

Hearing how Pearson is continuing to make great strides with Neo, its Jive-based employee social network was a highlight for me. They’ve introduced gamification into the mix and I love the fact the very first badge that is up for grabs is for profile completion – smart move Pearson!

Neo replaced 170 intranets, which is also worth mentioning. You can read their case study online.

I liked their stance on leadership involvement to drive adoption and use of their esn, which centres on finding what they’re comfortable with. For example, if a leader doesn’t like blogging, simply saying thank you/liking something/having short status updates, adds as much value, as they are visibly endorsing using it. 

That feels like a really obvious thing to write. But hearing it said out loud and the reaction from people in the room made me realise that it’s worth emphasising – the same rules that apply with any channel choice you make are also in play here – it’s all about making smart decisions that are right for your company, especially based on communication style and your culture.

Thomson Reuters

Prize for most impressive savings and stats at SMiLE has to go to Thomson Reuters. Every single day 85% of their 60,000 employees choose to use The Hub, their esn (which is four times the average industry participation level).

Larraine Soloman, Internal Communication Director of their Intellectual Property (IP) & Science business shared how they stopped using email for “important information” and only put it on The Hub.

This led to more employees seeing the value and feeling like they were missing out from not participating, and led to increased use.

So what of the savings? Well as a result of using The Hub they cut their travel bill by 30%. Nice.

Social media strategy

In the spirit of transparency, I was asked to moderate a session at SMiLE, so was given a complimentary ticket. Congrats to the IC pros who managed to win a ticket via my blog thanks to the generosity of Simply Communicate.

When introducing the table discussions, I loved the comment from my fellow @theICcrowd co-founder Dana Leeson who was moderating a session on adoption: “Build it and they will come only works for arks.”

I moderated the social media strategy session and found it fascinating to hear stories shared by communicators around the table.

People are at various stages in thinking through, creating, adapting and communicating their strategies, and I enjoyed the questions and conversations.

They included: “How do I create a social media strategy? This has just landed at my door and I don’t know where to start” to “What platform should I use for my enterprise social network?” “Who should own an internal social network?” – and many more after the session ended.

I discussed the purpose of having a strategy, which is to ensure social media align with your business goals, and identify where they could be applicable in your business operations.

I guided the 15 IC pros around the table through some models, the importance of research, and outlined things to consider.

Conversation turned to accountability and who should own and create it. In the same way it needs to be aligned with business strategy, it should be ‘owned’ and created cross-functionally.

What that means in reality, is bringing together employees across departments, divisions and geographies to write, nurture, challenge and refresh your strategy.

It’s not up to internal communicators alone to own the entire rollout of an enterprise social network for example.

We didn’t have time to discuss community managers and champions, but they certainly have a key role here.

Once it’s written, it’s not set in stone, build in plans to constantly monitor what has been created to ensure it remains relevant and reflective of your organisation and what you’re trying to achieve.

Here is a flavour of the other topics that piqued my interest during the day, as seen in my Tweets @AllthingsIC:

The thinking behind internal social networking at Lafarge #SMiLELondon pic.twitter.com/8IhoIlnna0

— Rachel Miller (@AllthingsIC) March 17, 2014

#SMiLELondon hearing from @ben_thomp on Johnson Matthey’s esn (SharePoint) feat “Dr Jim” branding/personality pic.twitter.com/kV5RxPJows

— Rachel Miller (@AllthingsIC) March 17, 2014

Groups within esn at Johnson Matthey are “As open as possible and restricted as necessary” @ben_thomp #SMiLELondon < great description

— Rachel Miller (@AllthingsIC) March 17, 2014

“Yammer has invaded and infected Microsoft in a really positive way” says @ravsterd #SMiLELondon pic.twitter.com/qAUNjzcauL

— Rachel Miller (@AllthingsIC) March 17, 2014

“Our measurement = a million anecdotes & sense of ‘I will miss out’ if I’m not using Neo” (+ @Bunchball) < @kjgettman #smilelondon

— Rachel Miller (@AllthingsIC) March 17, 2014

Just realised I’m *that* person taking pics on iPad 🙂 What Unilever’s internal conversation looks like #SMiLELondon pic.twitter.com/z4oXxfDy1b

— Rachel Miller (@AllthingsIC) March 17, 2014

We like this slide from @AllthingsIC @simplycomm #SMiLELondon event #SocialMedia > pic.twitter.com/FHBt3fcGYQ

— FreshAirStudios Mdia (@freshairstudios) March 18, 2014

What did you think of SMiLE? You’re welcome to comment below or Tweet me @AllthingsIC.

Well done to the Simply Communicate team for another cracking event. I think it was the best SMiLE to date. If you missed it, the next one is taking place in London in September. 

Thanks as ever for stopping by,

Rachel

Further reading:

• See what one of my fellow @theICcrowd co-founders, Jenni Wheller @jenniwheller thought of the day, via her blog.
• Read Sophie Grant’s @sophiemgrant, article on theblueballroom blog.
• Storify via Gloria Lombardi at Simply.

Some of my Vines:  

Post author: Rachel Miller.

First published on the All Things IC blog 19 March 2014.