Archive for IBM
How IBM Promotes Employee Engagement with Social Media
Posted by: | CommentsI am constantly impressed with IBM and its open attitude towards its employees’ use of social media. The company has on its website, for all to see, its “IBM Social Computing Guidelines”. 
I wrote about this on the Blogger’s Bulletin, a LinkedIn subgroup. With the start of 2010, other companies, who are floundering with their social media policies, would do well to check out IBM’s guidelines. One of many lines in the guidelines that intrigued me: “IBM is increasingly exploring how online discourse through social computing can empower IBMers as global professionals, innovators and citizens. These individual interactions represent a new model: not mass communications, but masses of communicators.” What a profound statement. Gone are the days when a company can tightly control its message through advertising and printed materials. IBM has recognized that thousands of its employees, within certain guidelines, are the touch points for communications with customers, prospects and the general public.
Empowering employees to be brand advocates for the company takes courage and a great deal of trust. From the guidelines, “In 1997, IBM recommended that its employees get out onto the Internet – at a time when many companies were seeking to restrict their employees’ Internet access. In 2005, the company made a strategic decision to embrace the blogosphere and to encourage IBMers to participate.”
IBM says that when it wishes to communicate publicly as a company it has a well-established means to do so – through employee blogs and other forms of online discourse. Isn’t this refreshing? That a company as huge as IBM is empowering and leveraging its employees to enhance its brand? There are other companies, too, like Zappos and Comcast that understand the value of employee involvement in social media. But there are too few companies who understand the power of the Internet. And some companies are still muzzling their employees – but it’s too late. Their employees are already out there.
Jon Iwata, SVP, Marketing & Communications, spells out IBM’s social media policy in this video. Jon Iwata – Social Media as an Internal Tool. Well worth watching.
Why is Coke, the #1 Brand in Economic Value, Only #12 in Mentions Online?
Posted by: | CommentsYou’d think that Coca-Cola, long #1 on Interbrand’s “Best Global Brands List,” would achieve the same prominence on the Internet. But, no, Coke only ranks 12th based on number of mentions online in 2009, according to an analysis by Sysmos, a company that provides business intelligence on social media.
There could be many reasons for the variation, including a lack of social media communications programs. The variation is also seen among other top ranked Interbrand brands. For example #2 IBM slides to #15 in online mentions. Conversely, and perhaps not surprisingly, Google is #1 in online mentions while #7 on Interbrand’s list, which is based on financial data, international scope, and value added. Only Microsoft achieves equality, at #3 in both the “Best Global Brands List” and with mentions online.
So, why does it matter that a company is tops in economic value but below par online? I believe that it will begin to matter much, much more in coming years, as the Internet increasingly becomes the principal source of information about companies and everything else. If your company is not commanding the Internet among consumers, you may no longer be dominating the marketplace. But leading brands have it in their power to improve their online rankings.
One way is by enlisting their employees as brand advocates in corporate communications. Employees are already surfing the web and participating in social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Large companies have a golden opportunity to dominate the Internet “air waves” with their employees as their most important cheerleaders, commenting on corporate and employee blogs, and engaging in online conversations with consumers.
Getting back to Coke, the company has 3.7 million fans on Facebook, and 92,4000 employees spread across the globe. Just think of their cumulative power to communicate key messages about Coke that zoom around the world on social networks. I wonder if Coke has an organized program for their employees to reach out to Coke’s followers on social networks? I read through last year’s Annual Review and didn’t see anything. I don’t mean to pick on Coke. I’m just using the company as an example of a missed opportunity.
Employees in all companies will welcome the opportunity to be empowered to represent their company in the blogosphere. All it takes is trust: trust your employees to promote your brand well in online communications.
Companies Need to Trust Their Employees as Brand Advocates
Posted by: | CommentsSmart companies are waking up to the idea of their employees being their most important brand advocates. As I’ve written before, employees are still largely underutilized in this role. When there isn’t a positive culture of communication within a company, management doesn’t trust employees with carrying their message to the outside world through new social media tools like blogging and Twittering.
Trust is the operative word.
In a video on social networking at IBM Jon Iwata, SVP, Marketing & Communications, points out the company can’t control what employees say. This scares the heck out of CEOs who don’t trust their employees to do the right thing. But as Iwata points out, the same policies that apply to an employee who might give away company secrets in a bar apply to the employee who is posting a tweet. IBM isn’t afraid of social media because, as Iwata says at the conclusion of the video, “employees can be trusted.”
Probably the most notable example of a wide-open culture with employees talking directly to their customers is Zappos. As those devoted to Twitter know, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is a committed Twitterer. Type in twitter.zappos.com and you can also read the tweets of all 431 Zappos’ employees on Twitter. Just think of the good will being sown among the many customers and potential customers who are following Tony Hsieh (735,000+) and all those employee tweets.
Yet, surveys show that most companies are still in the old command and control mode. Management hasn’t begun to tap into the power of employees as advocates of the company on social media networks. When will they wise up?
