IBM’s Philippe Borremans had an interesting perspective when it came to using social media in a company setting. It seems like for a big company like IBM it would be easy to get trapped into making a lot of requirements for blogs and podcasts, but it seems like IBM employees have a lot of leeway when it comes to information sharing. By having general guidelines, employees have a better understanding of what the company finds acceptable and by keeping social media “social” the company allows employees to be creative and move the company forward.
Probably one of the reasons that IBM follows the trends of their employees is because they would not be able to keep up if they tried and would probably hamper progress by trying to do so. I think Borremans is wise to realize this. He also realizes that pushing people to use the available platforms does not help people progress. If employees are using social media it is because they see a use for it in the work that they are doing. By trusting the employee to make a judgment on what tool they use to convey a message, they are also giving the employee more responsibility and thus more is at stake for the employee with regard to the company’s future.
Boremanns also makes a good point in saying that not every company will have the same needs when it comes to social media. Some may have stricter security concerns that make wikis impractical.
Besides internal communications, however, there are also external communications. Stuart Smith says that social media can help build a trusted dialogue with consumers. Employees are the best ambassadors of a company and providing the channels to communicate will help employees’ voices be heard.
Discussion questions:
1. How can smaller companies use social media?
2. Are there drawbacks of using social media tools such as wikis and RSS?
3. Should social media be monitored? If so, who should monitor it?
mgm5 said
I am in total agreement with you on thinking that IBM was very farsighted in allowing the blogging trend to blossom. I was interested in Borremans thoughts on the idea that IBM could only react to what its employees were already doing. Mandating the blogging or any other social media would never work. How did they get so smart? And more importantly, are any other companies listening?
I heard someone from IBM talk last quarter and talk about evangelism! This person could not say enough about how great a company IBM was and how it continued to improve. Made me want to sign right up. Amazing loyalty.
borremap said
Hi Mgm5,
Indeed, how did we get so smart…? Well it is our people who are smart; the first bloggers at IBM just did it and never turned back or asked if it was OK to do so… Some companies are listening, in fact more and more of them understand that liberating the info which is with their employees could be a benefit to the organisation. Amazing times but still a lot of work ahead.