Confessions of an eBiz Junkie

Social Connects Companies... To Themselves

One of the things I love most about being part of the social revolution is the unexpected 'ah-ha' moments that surface almost daily. I had one such moment this week, and wanted to share the observation.

Given the command and control structure that remains prominent in the traditional web, there are inherent checks and balances in place to ensure consistent messaging and positioning. In that model, a centralized web team is usually organizationally agnostic, with their focus being on providing a consistent experience to visitors of a traditional .COM site, as example.

As we know very well, social flips that model upside down, providing a direct path from subject matter expert to audience. In effect, it can remove all of the checks and balances that the more traditional model provided.

An Approach to Enterprise Social Media Education

To celebrate Social Media Day, we thought we'd share a little something with the community...

At EMC, we pride ourselves on our approach to Social Media adoption. When we started this journey years back, we chose to focus on employee proficiency - and that strategy has paid us back many times over.

But, the social world is constantly changing. New tools and techniques show up daily. In addition, we've all become so completely ingrained in the digital world that it's easy to lose sight of the larger picture, the incredible reach we have, and the vast diversity of our audience.

To that end, we set out to create an educational video highlighting the opportunities and possible pitfalls of social engagement. While it's designed with our global EMC family in mind, the key points should resonate with just about everyone... Give it a look.

 

 

Helping our Community... Let me count the ways

Sometimes we forget just how fortunate we are. I'm lucky in that I have a roof to sleep under tonight, a warm meal will be on the table, and I'll be surrounded by wonderful and loving family. Damn I'm lucky.

Many can't say the same. It's so important to not lose cite of that.

I do my best to give back to the community, but can NEVER do enough. Whenever possible, I spend time volunteering at a wonderful place called 'Tony La Russa'a Animal Rescue Foundation' here in the Bay Area. These folks are the best of the best - taking dogs and cats scheduled to be euthanized and keeping them until they find permanent homes.

Yesterday during a discussion with global Marketing employees, EMC CMO Jeremy Burton issued the challenge to his global team - How can we help? How can you individually make a difference - and what can we do if we came together as a team with a more orchestrated effort?

Perspectives on Social Media Policies

Shortly before the holidays, I'd spent some time with Upsana Gupta, contributing editor at BankInfoSecurity.com, chatting about EMC's journey in Social Media. While we talked about the journey in general, we spent considerable time talking about the fundamental notion of crowd-sourcing, and how it's been instrumental to our success.

Based on her discussions with myself and industry peers, Upsana published a piece entitled "How to Write a Social Media Policy". It's a good read and provides a broad range of perspectives on the topic.

As is indicated in the article, there is in no way a 'one size fits all' approach to governing Social Media. What works for one industry or culture may or may not work elsewhere.

Regardless of the approach, however, I firmly believe that inclusion and education are key components for success.

We're actually in process of completely retooling our own social policies and supporting education materials, and I look forward to sharing progress with you in the coming weeks... There's some fun stuff in the pipeline that I think you're all going to like. :)

Social in the Enterprise - Convincing the Curmudgeons

I enjoyed a trip to BlogWorld Expo last week, and was honored to sit on a panel of industry-leaders to discuss the impacts of Social Media in the enterprise. Having participated in several such discussions this year, I continue to be stunned by the number of folks still in the 'convincing' or 'selling' mode.

Perhaps I'm just taking our evolution for granted - But I really struggle to understand how the debate persists. Especially with such compelling data around enterprise adoption so readily available.

Given the number of questions around overcoming this particular hurdle, I thought I'd share a few tips and tricks we used along our way. Not that there was ever resistance to the evolution at EMC, but there's always a crowd that needs help understanding the opportunities at hand...

 

The Evolving Enterprise

I'll be boarding a plane midweek and taking off for some much needed time on a tropical island and off the digital grid. I'll be radio silent while away, avoiding the temptations of Twitter, Facebook, blogging and the like.

While away, I wanted to leave you with a presentation given at JiveWorld 2010 a couple of weeks back. During the discussion, I shared a bit about EMC's journey to becoming a socially proficient company. We've done some great things, learned some invaluable lessons, and still have much work ahead. The slides are below, and Jive has also provided a video of the discussion. I'm hoping there are a lesson or two in there that can help you on your journey.

Talk soon... In the meantime, Aloha!

The Transforming Enterprise

View more presentations from Len Devanna.

The Evolution of Social at EMC

Things have been a bit quiet on this blog of late.. sorry for that. Chalk it up to a plethora of exciting changes - all of which I get to share here with you here. Most notably, Social Media @ EMC has taken another large step in it's evolution.

While simplifying the story a bit, our journey to become a socially savvy brand started in the Fall of 2007. Starting with the launch of EMC|ONE, we set out to develop a high degree of social proficiency among our global employees. Over time, we continued to extend our reach to the outside world, and can now be engaged in many places, including the EMC Community Network, our Facebook presence, and the like.

Truth be told, our amazing progress in this space has been largely organic. Our innovative culture combined with a small but passionate group of social practitioners are among the contributors to our success. While there have been people focused on evolving social, it's often been 'part of the job' as opposed to being 'the job'.

Things have changed, and I believe we've just taken our next big step in this journey.

Battle of the Interns

It's not our fault... The interns over at Cisco started it. But, you can't claim to be the best at something without expecting a little controversy.  ;)

In response to their peer group over at Cisco, our own 2010 interns stepped up and answered the call. A couple of teams got together and put their creativity to work to share a bit of what it's like to intern at EMC... You be the judge.

There was a few other videos but this was my personal fav. Will update with links to the other contenders soon.

As an aside, I should mention the significant value of this program. It's great at giving the next generation workforce a look into the business world they're about to enter, while giving them some real-world experience. In return, we get to work with some of the brightest up and comers out there.

It's a win win for all.

Talking Culture at EMC World with Joe Tucci and Jack Mollen

If you're listening to the buzz (over 3500 EMC World Tweets so far), then you know there's no shortage of amazing conversations happening at the event. Here's a couple I wanted to get up quickly. First, our friends from SiliconAngle.com put together a great piece where Joe Tucci talks EMC Culture. In the second video, our own Polly Pearson captured an impromptu discussions with myself and Jack Mollen, EMC's EVP of HR.

A Social Journey Meme - Year Two at EMC

Our corporate evolution in the past three years is nothing short of staggering. The way we work, collaborate and communicate at EMC today is dramatically different than it was just a few short years ago.

Polly Pearson is doing a bit to document the phases of our journey. As she notes, everyone's at a different point in the spectrum of readiness with regards to embracing the E2.0 movement. Having seen first-hand how our company has benefited from this transformation, I'm of the firm belief that it's a question of when, not if, every company embraces this new way of conducting business.

I'll rewind the clock and pick up the discussion in 2007. As Chuck notes in the comments of Polly's post, there were a few 'social' offerings in place in 2006. Mostly discussion forums and virtually all public facing. While each valuable in their own right, these things were largely disconnected from one other and not part of an over-arching strategy.

If, as Polly suggests, there was 'something in the air' in 2006, then 2007 would see us lay the foundational strategy that would ultimately guide us through the journey ahead.