Confessions of an eBiz Junkie

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.

Enterprise 2.0 - Now Comes the Hard Part

When I'd first heard the term, I thought Enterprise 2.0 meant the complete transformation of the enterprise to a new, more agile entity. Rather, it references the social software that's quickly becoming commonplace in the business world.

According to popular definition, I believe we've successfully deployed 'Enterprise 2.0'. Our internal community, EMC|ONE, continues to gain momentum and has become a pillar for internal collaboration at EMC. It's helped us achieve a degree of proficiency in the social web, and has helped us extend our reach outside the firewall with the EMC Community Network, our EMC bloggers, and a small army of EMC'ers on Twitter.

So, with regards to deploying social software, we're there. So the journey's done? Not even close...

The Transforming Enterprise

Things have been a tad busy of late, and I've been neglecting my blogging duties - Sorry for that. If it's any excuse, I've been working all-out with a very talented bunch of folks to help deliver this, this and this. Which reminds, with this now in the past, I really have to start working on my presentation for this.

If you haven't been following, EMC, Cisco and VMware today announced the Virtual Computing Environment coalition. The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, and have given me an opportunity to witness firsthand the transformation of the traditional enterprise.

Many definitions of Enterprise 2.0 focus on the software that enables extended collaboration within the corporate world. For me, it's as much about the re-engineering of traditional business processes as it is the enabling tools. The notion of opening traditional walls and enabling greater collaboration with customers, partners and prospects alike is among the most fascinating aspects to me.

I got the chance to witness this firsthand and it was fantastic.

Groups working together across different companies is not a new thing... But this whole effort felt very different. As I began working with new friends from Cisco and VMware, I realized that we weren't simply a bunch of independent teams plugging along to a project plan. Rather, it felt like one big passionate team firing on all cylinders. While we sat in varying facilities all over the world and had different logos on our badges, that's where the differences ended.

It was a really cool experience - watching legions of people put aside traditional thinking and processes in support of a common goal - to do right by the customer while transforming an industry.

It was certainly among the more humbling experiences of my career - and I applaud the brands for thinking different - and thinking big. It's exciting stuff.

I'll share a bit more in the coming days about this whole experience... Including the absolute disaster that happened midstream. But - you'll have to check back for that ;). 

Changing Behaviors

Can you teach Social Media skills? There's a great blog post and subsequent discussion happening over at Adam Cohen's blog.

I land squarely in the 'absolutely yes' camp - But perhaps with a bit of a twist.

I believe we have two crowds in the workforce today. Those who have grown up online, and consider communicating via text messages as routine as eating food, and those who haven't. For the latter, the notion of sharing and collaborating to the degree we do online often seems foreign and perhaps even ludicrous.

From a business perspective, there is one common denominator. You have to set the ground rules.

Regardless if you're a power blogger or if you're first Tweet was a lifetime event for you, there needs to be common rules of the road. First and foremost, establish your over-arching guidelines for acceptable and desired behavior.

So back to training... In a business environment, I'm all about establishing proficiency across the employee population.

I see this as different from training around Social Media (hence the twist). Yes there is a need to understand the tools at hand and how to leverage... To me, it's more about the fundamental shift in the way we were taught to operate. I compare the business world today to that of the mid 90's - It's a completely different playing field.

As we go through our journey at EMC embracing E2.0, I see walls breaking down. I see dramatic shifts in the way we communicate internally and externally. I see new management styles being employed - with far more matrixed collaboration than ever before... The list goes on and on.

We are operating in a fundamentally different way than we have in years past - and have only scratched the surface.

To expedite and get the most of this transformation, I believe foundational training in enterprise 2.0 techniques and behaviors is absolutely crucial. I see Social Media training as a component of this, but would want to re-introduce employees to the new ways to engage and interact behaviorally in a 2.0 world first.

Thanks Adam, for spinning up this discussion. I'd like to think that some type of E2.0 education will be common place in the business world in the very near future.

Who Owns The Community?

It's a question I get almost every time I chat with others around our internal community offering, EMC ONE. I'm always surprised at the need to assign ownership to an individual or a group... Perhaps the desire for accountability is @ the core of the question.

So, asked this morning for the umpteenth time, I thought I'd post a brief thought on the topic.

At least in my world... The Community owns the community.

Now, that's simplifying a bit. We do have a team of folks (well, two actually - one of whom is here) who are responsible for the overall health of EMC ONE. But, that's not an ownership thing... Rather they represent the collective voices from the community itself.

When it comes to creating new spaces for conversation and collaboration, the proposal is put out for the community to comment on and ultimately decide if it's the right thing to do. No formal governance team... No supreme ruler.

While the primary team manages vendor and IT relationships, it's the collective voice of the community that ultimately decides which direction we take the overall platform.

When it comes to policing and moderating content (which, btw, we've never actually had a need for), it's the community who ultimately decides the threshold of acceptable behavior. Despite strong desires by some early on to moderate *everything*, we've yet to have an instance that made us rethink our approach.

And so on...

Internal communities are still somewhat new. Unlike traditional web properties, ownership means something very different. Command and control just doesn't work any longer. It's a healthy step in online evolution, IMO.

If you try to force fit traditional ownership and governance models as you deploy your social offering, you'll likely lose the exact thing you're trying to accomplish.. The very sense of community.

Designing a Social Media Team

Much like the traditional web property, organizations will soon recognize the need to build a team around their Social Media offering. It will be interesting to watch how this plays out as there's not a 1 to 1 correlation of skill sets when you move from a 1.0 to a 2.0 model. You'll likely focus more on the social capabilities of the team and less on more traditional web responsibilities (HTML, production, editorial, etc). You'll need individuals who understand the very nature of community engagement and social interaction.

I've been thinking a bit about the team I'd like to pull together as we evolve our social offering and thought I'd share for input and comment...