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.

Talking Social @ EMC World 2010

Wow. What a show. From my vantage point, EMC World 2010 was a huge success. Overall sentiment from attendees was extremely positive, and the activity through the social channels was mind-blowing.

There's no shortage of folks to acknowledge... from EMC's Social Media team who did a tremendous job making the Bloggers Lounge a happening place and demonstrating the value of our EMC Community Network, to EMC's Events Team (One of the best in the biz, IMO), to the guys over at Wikibon and SiliconAngle who helped us take the event far beyond the confines of physical walls.

I'll have piles of content to share next week. But, before I retire for a much needed weekend, did want to get one bit out. As things began to slow yesterday afternoon, we took the opportunity to chat Social Media at EMC - Talking about our approach to blogging, the culture that supports the amazing transformation, much more. Check out myself, Jamie Pappas and Thom Lytle as we wrap things up from the show floor and chat all things Social @ EMC.

Thanks to all for the incredible event... See you in Vegas!

Watch live video from The Cube LIVE from EMC World 2010 on Justin.tv

Live from the Bloggers Lounge at EMC World

EMC World 2010 is definitely in full swing. Following the Sunday Night reception and concert by the Counting Crows, it was time to get down to business Monday morning. While VPLEX was the big story of the day, there was no shortage of breaking news. The Bloggers Lounge was a hub of activity, with standing room only as the show really got going. 

Partnering with John Furrier of Silicon Angle and Dave Vellante from Wikibon, we're broadcasting live from the Lounge daily from 2:30 - 5:30. If you follow EMC at all, don't miss these broadcasts. We had a surprise visit from Joe Tucci and Michael Capellas, who were happy to jump on camera and share their thoughts about the event, the days announcements, and more.

I was thrilled to sit on a panel with John Troyer and Stephen Foskett and chat Social Media, cultural evolution, and more. Be sure to check out all of the interviews and discussions from this series.

Watch live video from The Cube LIVE from EMC World 2010 on Justin.tv

An Opportunity to Learn From the Best - The U.S. Navy

Every once in a while, an opportunity lands at your doorstep that you simply can't refuse. Thanks to my friends at the Social Media Business Council, such an opportunity came knocking recently, and it all happens this weekend.

I'm honored to have been selected along with a small handful of folks to spend 24 hours at sea with the Navy, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Launched in 1988, 'Abe' is the fifth Nimitz-class supercarrier. She's powered by two nuclear reactors, has a crew compliment of 3,200, and carries 90 fixed wind aircraft and helicopters.

While I'm certainly excited to experience and explore Abe, I'm even more anxious to meet the men and women who have chosen to serve our country... Folks who we all owe a debt of thanks to.

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.

Social Media, Knowledge Capital, and the Grateful Dead

The evolution to Enterprise 2.0 is bigger than the enabling tools. To me, it's about the fundamental rewiring of how corporations and their employees work, collaborate and think. It's a big deal, and likely a journey that will take us several years to truly figure out.

With regards to the way brands collaborate with one another, EMC and Cisco are leading the charge in my opinion, identifying new ways to partner and lay the foundation for the future. To that end, I was humbled when asked to present this week to Cisco employees via CiscoTV. The topic - EMC's journey in Social Media.

One of the topics covered was the transformation of today's workforce. We discussed the behavioral changes that were likely as the world explores new ways to work and collaborate. I had the pleasure of connecting with fellow guest-speaker Dr. Kit Yarrow (@GenBuy), co-author of the book Gen Buy. She and I talked a bit about knowledge capital, and our discussion is the foundation for this post.

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...

New FTC Guidelines and Social Marketing

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission approved revisions to the guidelines it gives advertisers on appropriate use of endorsement and testimonial ads.

The update includes new examples to reinforce the notion that connections between advertisers and endorsers (connections that may not be obvious to consumers) must be disclosed. These are timely updates with the continued emergence of word of mouth marketing via the social web. 

From my point of view, this is a welcomed update. We continually work to understand the online behaviors of our audience. Peer to peer content continues to be among the most trusted sources of information during the buying cycle, regardless of size of purchase. Before purchasing just about any product, I always turn to opinions of others for perspective.

The notion of paid blogging (and micro-blogging) has been an emerging and heavily debated trend for some time. To me, exploiting consumer trust by seeding fictitious or paid 'peer reviews' is simply bad business, and runs the risk of truly damaging the credibility of user-generated content and the social web in general.

There's much more detail in the entire update for those interested.  I look forward to digesting a bit more, but in the meantime, will continue to take the approach of transparency rules... It's the safe and proper approach.

Are your ears burning?

Anyone every ask you if your ears were burning? If so, it means they were talking about you in some fashion or another. I often wonder in what context my name came up? Was it good or bad? Who else was in on the discussion?

Imagine if I could have a tool that let me know when such conversations were taking place... Letting me know when I'm being talked about and in what vein... I'd use it - you?

Readers of this blog know that we're focusing energy on driving awareness and subsequent proficiency within the 2.0 world across our global employee population. No small feat.

We've used channels like 'Lunch and Learn' events, monthly community meet-ups, internal Tweetups, etc; - All designed to drive awareness, comfort and proficiency within the social web.

I wanted to share another tool in the arsenal that we've just launched as it may be of value in your toolkit as well. The 'dashboard' below is running on a couple of large plasma screens within EMC campuses' with more being added soon. It pulls in near real-time tweets and photos tagged to our brand.

Friends who hung out at the Bloggers Lounge at EMC World will recall something very similar.

The bottom line - we're putting conversations about our brand front and center. We're using this to remind folks that conversations are taking place 24x7 - and we need to not only be aware, but be listening and engaged.

Will it drive awareness across the enterprise overnight? No... But, it will draw a crowd. It will have employees asking others "What's that? What's a Tweet? How can I participate?". In the midst of transformation, such questions are music to my ears.

An Interview with EnterpriseLeadership.org

I'll be sure to tag this one with #ShamelessSelfPromotion ;)

The nice folks over at EnterpriseLeadership.org reached out some time ago and wanted to understand a bit more about our journey into the social realm - with focus on the internal side of the house. We ended up doing a brief video interview that I wanted to share.

A few bits from the discussion:

• Brands who do not embrace internal social / collaborative tools now will face a significant challenge (not to mention security risks) as employees flock to freely available and easily deployed external tools.
• We discuss our inside - out approach to SM, and how developing internal proficiencies has dramatically improved out evolution beyond the confines of our firewall.
• Be wary of the ROI game. Productivity gains, breakdown of organizational silos, employee affinity, enabling global collaboration, etc; - These are soft benefits, but will transform your business. Don't underestimate them.