New Frontiers in Employee Communications: How Leading Organizations are Using Social Media to Engage

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New Frontiers in Employee Communications How
Leading Organizations are Using Social Media to
Engage Employees
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The State of Internal Social Media

• There are no uniform best practices!
• Why?
• Too few organizations have leveraged social media
  in a way in which we can gauge its business
  impact
• Unlike with external communications/marketing
  where peer companies may be targeting the same
  audience, each organization has specific business
  needs and a unique cultural environment

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Goals of the New Frontiers in Employee
Communications study

• Examine the use and effectiveness of the various
  communications channels organizations use to
  communicate with employees.
• Provide a benchmark for organizations to evaluate
  the methods they have implemented and identify
  best practices in the industry.
• Explore the adoption of emerging new media
  technologies inside of organizations and
  investigate the potential these tools hold for
  corporate communicators.

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The growth of new media

• The landscape has changed since the first New
  Frontiers in Employee Communications study two
  years ago
• The number of blogs globally has grown from six
  million to more than 70 million.
• The number of podcasts hosted on the Internet has
  surpassed the number of radio stations worldwide.
• Wikipedia, a public Internet-based encyclopedia
  launched in 2001 that allows users to create and
  edit content, now has 1.4 million entries in
  English, more than ten times that of the
  Encyclopedia Britannica.

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Study methodology

• We sent invitations to 787 senior communicators
  at
• Fortune 500 and industry-leading organizations
• 138 responded, resulting in 111 completed
  surveys a participation rate of 18 percent and a
  response rate of 14 percent.
• 75 Fortune 500 companies and several leading
  global organizations participated in the study.

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Participants include
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Communications channel overview

• What communications channel does your
• organization use most frequently?
• E-mail
• Intranet
• In-person
• What communications channel do you find
• most effective?
• In-person
• E-mail
• Intranet
• Online tools (blogs, wikis, podcasts, message
  boards, Instant Messaging) scored last.

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Increased awareness of new media
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Increased awareness of new media
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Increased awareness of new media
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Who is using new media?

• Roughly one-third of leading organizations use
  blogs.
• Of these, one-third are aimed exclusively at
  internal audiences.
• Slightly more than one-third of leading
  organizations use podcasts.
• Slightly more than ten percent of leading
  organizations use wiki technology.

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Where is new media aimed?
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Comfort with external blogs
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Comfort with internal blogs
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A Banner Year for CEO Bloggers Jonathan
Schwartz Sun Microsystems
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John Mackey Whole Foods
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Bill Marriott Marriott International
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Rick Wagoner General Motors
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Gary Kelly Southwest Airlines
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Maximizing the intranet

• More than 70 percent of companies reported using
  the intranet to share information and promote
  best practices however
• Only 30 percent of companies have a message board
  or forum on their intranet.
• More than one-third of companies do not provide
  intranet access from home.

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Different tools for different goals

• According to communicators at industry-leading
• organizations
• Blogs are useful for culture change and
  identifying employee issues.
• Podcasts are useful for training.
• Wikis are useful for knowledge management and
  collaboration.
• Effective internal communications provides a mix
  of communications channels

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Are you hearing the conversations?

• In the U.S. alone, 39 percent of individuals (57
  million adults) have read a blog
• and eight percent maintain a blog (12 million
  adults).
• (Source Pew Internet American Life Project)

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Creating a culture of communication

• Companies that host blogs are
• More likely to have policies regarding employee
  blogging.
• Less likely to have policies prohibiting
  employees from posting on external chat rooms and
  message boards.
• Less likely to prohibit the use of instant
  messaging from company computers.
• Less likely to block access to the Internet.

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Battling apathy, skepticism and the
cross-generational gap

• Ninety-nine percent of communicators are aware of
  blogs however
• Less than 30 percent read a blog regularly.
• Less than 30 percent have ever posted to a blog.
• Three times as many adults 18 to 26 read blogs as
  do adults ages 41 to 50.
• (Source Forrester Research)
• The value of social media is proportional to
• the rate of participation
• New media technologies can build communities and
  increase discussion

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Top ten obstacles to new media

• Inadequate resources (time and/or money)
• Disconnected employees
• Resistance to change
• Desire to control communication/fear of unknown
• Not convinced of benefits
• Perceived lack of IT capabilities
• Resistant culture
• Senior management wont allow it
• Legal/governance/regulation issues
• Would require too much training

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The barrier to entry is low

• Blogs are hosted in a variety of places
  (intranet, corporate Web site, external sites).
• The entry level for social media is low, both in
  terms of cost and IT infrastructure.
• Technology and product offerings allow for
  personalized and customized tools that can
• reflect brand identity
• address security concerns
• meet business needs
• The strategic use of new media technology gives
  you more control, not less

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Making social media a part of business
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Community, Convergence, Collaboration, Content
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Communicating in the new frontier

• Expectations from employees have changed, and
  this trend will continue as new media
  technologies become more a part of our personal
  and professional lives.
• Most corporate communicators need more education
  about new media.
• But it is not all about new media it is about
  adopting communications channels that reflect and
  support business goals and organizational
  culture.
• How you shape your internal communications
  strategy can be a key differentiator for your
  company.

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Contemporary Practices in Internal Social Media
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Launching New Media Communications Internally

• ASK WHY?
• Effective and sustainable new media initiatives
  are tied to business goals
• Increased collaboration, fueling innovation, more
  effective training, viewing competitive
  landscape, uniting culture, etc.

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IBM The Innovator
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IBM The Innovator

• Blogs Thousands on blogs and hundreds of
  thousands of posts
• Podcasts Separated by topic, each only around
  five minutes long
• Wikis used to collaborate on projects
• Social bookmarking Integrated with blogs and
  driven by RSS
• Webjams Free-flowing 72-hour chat rooms used to
  develop ideas from the community of 150,000
  employees

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Podcasting

• Capital One
• Has distributed more than 4,000 iPods to
  employees and made 10,000 courses available
  including material from business schools,
  quarterly reports and executive messages.
• 75 percent of participants indicated audio
  learning had raised their awareness
• 77 percent were able to apply what they had
  learned
• The initiative is part of a larger Future at
  Work program that has seen employee satisfaction
  rise 41 percent
• Employees are required to take a mandatory course
  before using the iPod
• Xerox and Johnson Johnson have distributed
  iPods to sales force

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Podcasting

• Siemens AG (Siemens Medical Solutions)
• Gave 100 iPods to group for training and sales
  support.
• Average training session cost 125,000, while the
  price of the iPods was 30,000
• National Semiconductor
• Distributed video iPods to 8,500 employees for
  training and company announcements
• National Semiconductor provides parts for the
  iPods and was coming off a record year

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Internal Blogs

• Companies that have internal blogs include
  Intel, Pfizer, Dell, Disney, Zurich North
  America, Johnson Johnson, Microsoft, Bob Evans
  Farms
• Companies use blogs to
• Allow employees who work at different times and
  locations to easily communicate
• Create a greater sense of community and build
  relationships
• To communicate organizational messages and share
  business progress
• To archive and organize organizational knowledge
  in a searchable format

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Blog Platform McDonalds

• The blogging community, hosted by iUpload, is
  integrated into the AccessMCD internal
  communications hub.
• The first coporate blogger was former company
  president Mike Roberts whose posts followed three
  themes
• Trip reports communicating things he viewed
  visiting store
• Reinforcement of leadership messages about
  business goals
• Live Blogs where he would sit in front of a
  computer, begin a post, and respond to employee
  comments in real time.
• McDonalds has expanded the offering to thousands
  of employees and sees it as a great way to build
  knowledge and share best practices among a
  diversified and dispersed workforce.

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Collaborative Idea Generation

• Dell is planning to launch an internal version of
  their IdeaStorm a Digg-like site that will
  allow employees to contribute and vote on ways to
  improve the company.
• This will be integrated with companies current
  internal blog which is heavy on video content and
  lets employees submit questions to the CEO

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For more information

• Contact Jeffrey Treem
• Senior Analyst, Edelman Change
• and Employee Engagement
• 312-233-1340
• jeffrey.treem_at_edelman.com