This week, our team that runs the support handle on Twitter for customer service reached a milestone -250,000 followers! The team started tweeting in August 2009, so that is quite an accomplishment.   While “followers”  is more of a vanity metric (hey, look how cool I am), as a brand it does tend to give you bragging rights internally and of course if you want to get a message out to your community quickly it helps to have a few thousand followers.

Looking back here is how we were able to accomplish this, we:

1. Created Valuable content - All publicly sent content was chosen based on its usefulness to the overall community.
2. Listened to the community – The team paid attention to the community on Twitter and beyond to understand pain points, frequently asked questions and topics of interest.
3. Acted as a concierge – 140 characters doesn’t give you a lot to work with, so the the team tends to act as a traffic director, leading people to the right content at the right time. This means of course that we  had to have great content on the Dot Com, YouTube, Blog and Community to point to.
4. Looked for opportunities for cross-promotion – We recognized that our  twitter channel shouldn’t  live in a bubble. We  include links to the twitter account on other branded channels and we cross link to those channels from our twitter account.  An example of this type of integration – some of our Twitter team writes on our support blog, and our blog content is always promoted via our twitter channel.
5. Took it offline - Social media gives you the opportunity to “humanize” the brand. Engaging in conversations with our customers has allowed us to better understand the needs of our community by having two-way conversations. Taking the team offline to events has given us the opportunity to promote what they do online and at the same time build deeper relationships.
6. Paid attention to “influencers” – We paid attention to folks who had influence, but we also ensured it  didn’t rule everything we did.  Most importantly we recognized that influence wasn’t always the number of followers.
7. Were interesting and unique – The team added pictures of themselves to the background, including their favorite food and their initial so followers would know who was responding to their questions. They also added a team mascot (a dog named Chico) who occasionally tweets for them!
8. Used relevant #hashtags - We used hashtags, but sparingly. We looked to understand what words customers might search for that may not already be within the content of the tweet and were relevant, and discovered #hashtags our fans were already using that would be fitting for our content.
9. Shared information internally – Having the ability to communicate directly to our customers on channels like Twitter allowed us to learn a lot. But, we also had to find ways to action what we learned and in some circumstances let the community know we were doing something with what the information.
10. Tweeted often, but not too often (conversational) – Our community told us when we tweeted to much and so we found ways to balance our public tweeting by using direct messages to offer support.

What has worked for you on Twitter?

When I first started blogging on MEGOAgain.com in 2007 it was because I was excited about the new world of new media, and wanted to share what I was learning.  I wrote about using RSS Readers and Social Bookmarking and of course Twitter.  For the last few years I have tried many of the new social tools that have popped up but none have kept me up to 1:30 in the morning playing like Twitter did in 2007. None, until I tried Quora.

What is Quora?

Quora is a website where you can ask a question on any topic and then the community will answer them. There is a potential to receive multiple responses to your question. The community can help you sort the good from the bad by voting answers up and down.  You can follow topics of interest to you, or search for existing questions before asking your own.

Why is Quora interesting?

Like any social network there are always naysayers who wonder what’s the point. For Twitter they asked who is going to want to hear what you had for breakfast? And, for Quora they question how it is different from other Q & A sites that exist.  It will be interesting to see where Quora goes if it goes mainstream but for the time being I think it will keep people coming back for a few reasons:

• With the ability to vote answers up and down, the good stuff floats to the top
• Quora allows users to create a summary of the responses (take a look at the response to Who are the best female speakers on the topic of Social Media?)
• With the addition of the “voting” on answers there is a bit of gaming excitment. Did your answer get voted up? Down? I love going into a question I responded to and see it at the top! Yes, public recognition matters – we are human.
• Ability to be thanked and thank others for answers. It is nice to know that someone read your post and it was helpful to them. #warmandfuzzy
• The quality of responses is currently amazing. With experts, influencers, and other movers and shakers participating you can find questions answered by “experts” on a variety of subjects. A question about Forbes received a response by the Executive Editor of Forbes  and a question about casting is answered by Ashton Kutcher. Yes,  Ashton Kutcher is on Quora.
• I can follow topics of interest and my friends which guarantess that each time I sign in there is new stuff that is relevant to me in my news feed.
• Easy to share content of interest on other social networks that I already particpate in.

So here is where I get really excited….

What is the potential for a customer service team in social media?

The obvious potential is for employees at brands to respond to questions on Quora.  If a company has active participants in social media channels they could respond to questions where the community has been unable to help (unanswered topics) or respond where misinformation has occurred.  In addition I see a few other opportunities for monitoring and gathering insight:

Monitoring: I would suggest companies should at the very least be paying attention to what people are discussing about their brands on Quora. It goes without saying that a company should have an ear to the ground on the entire web. Monitoring should be step 1 on Quora. Also noteworthy, thanks to @jowyang it seems Quora creates Twitter accounts for some brands (see comments on his recent blog post Quora for Business currently not allowed but you should still monitor).  These Quora created Twitter accounts can make it easy for a cutomer support team to monitor questions related to their brand. A few examples: BlackBerry; Zappos, Intel.

Gather Insight: By listening to the conversations a business can gather insight and feedback on their products/services. What are some of the Frequently asked Questions? Why?

An important note for businesses considering responding on Quora – Quora doesn’t allow accounts for organizations only humans. So, your staff will need to set up individual accounts and within their profile/title show association to the company. With any social network – remember to play by the rules, understand best practices and etiquette before jumping in. This post on Quora – a Marketer’s Manifesto does a great job of outlining guidelines for businesses participating in Quora.

What do you think of Quora? What is the potential for social customer service?

Picture thanks to Mike Duggan

Originally posted on MEGOagain.com

This year I had the incredible opportunity to attend CES (Consumer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas. This show attracts the biggest brands in tech and the people that love them. The word is that 140,000 people hit Vegas this year for CES! I think at any given time we had half of these people in our booth!

So what did I learn from attending #CES?

1) 5 Nights in Vegas is way to long

Late nights, bottle service, hard concrete show floors and your family in a different time zone. Enough said.

2) Expect the unexpected, and do the unexpected

Brands competing for attention at this large show pulled out all the stops with Celebs (our BlackBerry booth had Adrian Grenier, Olivia Wilde, Piers Morgan and Common) and fake Celebs (there was a fake Lady Gaga roaming the show, although the real one was also in attendance).

From David Berkowitz on Flickr

The most “unexpected” campaign was the attendance of the Hershey’s team promoting Reese’s Peanut Buttercups. A candy company at CES? They launched new Reese Mini’s at the show, including a press release and press conference “Reese’s Next Big Little Thing” hosted by tech guy Chris Pirillo. While I heard some muttering about why Reese’s was at a consumer electronics show, I think it was a clever PR play and judging from a quick review of a Google Search it worked. Of course I am a huge fan-girl for chocolate and peanut butter.

3) Technology is awesome

I work in tech, but my love of technology has always tended to lie in the ability to connect over social media rather than ooohing and ahing over gadgets, gizmos and shiny metal and buttons. After I walk around the show, I now have a much better idea as to why friends are obsessed with flat screen TVs and booming speakers and high tech appliances. Due to CES my appreciation for what goes into the creation of the products, and the incredible innovation that exists is today is 1000 x what it was pre- CES. I saw a mind blowing wall of televisions thinner than mobile phones; listened to headphones that made me feel like I was in the movie, and even high-tech vacuums that make me want to clean. This, along with the incredible integration and collaboration between brands makes me simply excited about what is to come!

4) Taking Online – Offline can be a huge success!

Our team from @BlackBerryHelp was onsite to do some live tweeting and offer tips, tricks and support to people who visited at the booth. Our @BlackBerry team was also running contests and live tweeting about events at the booth. These efforts proved successful in building awareness and engaging our community. And, even share of voice it appears on social networking sites.

Kodak also had a Blog Zone at their booth run by Thomas Hoehn and Chief Blogger Jennifer Cisney. The team was live tweeting, blogging as well as hosting talks on technology and social media.

I met a number of other social media types from brands at the show – who were tweeting to keep their followers looped in to the buzz at CES. I am sure next year we will see even more engagement from brands on the social channels around CES.

5) I want to go again!

Tweeting, Foursquare check-ins and blogs from CES…what will 2012 bring?

With all the shopping over the holiday it has caused me to think about how our expectations as a customer shapes how we ultimately view the overall transaction or  interaction with the company, and of course how they affect your decision for future business with them. When you purchase a product or service you have expectations for its delivery and for its use.  Some of these expectations are set by the marketing and advertising for the service or product. If I were to go into Burger King for example, a Canadian fast food chain that professes you can “have it your way”,  and they forced me to eat a burger with pickles and onions, my expectations would not be met.  On the other hand some expectations are based on our past experience.  I recently vacationed to Punta Cana to the Melia Caribe Tropical resort, I had been there two times in previous years, so I expected great food at a variety of a la carte restaurants as I had experienced before. I was immensely disappointed as four of the a la cartes were closed for renovation and another had been designated a “paid” restaurant. 

Still other expectations are set at point of sale.  Have you ever purchased a product or service that didn’t live up to the features outlined by a sales staff? Or perhaps the delivery of that service or product was not as was agreed upon at the time of the sale. I recently purchased some appliances from Sears, paid an extra fee for Saturday delivery so that my appliances would arrive before I moved in and before the Gas guy came in to set up a Gas line to my kitchen. Sears did not deliver on Saturday, and when they did deliver on Wednesday they took off the front door and asked us to put it back on as they were behind on that day’s deliveries.  Not only did they fail to deliver on their promises, they ensured that the next time I make a major purchase it won’t likely be at Sears since my expectations are very low for their ability to meet my requirements of service.

By meeting or exceeding a customer’s expectations a business has the ability to increase the chances of a repeat purchase  and positive word of mouth.  You can more often meet expectations by:

1) Improved and frequent communication with customer

I ordered a sofa from Joshua Creek furniture in Oakville. It was to arrive within 4-6 weeks. When I hadn’t heard from them I phoned for a status update.  They called the manufacturer of the sofa and discovered that the leather I had chosen was back-ordered and was expected in the following week. Joshua Creek followed up numerous times over the course of the next few weeks to keep me in the loop as to when to expect my new sofa. 

Constant communication allows you to reset expectations, as well as to continually gauge the state of your relationship with the customer. It also gives you an opportunity to proactively amend the situation before it goes off the rails again.

2) If you mess up, admit it and make amends.

Joshua Creek didn’t meet the delivery date and to make up for it they volunteered to deliver the sofa for no cost. In fact, the owner himself delivered it and also offered a leather cleaning package. All this was done, without my having to complain, or escalate to someone else in the business.

Have a process in place for frequent errors and mistakes. Doing this empowers your staff to make decisions quickly at the time of the customer issue without having to wait for management approvals or asking the customer to sit on hold only to explain the issue again to a supervisor.

3) Actively set realistic expectations at the beginning of the relationship with your customer

Too often staff are poorly trained especially in a retail environment. They don’t understand product features or have the information they need to properly explain the service they are offering.  This means that they don’t set realistic expectations for the customer.  At the beginning of the post I talked about a recent trip to Punta Cana where I was very disappointed in the lack of a la carte restaurants. Had the resort communicated their renovations and ensured cost savings were in-line with the decrease in service -  I would have no need to be unhappy during my vacation and certainly wouldn’t feel it was necessary to write the resort afterwards with my negative opinion of their service. 

By training staff and empowering them to say “I don’t know” – along with a process to find out the correct information means they will more frequently set proper expecations and make realistic promises from the beginning.

Communication, empowerment and training can go a long way to ensure you meet your customers expecations – no matter how they come by them. Of course even better than meeting expectations is exceeding them!

How do ensure your customers go away happy? How do you exceed their expectations?

My background in marketing pushes me to promote and actively search out word of mouth opportunities for the good work being done by the business.  Therefore, my role in customer service today makes me distinctly aware of efforts of the business to hide “help”.

Help has become a bad word. No company wants to admit that their customers might need help so they hide customer service under the fold in tiny print on their webpage as seen on the Nintendo Canada page.  Others call it “Support” so the connotations are that the manufacturer is sustaining or upholding their customers. The definition of support from Dictionary.com includes ”to bear or hold up (a load, mass, structure, part, etc.); serve as a foundation for”,  ”to sustain or withstand (weight, pressure, strain, etc.) without giving way; serve as a prop for”,  and ” to maintain (a person, family, establishment, institution, etc.) by supplying with things necessary to existence; provide for: to support a family.” Is this really what customers want when they visit your website? Don’t they just want you to help them get unstuck in whatever issue they are currently experiencing?

Why does the term “Help” have negative connotations to enterprise? The marketing assumption is that the website, the conference booth, the direct mail piece etc is  a sales opportunity to new or existing customers. If you want to sell something you want customers to believe your solution to their need is simple and easy. Having a “help” section on the website, or dedicated help staff at a conference booth could mean you have a complicated product.

The question is do customers really think this way? Aren’t a certain percentage of traffic to your website post-sales customers looking for how-to and directions? I don’t expect that when I buy new television that I will know exactly how it will work with the rest of my Audio-Visual equipment and I will go directly to the website to find the answers to the questions. What I do expect is that this information is easy and clear to locate. Too often this is not the case as manufacturers hide “help”  behind “Service”, “Support”, within the fine print and by pressing 10 for a representative.

Why not simplify? It is ok to ask for help and  to ask for directions. Better to encourage your customers to use your products to the best of their ability than to frustrate them in their search for help. Help after all means “to give or provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need; contribute strength or means to; render assistance to; cooperate effectively with; aid; assist” (Dictionary.com). Clear and simple.

There are so many ways to lose a customer. As Andy Sernovitz poignantly states in his post Did you lose the customer on the way out the door,   “Doing a good job isn’t good enough any more. Anyone can do that. Relationships are what make or break you.”

Having good customer service doesn’t end with the sale.  Companies need to consider the relationships they have with the customers from the moment they walk in the door and remember it doesn’t end when they buy. Going the extra mile could be as simple as a follow-up call, a easy-to find self service option for help, or in Andy’s case help getting the purchased item to the car.

At any point a customer can decide to the relationship with a business-

At the beginning:

Example: A shop where I was looking to purchase a large appliance and the two staff working were helping one customer purchase filters. Neither greeted me or said “I will be with you in a moment”

Or, five years into the relationship:

Example: An IVR system that insisted I speak to it and kept telling me that they didn’t understand my request. Once I fought my way through the system I ended up going through three people to get a simple request complete.

Today, with growing competition and the increased ability to spread word of mouth due to the social web businesses are going to step up their game. It isn’t enough to be average.  It isn’t enough to follow through until the sale.

Last week was Customer Service week, likely a week that passes you by without much hoopla unless you actually work in a service role. At our office they rolled out the red carpet for the staff in order to honor the folks who work the “front-lines” with our customers. One week of recognition seems inadequate when you consider the impact the service department has on the business.

Customer service helps you find and help people with their problems. Serving customers with the information they need, at their time of need, empowers them and makes them better users of your product or service. In return for awesome customer service they may in turn talk about your product to their friends, family and social network (both on and offline) referring others to your company.  Essentially your customers create new customers for you. This form of word of mouth or peer influence  means that customers matter after the sale. Increasing positive touch-points with your customer after the sale simply gives them more reason to feel good about the purchase and your company. This is where customer service plays and has the opportunity to make a difference.

If great customer service can actually affect so much: brand loyalty, sales, sentiment then why are customer service departments often the ugly step sister? Unfortunately, customer service is typically treated as a cost center, the focus is on cost reduction (# of deflected calls) and efficiency (timed response). But customer service can be a powerful marketing channel. This has become more true than ever before due social networks where customers are referring and sharing product information; and where brands and customers are having two-way conversations. Frank Eliason says it best in Marketing is Smart, Customer Service is Submissive - we need to make the customer story central to decision making. It is time for customer service to tell and show the business the key role it plays in the success of the company.

Customer Service may only be a week long – but how important is it for your business?

We hope that you will enjoy this newly launched blog where we focus on passionate customer service in social media!

Earlier this week I published Part 1 of the interview with Ben Hong, Sr. Mgr. Technical Services, Global Customer Care and Digital Home Group for Logitech.The first half of the interview gave you a brief introduction to Ben and his team at Logitech.

This is the final portion of this written interview.

Part Two: People, Process, & Tools- Logitech with Ben Hong

What kind of training is required for team members who are active online? And, does your company have a social media policy in place? Can you tell us a little bit about these efforts and how they help (or hinder ) the team.

We train our team on how to be online ambassadors and effective writers for blogs, micro-blogs and knowledge bases (SEO). So far, training has been extremely important to maintaining consistency and control. Without it there would be chaos. Currently, the online ambassador training provides our employees with knowledge of the social media policy. It’s helpful, not a hindrance.

If you could share your favorite tips, best practices, lessons learned or social media must have – what are they?

• Look before you leap….have a framework and plan before you get started.
• Start with social monitoring. It is incredible what you learn your customers are talking about and provides critical insight about where your early investments should be made.
• If you are managing a social media program for customer service you must be social internally as much as you are externally. Key learning’s and shared insights complement VoC programs.

There are many tools for tweeting, listening, and overall participating in social media – which ones do you use either personally or for your work?

Co-tweet, Radian6, TweetDeck, backtype, delicious, FriendFeed, NetVibes, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, WordPress, Yelp, Flickr, StumbleUpon, Digg, Google Buzz, ShareThis, Technorati

Whether you have your own community on your “dot com” or you participate in existing social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Get Satisfaction etc) – what do you do to build the community and encourage your community members to become ambassadors for the brand?

We have a reputation model in the community that helps us and community member identify and recognize key contributors. Our Logi Legends and Gurus have a close relationship with my team and we work side by side with them in the community. To help them with their work we often send them our products.

Do you reward community members for the work they do? If so, how?

Nothing formal … yet.

When helping customers in social channels do you reply publicly or privately? Does it differ by channel? Discuss how you make this decision.

We reply both publicly and privately. If we are managing a customer escalation in our forums or on Twitter we respond publicly but ask for specific information to be provided privately. We do this to protect customer information. Otherwise we respond publicly to all else.

Is YouTube a part of your support efforts? How do you use this and other video channels for customer service and support? Do you create the videos or is another team responsible for these? Do you engage with the YouTube community? How do you measure success for your video efforts?

Our plans for YouTube are in development. We plan to publish 1-2 videos per month.

Many companies have gone through some highly visible social media gaffs (Dominos, Southwest); while others have seen offline issues go viral due to social media (Graco recalls, Toyota recalls). In your opinion how should a company deal with crisis online? Do you have a process in place that helps you determine next steps in the case of your own “crisis”?

Responses should be quick, open and honest. To that end, Logitech was put to the test recently when the US National Labor Committee reported on Chinese labor issues back in April of this year. Joseph Sullivan, our Sr. VP of Worldwide Operations, responded with a letter to the committee and we posted in online. In his letter which he shared, he stated the plain truth. Thankfully we had severed the relationship with the offending factory, however, he was clear to state when and why. It was met with positive comments and response.

What is next for you and your team? What are you excited about today?

Twitter enhancements, YouTube and Facebook integration are on our roadmap. Right now I am working on Radian6 setup and configuration.

What is your favorite social media tool, network or other for personal use?

LinkedIn. I was an early adopter and have seen how it evolved. It helps me keep up-to-date with colleagues, recruit, participate in communities of interest/practice and share what I am working on.

Thanks to Ben for taking the time to share!

Often when we talk about social media in business we talk about “social media marketing” which is a term I dislike for various reasons -one reason being that it supposes it only lies in one department rather than an integral part of how we communicate with customers, employees, and stakeholders.

One area that should be part of the grand scheme when it comes to social media is customer service.  Today many companies are finding ways to connect with their customers directly via the web, often offering support and help. Since this is a focus in my work I wanted to highlight the subject on my blog.  Through my work I have had the opportunity to chat with many others that are using social media for support. I have learned a lot from them and want to share some of these conversations through a short series of interviews. My hope is that you will find this information helpful in building your online customer care communities.

In order to facilitate these posts I sent a series of questions to a few folks and they were kind enough to respond. The first interview is with Ben Hong, Senior Manager Technical Services, Global Customer Care and Digital Home Group at Logitech. Due to the number of questions I have broken this post into two posts. Part two will be published later this week.

Part One: Customer Care Online First Steps- Logitech with Ben Hong

Can you describe your career path that brought you to where you are today?

It has been one focused on creating the best possible experience for customers by implementing service innovations and managing for high performance.

How would you describe a typical work day?

Busy, busy and busy…so it usually starts even before I leave for the office by reading and responding to email, tweets and Facebook. When I arrive, I try meet with each member of my team individually to discuss projects/tasks and provide the team with feedback or direction.  The rest of the day is spent managing programs which normally involve participating or chairing meetings, preparing and delivering presentations, briefs and reports. For the last few months I have also been spending time throughout the day monitoring our discussion forums, Twitter, Facebook and Blogs. Putting into action our social media support program is what excites me about work these days.

What responsibilities fall into your department or team? Where does you team fall in the organizational structure ( eg. customer service? communication?)

My team and I lead social media, knowledge management, VoC and training initiatives within the Global Customer Care and Digital Home Group organizations of Logitech.

How many people work on your team?  What are you able to accomplish with this size team in the social space – e.g channels? quantity of daily responses?

My team is made up of two products specialists, curriculum designer, and various contractors that provide technical writing, training and video content.

• Blogs – We write one Tips and Tricks blog post each week for the corporate blog and respond to on average 2-3 comments each day.
• Customer Forums – We monitor customer forums from 20-30 responses per day for the team.
• Internal Forums – We monitor internal discussion forums for our customer care agents and respond daily to 10-20 posts per day.
• Twitter – We co-tweet with marketing/PR teams and respond to 2-5 customer care or technical support questions each day.
• Social Monitoring – We just acquired Radian6 as social monitoring tool. However, we have been using a variety of free tools to track blogs, twitter, product reviews and other social media. We typically report once a week on social media trends/buzz for our Harmony Remote Controls products.
• Videos – Currently creating prototype videos for publication on YouTube and Viddler. Our plan is to publish 1-2 videos per month.

Social Media plays a large part of your role, but typically people associate the use of Social Media with Marketing, what are the biggest benefits realized by your business due to your team’s participation in social media for customer service?

We are early on in our adoption of social media for customer service, month three. There are two early benefits to our participation in social media responding to and managing negative customer experiences, learning more about our customers through social monitoring. Our long term goals are tied to the mission of delivering an engaging online customer service experience.

How did you initially convince the business that engaging with customers via social channels for customer service was the right strategy?

It’s a work in-progress, but we asked to create an incubator team. Our chain of command from CMO to VP to Directors have all been extremely supportive and eager to see the program grow.

Generally, customers don’t care what department you work in when they connect online. Do you work closely with other internal departments to integrate social media communication efforts? If so, which ones?

Absolutely. We work closely with marketing, sales, PR, CX, QA and product/software engineering teams. Our marketing and PR social media programs are more mature and we have learned a lot by partnering with them.

There are many social channels where your customers will engage with each other – how do you decide which social spaces you will participate in?

Given where we are with the development of our program we have focused primarily on mass social media applications and networks. Social monitoring tools will help us to decide if and where we move next. For us it is critical to look before we leap.

As social channels grow, and customers come to expect businesses to respond online to their requests – there has been a lot of talk about scaling efforts. Is this a concern for your team? If it is how will you scale to meet the growing business? If not, why?

Yes, scale and resourcing is a critical part of our plan, which is why we have decided to take a measured approach to building out the program. Currently we have a small team, with a roadmap for adding resources.

How do you measure the success of your social media efforts?

Success is and will be tied to our corporate and departmental goals. So, NPS and cost will be key measures of our success.

Do you have KPIs for your team (for example time to response) if so can you share what these are and why they were chosen?

We are working on them.

Watch for part two…

In part two I ask Ben questions around the people, process and tools he is using to accomplish the work they are doing online for customer service.

When I joined the workforce e-mail was pretty standard as a method for communication and the Internet was commonly used for research purposes. But, in the early days of email many business owners and managers did not allow e-mail in the offices for fear that their employees would not get any work done, they were concerned over how to manage, store and capture e-mailed information, and of course they grappled with security issues surrounding e-mail. Today, business owners and managers have realized that e-mail has increased the speed of business communication, and concerns over data capture and management as well as security have largely been overcome.

Social Networks Stats and Facts

There is a new tool that has caused much consternation and hand-wringing for IT Managers and business owners – social networks and social media.  A new report by Nielson puts social networks ahead of e-mail in online activities according to a recent article in the Globe and Mail.  Neilson found that 1 in 11 minutes online is spent on a social network or blog site, bringing social networks and blogs to the fourth most popular activity following search, general interest portals and software manufacturers. More telling is the growth seen by social networks during the period of the study (Dec 2007-Dec 2008) which saw between 1.4 and 1.9% growth for the top three activities versus an incredible 5.4% for social networking.

There are 150 Million active Facebook users and a recent research study from Pew Inernet shows that 11% of online adults say they have used the social network Twitter. A Netpop report shows that 7 Million people in the U.S. are contributing to content online and that social networking sites have grown a whopping 93% since 2006!

Despite the growth in the use of social media and social networks specifically, many corporations have decided to bury their head in the sand and hope it goes away, much like they did when e-mail came on the scene. Instead of facing the issues these companies have decided to simply block employees access.

Blocking Access

The concerns for social media are similar to those in the 1990s when e-mail entered the workplace: productivity, data capture, privacy and security. The approach the same – block, refuse access, refer employees to old technology (oddly in the case of social media it is often e-mail!). But this is short-sighted, unrealistic and a passive approach that will eventually (if not already!) be seen as anti-productive.

Let’s look at the concerns companies have regarding social media:

Productivity: This has to be the most ridiculous of the reasons. 1) If employees want to be slack off all they need to do is go stand by someone else’s desk, go for a smoke break, chat at the water cooler, close their eyes and have a snooze. Let’s face it if you can’t trust your employees are doing their job…then you didn’t hire the right people or they are bored, unchallenged or unempowered. 2) If employees are allowed to use social media they can actually become more productive! (More on this in next post)

Data Capture/Management: Many social networks are easily followed, stored and saved. People have clearly moved beyond this issue with e-mail – and this can be accomplished with Social Networks. Ownership can be overcome by businesses as well by contracting space on sites for block of space that would be under control of the company as suggested by Salesforce.com precedent. Another alternative is to set up internal IM systems, social networks and Wikis for use with Internal Communication. While this does not help customer and vendor communication it can allow employees some use of tools that will help productivity while maintaining data security and capture.

Privacy and Security: This is a biggie, and closely related to data capture and management. Panic has ensued amongst business owners with regards to data privacy and corporate secrets. And, of course it can be an issue as more and more employees spend time on social networks discussing their lives (which includes work) with Facebook status changes, LinkedIn profiles, and of course the tweets on Twitter. Companies obviously want to limit and retain close control over sensitive company information, at the same time they also must find ways to engage and communicate directly with their customers (or risk losing them). As social media becomes increasingly interconnected and more customers EXPECT companies to be active on social networks it will become inadequate to simply block social media sites and use URL filtering. Instead companies can help alleviate the privacy and security (and avoid potential lawsuits) issues by creating policies and educating employees on safe data handling. (Note: There are also IT tools available on the market to help monitor, examine historic patterns of leaks and discover and eliminate malware that have in the past been issues with some Web 2.0 sites). Privacy and security is an issue whether your employees are using social media or not – but a easy to understand policy, and a central contact for questions related to privacy and security can help companies avoid future issues.

Net Generation at Work

Companies that decide to limit or block use of social media are not only unnecessarily limiting their communication with their customers through online methods, they are also forfeiting the chance to discover new tools for collaboration within the organization. By closing the company off from social media they are also driving away younger employees who are looking to work for companies whose culture fits their life and ideals.  Don Tapscott in his book Grown Up Digital says the “Net gener [age 18-32] arrives at work, eager to use his social networking tools to collaborate and create and contribute to the company. For starters he’s shocked to find that the company’s technological tools are more primitive than the ones he used in high school…And they are surprised, perhaps naively, to learn that corporations have antiquated ways of working.” These same Net Generation workers can, if given a chance, show companies how to collaborate in new ways more effectively and efficiently. But, these workers don’t stick around long according to Tapscott – they usually only last two years before moving on. Which is too bad since Tapscott’s research shows that those companies that embrace the Net Gen norms perform better than those that don’t..

This generation, of which I am a part of (well I missed it by a month…), view life and work different from other generations according to Tapscott – and that view is defined by 8 characteristics or norms: Freedom, Customization, Scrutiny, Openness, Fun/Entertainment in life and work, Collaboration, Speed, Innovation.

Tapscott definies these characteristics as they relate to work (summary):

Freedom: Net Geners expect to mix work and their personal lives, and this includes choosing when and where they work. They want flexible hours, the ability to telecommute, and other services that make their lives easier.

Customization: They want employers to treat them as individuals and this means giving them learning and development opportunities that are right for them. They want an adaptable work environment, job descriptions that are project based and customized, flexible benefits,  and more frequent discussions on their contribution to the organization.

Scrutiny: How we search for jobs has changed and how we research the company before we make a change has as well.  According to Grown Up Digital 60% of Net Geners check out a company before accepting a job offer. They want to work for companies that are transparent, share information, and have integrity. Tapscott says: “Young people respond well to management integrity…there is greater loyalty and lower turnover, and employees are more likely to do the right thing.” (For example more likely to get their job done even if they take a break to check Facebook, and more likely to hold company secrets sacred and follow company privacy policy).

Collaboration: Net Geners want to work with other people and collaboration is how they get stuff done. To them the workplace should be less about hierarchies and departmental silos and more about connecting with others to solve a problem. Using social networks, social bookmarking, Wikis, aps like LinkedIn Huddle Workpaces or Virtual worlds (Second Life) to meet, collaborate, plan, and execute.

Fun/Entertainment: Fun and work go hand in hand for this generation – they don’t need to be separate. Cultures that allow employees to have a little fun at work end up with more productive staff. We all need a break before diving back into another round of work – and if surfing on a social network is that little bit of fun – why block it?

Speed: This generation is used to speed and instant responses. Why not? We no longer have to wait for dial-up or snail mail! For Net Geners red tape is frustrating, feedback should be in real-time and bureaucracy can mean doom in the market. They use social media tools such as Wikis and IM to speed up communication within the workplace.

Innovation: This is a fascinating point Tapscott makes: “If video games taught this Net Generation anything, it’s that every problem has seemingly endless solutions” and so this generation is looking for new ways to their jobs, to be innovative in their workplace, to challenge status quo. Many of these young workers bring their knowledge of social media to the work place creating new communication channels, building collaborative work systems, and finding new ways to solve a business problem.

In the End

Social media such as instant messaging, blogging and social networks have gained ground as communication tools outside the workplace by leaps and bounds, and it is only a matter of time before they, like e-mail before them, become necessary and an acceptable part of the work place.  The concerns for productivity,  data management, and security and privacy are valid – however they can be overcome by education, corporate policy and new IT tools. Ultimately, if a company hires good people they will need less process and bureaucracy to police the space – as the employees in an open and empowered culture will be more likely to use social media tools wisely. Through using social media in the workplace employees will find new ways to harness collective knowledge, collaborate, and create ways to communication effectively internally and externally.

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