Social Media World Forum & Enterprise Social Media Conference #smwf #esm

The opening day of the Social Media World forum was a mixed bag;  eager attendees and interesting talks, underpinned by appalling organisation.

For me, the underlying theme of the day was around integration and ownership of enterprise 2.0 tools. Helen Farrar of Virgin Media presented an interesting case study of their strides to embrace social tools over the last three years. Her statement that e2.0 tools MUST be fully integrated into existing company systems and processes to succeed really resonated with the audience. It was a point that was echoed by almost everyone who presented.

I asked her what the greatest challenge was in getting internal buy-in and she was refreshingly candid. Simply put it was fear. Fear of technology, fear of loss of control and fear of disruption. The solution she gave was equally simple – show people they’re being listened to and show that top brass are behind it.

This point was reinforced by Sonia Carter of AXA UK who gave a fascinating insight into the AXA e2.0 journey to date. As a toe in the water, they developed a vBulletin forum to act as an idea engine and to develop learnings across their three distinct businesses units. Adoption was slow until they put the CEO and another top exec into a live 2-hour Q&A session. Participant numbers rocketed, a server melted and this is now seen as the single most successful piece of internal engagement in the company’s history.

The thorny issue of compliance also raised its head here. The first incarnation of the community was developed at low cost and therefore rapidly implemented 'under the radar'. However, with its success came the need to expand and the need to adhere to corporate policy and create user guidelines. This took 12 months and cost over ten times the original community!

Which nicely epitomised the key take-outs of the day for me. To create a sustainable and successful internal social programme you need to:

• Spread the ownership - if only one department owns it, it will surely fail
• Engage stakeholders early and engage them often
• The objectives dictate the success metrics
• Look beyond the bottom line to measure ROI - think engagement/knowledge transfer/retention

Overall it was well worth attending and as with all of these events – you get out what you put in.

Categories: Business, Events, Social Business Design.
Tags: AXA UK, e2.0, enterprise social media conference, internal comms, Social Business Design, virgin media

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