Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

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.

I don’t know the exact number of organisations that have experimented with social software or social media for internal communications, but from those that we’ve connected with and listened to it’s clear there are a large number of them that didn’t get the results they wanted because they didn’t know where to start or were unsure of how to build adoption. So if you fall into one of these categories, here are a few pointers that you may find useful.

More than just push messaging tool
First off, social tools (wikis, forums, tagging etc), and more importantly social networking behaviours, can be deployed to help information flow more freely, enhance knowledge sharing and internal collaboration, activate deeper employee engagement, and even has proven results in achieving staff retention. They shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as a replacement for those things you are already doing, and they should be seen as something more wide-reaching that simply a communication tool versed with message pushing!

Command and control no longer
The days of command & control are numbered as social tools place greater emphasis on people at all levels by providing everyone with a voice, whether they choose to exercise it or not. Therefore, their is no such thing as ownership - it is owned by everyone, and more so by those with a hunger, passion and willing to participate and contribute. This is heightened by the fact that there are less rules than before - but guidelines are vitally important nonetheless, as leaders seek to engender adoption.

Social networks are a solution, not a problem
There are a lot of organisations and business leaders out there banning the likes of Facebook and other social networking sites from the workplace as they see it as a threat to productivity. I question, is technology the reason that people want to do something other than what they are paid for within the workplace? Perhaps job satisfaction should be studied very carefully, as should the behaviours that are now commonplace among staff in their private lives, for it is this which needs to be harnessed in the workplace.

Host the conversation, it’s taking place anyway!
Business also fears that their workers will talk negatively about a range of work-related issues. To this I say embrace it, listen carefully, and if it becomes such a problem then let the community themselves report it and deal with it in a way they deem relevant. By offering these controls, you will find such negativity rare indeed! What’s more, these conversation are taking place elsewhere, so better to be able to gather them and respond to them in the best way possible.

Don’t be afraid to experiment (and fail)
When considering the use of social tools within the workplace, don’t be afraid to experiment, and we advocate starting small. Invite a number of people whom you believe will be early adopters, and allow them to spread the word. Make them champions within the business, and they will help culture the guidelines and behaviours that can achieve your goals. Social tools are by their very nature flexible and cost-effective, so create a playground, sit back, watch and learn.

A range of business applications and solutions
And finally, developing social tools for internal communications isn’t an initiative that should be led or driven by your IT department. Why? Simply put, they exist to implement now out-moded command and control systems, and are much more focussed on the ‘tech’ rather than the all important behaviours.

Wrapping up, social tools can help you with a plethora of business cases, including the following;

• Internal collaboration
• Knowledge sharing
• Business networking
• Learning
• Internal communications
• Resource management
• Sweating knowledge capital
• Sales support
• Customer service

If you’re asking yourself how you can achieve some of these points, and want to learn more how social tools can benefit your organisation on the inside then drop me a line, I’d be happy to help, advise, guide and get my hands dirty.

There's been some considerable buzz around location-based services for some time now, but thats mainly among us consultants. That was until the arrival of Gowalla, Google Latitude and especially the rapidly rising Foursquare. These applications allow you to connect and follow friends as they travel the world (or just your local postcode). They work by using the geo-data captured from your mobile device and then, in the case of Foursquare, get you to 'check-in' to the precise destination. Simple, fun, insightful!

We like Foursquare not only because it keeps us up-to-date with the movements of our friends, but it also allows is to discover new and exciting places to visit in cities around the world, thanks to our well-travelled friends. Perhaps more importantly, the service has massive potential for business owners - especially retailers and operators - in that users can be tracked and rewarded for multiple visits to destinations. This offers great opportunities for customer and brand loyalty schemes and deepens engagement with customers in the 2.0 way.

Best of all, Foursquare harnesses gaming mechanics to increase participation. Simply, the more you visit, the higher your points. Earn points for multiple visits to the same destination or be rewarded with Adventurer status when you check-in to new destinations.

Here's how points are currently awarded:

• +5 points for your first time checking-in at a venue
• +5 points for adding a new venue
• +1 point for per checkin, increasing by +1 with each checkin (e.g. your 1st checkin of the day is +1, 2nd checkin of the day +2 points, etc)

We've even witnessed meet-ups in Sydney and New York for those awarded Mayoral status! So what are you waiting for, drop by Foursquare, befriend me and then drop by Dub....we're waiting for you!

Last night, a few of us from the office went along to One Alfred Place to listen to a presentation by Jemima Gibbons on her new book, Monkeys with Typewriters. The event was actually hosted by the Society for Organisational Learning (SOL-UK), and was attended more by academics and those in the business of Knowledge Management and Learning, than Social Media/Business/Software people like ourselves. This however was what made the debate captivating!

To in part quote Jemima herself, Monkeys with Typewriters sets about debunking the idea that social media are an amateurish distraction for today’s organisations. Having only seen snippets of the book at the present time, I can’t reassure you that the book actually achieves this, but what became evident was the progress and development in social media and social software that have been achieved since Jemima set about writing the book. Many of the chapter hooks such as co-creation, passion, openness and transparency have already been well document elsewhere, leaving the book feeling the somewhat dated. However, it soon became clear that this particular audience were naturally some way behind our own thinking and work practices

What I feel Jemima has done well is to engage and strong selection of web entrepreneurs, practitioners and industry spokespeople. This has allowed her to present many varied views of such topics as co-creation, openness and transparency, whilst hitting home the point that entrepreneurs of the future will create much flatter (non-hierarchical) business structures, and harness the power of ‘we’ thinking.

Among those interviewed include Scott Monty (Ford Motor Company), who’s view was that Ford is essentially a news organisation, Craig Newmark (Founder of Craigslist) who emphasises his role as a customer service manager, and Lloyd Davis (Tuttle Club) who states that if you can’t come to Tuttle Club because of work commitment then you simply don’t get it - it is work!

Perhaps my main take-out of the session was that of the perspective of the learning professionals present in the room. They were adamant that ‘learning’ will never take place in such an effective manner online as it does offline (or face-to-face), despite knowledge flow and information the internet puts at out fingertips. Learning clearly needs to combine the two within organisations, but must understand how, when and where to integrate the two, and provide a real purpose to the social tools that support it.

I tweeted snippets of the presentation here for you to view, and was astonished to even get a response from the Craig Newman himself as praised him for his beliefs!

(New things I learnt: Tuple and Panopticon!)

Socialising Best Practice and Lessons Learnt

The Design Council, a UK Government-funded strategic body, promotes the use of design through the UK.  They help business be better at doing what they do by instilling design thinking and by helping designers be more effective and public services more efficient.

Having embarked upon the development of The Designers’ Business Knowledge Base (DBKB) - an essential Best Practice resource from which design professionals, design buyers and design educators can seek inspiration and guidance - the client required a strategic overlay describing how the DBKB could be delivered as an interactive communication and collaboration tool.

The core of our work saw the development of a Digital Framework for the DBKB focusing on how users could submit and extract experience-based stories and case studies. Insights were by way of formal submissions and more conversational stories of the kind designers of all ages and experience could submit using simple, easy-to-use social software tools.

The  framework was constructed on four pillars; The User Model, Content Model, Business Model and Sustainability Model.

• The User Model proposed a variety of benefits and rewards for each of the stakeholder groups, including those of a social, emotional, financial and experiential kind.
• The Content Model explored how the resource would harness user-generated content to provide insightful and inspiring best practice examples.
• The Business Model looked at and made recommendations as to how The Design Council could monetise the service
• And finally, the Sustainability Model took inspiration from what we believed to be some of the more forward-thinking online services around, and how the DBKB could integrate their behaviours in order to be more future-proofed.

The crux of our strategic recommendations was for The Design Council to harness its existing offline design practitioner network connections for traditional push messaging, but also to engage them in more dynamic and ongoing online conversation in order to trawl for ongoing insights and knowledge around design best practice. The development of best practice guidelines in a traditional sense had proven to be expensive, and often the outcome would date very quickly. Digitally captured knowledge could be kept alive, nurtured and extended by the community, and knowledge shared over time to the extent that the community became self-helpers.

Our recommended process and methodology is currently being developed ready for implementation.

Heroes is a talent business that helps its clients (businesses and agencies) find world-class innovation, creativity, branding and communication expertise on an as-needed basis - a kind of ‘talent on-tap’ offering. The talent - known as the Heroes - include such luminaries as Stephen Bayley, Kevin Duncan and Alistair Fee among others.

The business owners wanted to tackle how talent businesses operate by creating a powerful knowledge base and collaboration tool that delivered greater connectivity, networking and knowledge exchange. Despite counting some of the UK’s most prestigious creative and problem-solving minds as their asset, they were disparate and disconnected.

Working closely with the business owners, we designed a solution using an existing professional grade forum and KM  software package. Known as the Green Room, we customised the interface and functionality and created a communication and file-sharing structure that focused on three core area; Community Discussions, Work Opportunities and Idea Development.

Community Discussions
By engendering greater network connectedness, and turning some of the weaker ties into stronger, more collaborative ties, we created an online community of creative and branding experts. Community Discussions was a place where hot topics and general issues shared by the community through their work could be discussed, and where knowledge that could help solve briefs was located.

Work Opportunities
An innovative development was to provide a forum upon which not just briefs for talent were shared and discussed, but also a place where end-client briefs could be brainstormed and where participation could be activated.

Idea Development
We found that the Heroes themselves were an entrepreneurial group of individuals, so set about creating a space where their own business ideas could be cultivated by groups of like-minded and ‘interested’ collaborators. The collective intellectual property that was generated became a valuable asset to the business and it’s individual stakeholders alike.

Not only did the Green Room help innovate a traditional talent business, it provided a powerful collaboration tool the likes of which many of the Heroes themselves had not witnessed in their professional lives, but had become commonplace in their own social networking activities. We made full use of these behaviours such that the Heroes were able to adopt the new tool with ease. Heroes' new connectivity also brought about a new sense of belonging, companionship and a sense of 'we', which, when working on a contractual-basis, is often lacking.

Here’s what our client had to say about the experience, which naturally we’re rather pleased about;

Dub has been a very positive transformational force for my business.  Not only have they worked on a consultancy basis to create a culture of understanding around the complex issues of on-line networking, they have also worked very hard to create a networking structure that answers the needs of my business.  From the outset of this project, Dub has explained in a clear and jargon-free way the opportunities and potential downsides of setting up an web-based network.  In a sector in which it is easy to be dazzled and left bewildered by the technology of the process and to lose sight of the desired outcomes, dub have always been reassuringly 'non-techy', non patronising and yet have managed to operate at the forefront of the sector without making me feel left behind in my own project.

Throughout the whole project the dub men seemed to be as committed and enthusiastic about making my project work and work well as I was.  I never got the impression that  this was just another gig for them.

Dub does service, they do hard-nosed technical fulfillment and they do very sound consultancy. They are also good people to be around and a pleasure to talk to over lunch - not something I have ever said about anybody who has provided me with a technically-based service before!

It's Christmas Eve and following a big year for us here at Dub, we're still working hard, albeit with the music playing and the mince pies going down a treat!

We're very excited about 2010 and an impending rebrand and repositioning of the business to better reflect the Social Business Design that we deliver. More of that to come in new year, but keep you eyes peeled.

We hope that you've  had a year of achievement, fun and laughter, and that 2010 delivers your dreams and ambitions. A very merry Christmas from all the team at Dub.

x

At Dub, we've recently been building a number of online research communities to capture discussions around some very private and sensitive issues. These insight and innovation-purposed communities have been commissioned by players in the pharmaceutical and health and well-being industries, who are growing increasingly switched-on to the opportunities online communities present. These include the ability to gather candid feedback and rich insight from end-users, of the sort they've never before experienced. In a sector where insight  from sufferers and patients of such richness has traditionally been hard to come achieve, online research communities present a major shift.

Of course, when discussing Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Over-active Bowel Disorder (OBD) and other serious personal conditions with real people, respecting their privacy and offering them relative online anonymity is tantamount to the success of the study.  With this in mind, our approach allows project owners to assign tasks and questions to individuals  by way of private one-on-one discussions, at the same time as supporting open group discussions. The former puts people at great ease, and when combined with the fact that respondents are participating from the comfort of their own home or place of choice, affords response nirvana.

Group discussions such as forums and blog also have a part to play in that they allow the community to connect,  bond and share experiences with each other. Thus they reward respondents for their openness and honesty by allowing the connect with fellow sufferers, thus providing a level of support and comfort in knowing.

The recruitment of patients and sufferers is no easy task, so making them feel comfortable, respected and valued contributors within the community is essential. Our approach achieves this in a number of ways.

First we work tirelessly to design the tasks and activities that benefit from our own of research into the language and behaviours of the target audience. We see our role as party hosts, not entertainers, so it's important that we communicate with them in a language they recognise - theirs not ours.

Secondly we encourage Community Managers to share with them the insights that are being gleaned, so that they themselves are learning from the project and not just giving.

As our online research community work continues, so to does our amazement at the audience-types that are increasingly comfortable in sharing their lives online, be it in private or social environments. Our communities are an efficient and powerful way to connect, create learnings, gather feedback and support sufferers who wish to help others at the same time.

We've been off-line for a while now, for good reason. We're getting bigger by the day, and this week welcomed our latest team member, Nuno, all the way from Portugal. He's a php god, the kind of guy you want on your side. Nuno officially has the longest name ever - Nuno Miguel Novais Soares da Silva Dias (it just got bigger!) - let's hope his code isn't so lengthy!

We've also been working hard at localising our platforms, and we're proud to be able to say that we now have localised platforms for China, Korea, Japan, France, Germany, US, Poland, Brazil, Spain and Italy. There are of course many more to come, but we like to think that these will keep you, our friends and clients, happy for some time to come.

We're also working hard at rebranding, but I'll save this story for another day.....

One’s a vegemite-cruncher, the other a copper-topped raving lunatic! No, I’m not referring to Cadbury's latest ad characters, but Dub’s newest recruits Sam and Dan.

Sam joins our team as Lead Developer, fresh off the plane from Brisbane. Someone forgot to tell him that we're not on the beach though as he never wears shoes - strewth! Sam eats PHP code for breakfast and says he can’t wait to experience the English summer. But it’s here already Sam! In his spare time he likes to dance, so much so that he's dedicated a website to it, see here.

Strewth - where are my thongs?

Dan joins us as Business Development Manager. Having previously worked at Rainmaker, one of the UK’s leading Business Development specialists, as well as research, design and innovation experts Sense Worldwide, The Brewery and Lloyd Northover, he knows a thing or two about closing the deal - shame he doesn’t know how to get to work on time, or even where work is yet!

Dan the New Business Man

We welcome them both to our team as we grow the business.