Social Media im Unternehmenseinsatz

Die einen können es nicht mehr hören, und die anderen wollen es nicht wahrhaben: Social Media oder Enterprise 2.0 steht in der Tür ... auch in Deutschland. Was mich in den Dialogen immer wieder überrascht ist wie wenig Bezug bei der Diskussion zum echten Geschäftseinsatz genommen wird. Natürlich sind Begriffe wie Facebook oder YouTube spannender als Mitarbeitermotivation oder Reputationsmanagement. Aber jeder, der mal ein Unternehmen geleitet hat weiß, dass es den leichten Weg nicht gibt.

Der Social Workplace

Ein Thema, das mich bereits seit vielen Jahren fesselt, lässt sich am besten mit dem Begriff Social Workplace beschreiben. Damit gemeint ist die persönliche (daher soziale) Interaktion (Dialog) am Arbeitsplatz, und wie man dieses überaus wichtige Thema in die digitale Welt überführen kann.
Dieser persönliche Dialog bei einem Kaffee im Büro oder die kleinen Kommentare während einer Präsentation auf einer Konferenz sind es, die eine Bindung entstehen lassen. Und genau dieses Netzwerk an Bindungen ist es, auf das wir jeden Tag zurückgreifen, wenn wir etwas bewegen, erledigen oder verstehen wollen.

Man sollte dabei nicht den Fehler machen, das als "Klönen" abzutun. Das gehört auch dazu, aber viele Menschen begegnen sich kaum noch persönlich, sondern sind auf andere Kommunikationswege angewiesen, und genau hier greift das "Social" im "Workplace". Reisen sind teuer, oft unproduktiv und lassen sich nicht so spontan einrichten. Daher muss es unsere Aufgabe sein, diesen Dialog digital abzubilden. 

Ansätze für den Unternehmensalltag

Genau hier setzt die Idee des Social Workplace an! Wie schaffen wir Möglichkeiten zum Dialog für die Menschen in unserer Firma, die miteinander reden sollten, sich vielleicht aber gar nicht kennen oder bisher keinen Ansatz gefunden haben, in Kontakt zu treten? Hier hilft ein Grundinstinkt des Menschen : die Neugierde. Menschen möchten gerne wissen, was um sie herum geschieht. Jeder, der länger in einem Unternehmen ist, kennt die verschiedenen inoffiziellen Kommunikationskanäle.

Der Ansatz des Social Workplace schafft ein offenes Umfeld mit direktem Zugang zu allen relevanten Informationen. Aber er geht noch einen Schritt weiter und fördert den Dialog über genau diese Informationen. Wobei wir hier nicht den Fehler machen sollten und Informationen zu eng zu definieren. Auch die Ergebnisse der Betriebssportmannschaften, der Gewinn eines großen Auftrages oder Umbaumassnahmen in der Fertigung sind Informationen, die wichtig sind und über die ohnehin jeder im Unternehmen spricht, nun eben auch digital.

Strategie: Top-Down oder Bottom-Up

Immer wieder stellt man mir die Frage, wie wir damit anfangen sollten. Zentral von Seiten des Management oder aus den Abteilungen von unten nach oben. Die Anwort ist so einfach wie unbefriedigend: es kommt darauf an. Jedes Unternehmen hat seine eigene Kultur, und keine noch so gut durchdachte Idee kann dies ignorieren. Daher ist es so wichtig, dass man sich mit dem Thema strategisch befasst und nicht nur darüber nachdenkt, welche Tools wie Wikis oder Blogs man einsetzen soll.

Hier muss ich allerdings anmerken, dass mein Ansatz davon ausgeht, dass ein Unternehmen es wirklich ernst meint. "Einfach mal ausprobieren" ist zwar ein beliebter Rat unter Social-Media-Gurus, und ich habe das anfangs auch so vertreten, aber wir können ein so grundlegendes Thema nicht dem Zufall überlassen oder gar der IT. Meine Meinung hierzu ist mittlerweile sehr eindeutig: nicht jeder muss das machen, aber wenn, dann richtig. Falls man unsicher ist, sollte man einfach externe Hilfe in Anspruch nehmen. 

Von oben, aber nicht von oben herab

Eine Sache liegt mir allerdings noch am Herzen. Dialoge erfordern Vertrauen. Wir kennen es aus dem Alltag, erst wenn man sich etwas vertrauter wird, tauscht man auch mal etwas persönliches aus. Gleiches gilt im Unternehmensalltag, erst wenn man sich sicher ist, dass die Idee, der Kommentar oder das Feedback ernst genommen wird, entsteht eine Kultur des Dialoges. Daher ist es wichtig, dass "die da oben" auch mitmachen.

Genauso wichtig ist es, dass im Dialog zunächst die Hierachien keine Rolle spielen dürfen. Wohl gemerkt im Dialog. Wenn es an die Entscheidungen geht, ist es immer noch unsere Aufgabe als Manager die Entscheidungen zu treffen und dafür auch einzustehen. Auch wenn immer von der Demokratisierung gesprochen wird, einer muss sagen, wo es lang geht. Das werden die Puristen im Social Media nicht gerne hören, aber in der Regel haben die auch noch keine ihrer Empfehlungen im Unternehmensalltag umsetzen müssen. Der große Unterschied für Manager liegt nun darin, zunächst zu moderieren, dann zu entscheiden und auch zu begeistern.

Präsentation: Alltagstauglichen Enterprise 2.0 im Rahmen einer gemeinsamen Veranstaltung mit netmedia und Open Text:

Alltagstaugliches Enterprise 2 0   Public

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More (i)fridges

Thanks for your encouraging support on the launch of our new website last week. While we're still working on some features, we'd be happy to get your feedback. Let us know what you like, let us know what we should improve or add. We are definitely committed to deliver on the original idea of the ifridge.

In fact parts of the site are already inspired by your feedback. Some days ago we asked our followers on Twitter to provide feedback about the ifridge concept and to submit your favorite (i)fridge picture. The feedback was overwhelming and here is a selection of what you have provided:

ifridge with Character

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In addition to those great pictures we received tons of great feedback, comments and retweets. Some got inspired and some others even shared very personal blog posts. We really appreciate all your participation.

Finally let me thank the team of netmedia for their amazing support, strategy and execution in putting www.ifridge.com online. Great to have you on board.

Great People can Change the World

No worries, I am not going sentimental but when you start a new adventure you need to say something, right? In fact the header might not say anything to you but it means a lot to me.

I recall a conversation I had about two years ago, we were about to launch a new program and I had to internally recruit some people to join me on that. I had nothing to offer, no raise, no promotion, not even a real budget, just my commitment that this is going to be a ride they'll never forget. And believe it or not but we gathered a group of people that truly changed the world - for me.

The project ultimately failed, not because we didn't believe in it but maybe because we didn't fully execute on our beliefs. But I now know for a fact that great people can change the world and the dialogues with our customers proves that every day. Many of the team members at the time embarked to new adventures. One became a CMO and social media guru, another one started his own business and one became co-founder with me at ifridge & Company.

Working with great people on exciting projects is a real privilege and and we therefore made it the core mission of our new adventure at ifridge & Company ... excited to work with people that are ready to execute on their beliefs.

Picture: Cultphotos. Stay tuned for more great pictures.

Social Media Birthday Statistics

First of all, thanks for all the birthday wishes so many expressed yesterday (Central European Time). As you know, that entire social media phenomenon has been my passion for a long time now and it therefore was just time for my very own Social Media Birthday Statistics :-)

The most interesting result is that more than two thirds of the people reached out via some sort of social media platform. For those who participated in the recent Social Media Workshops in Germany and Canada this might be an interesting exercise to see the network effect of your online profile and your networking activities.

Thanks everybody for participating in this real life social media exercise. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas time or holiday season!

PS: I am also very proud to present this Social Media Birthday Statistics 100% software free. The blog is based on Blogger, the spreadsheet is based on Google Docs, the graphic is an embedded graph including real-time updates.

Listen, Learn & Execute

Inspired by the Blog Mother we hosted our first Social Media Workshop. Over some cups of coffee we went on a journey through the universe of LinkedIn, XING, Facebook and Twitter, and all the other little tools to manage your digital identity.

The group consisted of developers and QA engineers, product managers and even a VP. While we all agreed on the need on the need for a digital identity, we discovered some key findings.

1. Keep it Simple: you might impress your co-workers with your perfect worded online profile and all the fantastic buzz words you copied from your company's marketing message. But keep in mind, that most of the people that read your profile have no clue what eDiscovery in a 2.0 World means.
2. Build it Early: it is never to early to build your network. Working in a 70 people R&D team but having only 40 "connections" is not a good ratio. Just keep in mind: the others also want to connect.
3. Be Yourself: Online is not a different planet, it is just a different format. So be yourself: online and offline, paper and digital. The greatest chance to succeed is to be consistent and authentic.

During the discussion we also learned that there are different maturity levels, both for people as well as organizations. While some of us have incorporated the digital world into their life, most of you still try to find your way around. There is nothing to worry about, you're still the majority and there is plenty of opportunity to discover the great opportunities out there. As a little guidance we came up with the following three steps into the digital economy:

1. Listen: there is no need to say anything if you feel there is nothing to say. Simply keep a finger on the pulse. Listen to what your industry people have to say. Turn on your Twitter search, screen the groups and forums and make sure you know what's going on.
2. Learn: "Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal" ... look around. Do you like an idea how somebody crafted his/her profile? Let them inspire you, there is nothing wrong in learning from others.
3. Execute: Make sure you're take this last step! Once you understand how things are working in your community it is time to step up and make yourself visible.

Thanks everybody for your contributing to the lively conversations. Social Media might change it's name again but the concept is here to stay. Make the most of the new opportunities and don't be shy to connect!

Social Media Workshop oder 'Jobs für Alle'

Es ist schon eine interessante Situation, dass jeder mit jedem im Social Web (Facebook, LinkedIn, XING) verbunden ist, aber wenn es darum geht das Ganze zu seinen Gunsten zu nutzen sind wir oft recht einfallslos.

Besonders wenn es darum geht einen Job zu finden, seine Chancen auf einen Job zu erhöhen oder unsere Qualifikationen ins rechte Licht zu rücken, können die neuen Ideen sehr hilfreich sein.

Um meinen Anteil zu tragen lade ich Euch zu einem kleinen - kostenfreien - Workshop ein. Ein erster Workshop fand bereits sehr erfolgreich in Toronto statt. Und nun kommen wir nach Deutschland:

Wir treffen uns am kommenden Montag (14. Dez) um 18.00 Uhr im Vapiano in Oldenburg. Freunde des RedDot sind ausdrücklich willkommen aber keine Bedingung! Bitte gebt mir kurzes Feedback per Twitter @danielkraft oder schickt mir eine Nachricht per Facebook, XING oder LinkedIn.

Bloom Democratized

Not too long ago a small group of people started a project to take the corporate memory social. Among many ideas our goal was to build an environment that allows for the corporate memory, represented by the combined knowledge of the people, to be general available in the organization using approaches we learnt from the social media movement. Some may recall the term Bloom.

Today I was reading an interesting little blog post from one of the thinkers behind the Bloom idea. Cheryl McKinnon, now CMO at Nuxeo just offered a social media 101 workshop to improve the professional online profiles of those that have been hit be the recent restructuring or are simply interested to learn more about their ID in a digital economy.

While this may not make much sense to those that haven't been part of the original dialogues, but I am just fascinated how the spirit of Bloom isn't quitting. It looks that we were right in the first place but our thinking was too narrow. A dream can never fit in a repository.

I'd like to offer my support to what Cheryl has started. Did you believe in our idea, than I believe in you and I'd like to make the investment in your digital future. Would you like to learn about the digital economy, you have a profile to review, a blog to link to, an idea you'd like to talk about? Go visit Cheryl at the event or find my online.

For those that need local support: I am at Vapiano in Oldenburg on Monday Dec 14 from 6-8pm. Just post a comment on this blog or Tweet @DanielKraft so I know what to expect.

RedDot is back!

Not too long ago we had to say good bye to one of our dearest friends. While it appeared, at the time, that the RedDot has embarked on his last journey, we might just witnessed once again the wisdom of one of the greatest web visionaries of all times.

Chatter - Social Media for the Enterprise

In his key note address at Dreamforce this week, salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff introduced a new social service for the enterprise: salesforce Chatter. This new service is taking "the magic of facebook and Twitter" to the enterprise and serves as the foundation of the company's latest cloud service: the collaboration cloud.

While many vendors have introduced new social services this comes from a player that has a proven track record in changing an entire industry. salesforce.com is making this new service available to all of their existing customers, which makes the company the largest player in social media for the enterprise.

A Wave in the Clouds

This new service is another signal that the future of enterprise "software" is in the cloud. While many of the traditional vendors try to seed fear by claiming that social services need to be "behind the firewall", salesforce.com proofs them wrong again. More than 60,000 customers trust their most valuable information - customer data - to be stored in the cloud. Why wouldn't we trust this same vendor with our communication ... or chatter?

If you combine this latest development with the direction Google has taken with the introduction of Google Apps, Google Wave and most recently with Google Chrome OS, we might have seen that magic tipping point towards a cloud economy. Name one reason why we still need to buy software?

Inspired by our good old Friend!

You may wonder what all of that has to do with our good old friend RedDot? As mentioned earlier many believed his time was over but it appears that he is the master mind behind all that as his appearance live on stage with salesfoce.com CEO proofs. He has been an inspiration to many of us and might also played a key role in the new direction salesforce.com is taking. In fact many consider him the force behind many other new ideas and ventures. Stay tuned for more.

Surf, Dive or Die ... the Wave is coming

You most likely have been reading about Google Wave already, like Robert Scoble who finds it "Much more mentally challenging" or Louis Gray who provides a good summary what Google Wave is today: "... an opportunity to further eliminate distance ... ". I understand their points but they are too much focused on what Google Wave is today and not what it's going to be.

For me Google Wave is the biggest threat to the ECM space since the introduction of SharePoint. Google already offers a wide range of content and communication related services like Google Docs, GMail, Google Analytics and with Wave now also a collaborative and social (net)working environment. But more important those are real web services ... no software, no investment, no budget. You don't believe me? Imagine this:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. May 19, 2010 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Salesforce.com will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Google.

That puts an interesting perspective on the topic, isn't it? And it underlines my point from last month's conversation about innovation in the WCM space: It's over, isn't it? I actually agree with some of the comments made there (standards, usability, etc) but it is not even close to innovation, especially in light of above's scenario.

In know, Google Wave is far from being ready but so was (is?) SharePoint. Do you recall the introduction of SharePoint? You could find hundreds of comments, blogs and news about how bad it is and still, it is the #1 content infrastructure. Imagine now Google and Salesforce.com presenting a web-leadgeneration-collaboration-social-content-mail-contact-network-service for 1$ per user ... would you still pay 250k for a single system, when you can have it all for 1$ ... ?

The one thing that keeps Google out of the enterprise is trust but if they combine their ability to innovate with Marc Benioff's ability to sell ... you remember what happened to Siebel? As a vendor you have two options: Ride the wave: see what NewsGator is doing with SharePoint or Dive deep like Open Text does with SharePoint and SAP by providing back-office infrastructure to a front-office offering.

So what are you up for: Surfing or diving or ...


PS: Never heard of Google Wave? See this two minute summary:

It's over, isn't it?

Every time a software company gets acquired the relevant community starts spinning. Employees fear for their jobs, customers are concerned about their projects, analysts write another paper and of course the competition has a field day. The recent acquisition of Vignette by Open Text has been no different. Of course Open Text needs to reduce head count since Vignette has been reporting losses since before the term WCM was even invented. Everybody that followed Tom Jenkins and John Shackleton over the years knows that burning cash is not an option. But before you bitch about it: 2.2 billion in market cap suggest they doing something right...

When we talk about the products the situation seems complicated. But unlike many "experts" believe, the actual product is not really the issue. If customers would buy software from a startup with a handful of developers, why would they be concerned if a billion dollar company maintains a handful of those developers to keep the product alive? Do you know of any customer of Gauss or Obtree that was forced to migrate to RedDot? Face it: every player is going to get acquired at some time and keeping a product alive keeps the maintenance revenue consistent.

Don't get me wrong, just maintaining a product is always easier (and cheaper) than to innovate. But we also need to admit that the WCM market hasn’t innovated for a long time. What actually happens is that as the products mature and become more stable they work better within the orchestra of tools we need to run a business. But real innovation is not happening. And just to be perfectly clear, social media doesn't count. The fundamentals have been invented 15 years ago and it doesn't count as innovation just because we call it "social" instead of "collaboration" adding some AJAX and better usability. In the auto industry they call that a facelift. Ask your vendor about the top 3 minds behind their social media product and I am sure you'll find 2 of 3 being a collaboration or communication veteran.

But there is something with this deal, which is different. It's the last big one! Believe it or not, there are no more fighters for the greater good in that market; no more idealists that are on a mission. Over are the days when Vignette and Interwoven outsmarted each other to charge a million $ for a website, over are the days of RedDot kicking both their asses :-) Do you even remember Stellent? What is left is a long list of small or smaller companies. Believe me, many are decent businesses run by good managers but still: it is time to exit my friends.

Vendors have two options. Focus on a niche market and sell later or sell the business now. I am happy to discuss my logic behind that but if you follow me for a moment, that leaves two options for customers - either buy from a big player and get an 80/20 solution or buy from a smaller, more focused player and deal with them being acquired sooner or later. Both options come with pain and your decision depends on how mature you think WCM truly is.

So is it over?