online collaboration success stories, tactics and tools

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Online Collaboration: Success Stories, Tactics and Tools

March 3, 2010 1

Collaboration on Collaboration

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Agenda 3-1-2010

6:15 6:20 Introductions

6:20-6:40 Recent Experiences in Collaboration -- What did you do to make yourself a good

collaborator?

6:40-6:50 Online Collaboration—Making the Case

6:50-7:55 Case Studies

7:55-8:05 Break

8:05-8:35 Best Practices

8:45 Next steps and Evaluation


Online Collaboration Success Stories, Tactics and Tools

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Recent Experiences

What have you been doing to make yourself a good collaborator?

3Collaboration on Collaboration

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National Joint Operations and Intelligence Center -- Information 365 - 24 / 7

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff must develop and maintain situational awareness, synchronize Combatant Command’s global effects and execute initial crisis response –all three are keys to fulfilling his

advisory duties to the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States.

“We realized we needed an organization whose goal was to be faster and flatter than anything previously conceived.”

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Top military officials pushed aside numerous bureaucratic obstacles to implement the capability on an unclassified network to ensure a quick, widespread adoption.


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APAN is a "community of communities" and a web site that combines the benefits of unstructured collaboration (wikis, blogs, forums) and structured collaboration (file sharing, calendar) with the personalization of social networking to facilitate unclassified information sharing with multinational partners, non-governmental organizations, and among various US Federal and State agencies.

Source: http://community.apan.org


A move from “Need to Know” to “Need to Share.”

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Introduction to Social Media


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Many, many choices for social media


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• With prospects– Rate and review– Public customer service (so they can see what

you do)– Comment on blogs and other public spaces (to

engage in dialogue)• With customers

– Success stories– Peer2Peer selling– Marketing Board (input on your marketing)– Survey

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Adapted from John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing


Collaboration ideas for small businesses - cheap tools

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More collaboration ideas

• With partners– Online workshops/ events– Podcasts– Network blog (multiple authors)

• With providers– Project collaboration– File sharing

• With staff– Brainstorming– Wikis to store information– Communications

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Adapted from John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing


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2009 Top Social Media Brands

1. iPhone 2. Disney 3. CNN 4. MTV 5. NBA 6. iTunes 7. Wii 8. Apple 9. Xbox 10. Nike 11. Starbucks 12. NFL 13. PlayStation 14. Adidas 15. BlackBerry 16. Sony 17. Mercedes 18. Microsoft 19. Samsung 20. BMW21. Nintendo22. Best Buy

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Source: Vitrue


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Trendy company on Facebook


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On Obama’s inauguration, CNN got

• 1.2 million Facebook RSVPs• 26million live video streams• 2 million Facebook status updates• 11,300 iReport submissions


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Over 400,000 submitted

Over 23,000 vetted


iReport lets people send in video reports

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Best Buy combines several elements – Forum…

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• Technology and me• Innovation• Customer Service

• Reward Zone• Military• Meeting the Moderators

Other Topics


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…Blogs…

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This is CMO’s

Also one by CEO

And by community head


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…IdeaX…


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…and Twelpforce (on Twitter)…

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2100 people responding with their own name to customer questions or comments about Best Buy


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Yielding results

• 85% of interactions are peer-to-peer, including resolving issues and getting buying advice.

• Of customer service interactions– 50% of interactions are service

related– 50% are about product insight.

• Better first contact resolution

• Better customer loyalty

• Increased interactions and site visits lead to more transactions


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• Managing Director of Bliss PR

• Active Twitter account (frequent tweets and retweets, 4700 followers)

• Guest posts on other people’s blogs

• Blogs (won 3rd place award for Boss’ blog)

• Podcast interviews

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My viewLots of authority

Opportunities for speaking (e.g.,Association of Management Consulting Firms)

Lots of relationships

Sense of being approachable

A professional and a person


Elizabeth Sosnow – professional services social media example


Online Collaboration:Success Stories, Tactics and Tools

The Online Forum

Two Cases


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Online Forums-Unique advantages

Benefits of Forum participation and leadership include:Help others and help yourself - you get to share what you know and help people who may have experienced the same issues as you did; Limitless Knowledge - by participating in forums you get to learn from others experiences which eventually can help you grow your online business;

Can generate ideas for your blogs and articles - a good question usually can motivate and inspire arguments and discussions giving you something to talk about on your next blog posts;

Free Advertising -by helping people solve their problems, you build authority and become the go-to-person. People will see you as an expert, check out your signature profile and click on the link to your website. This can be a great source of traffic for your site which is very effective;

SEO Friendly - search engines recognize backlinks and gives credit to it when you do hyperlinks for keywords/phrases on your site;


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CoPs---in their own words

CoP are generally an informal "structure" members share a passion, an expertise, or different types of

subject knowledge Engagement is open-ended, a place for social sharing of

experiences, lessons learned and “free” advice people learn from each other Non-threatening way to explore

or test ideas resolve different types of problems

CoPs constitute a means to boost, to engender the coordination and cooperation between people in order to stimulate the knowledge which exists and enable the creation of new knowledge


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Com-Prac and CoP Apprentice Ideology

Etienne Wenger describes CoPs simply: a community that acts as a living curriculum for formal or informal apprentices. newcomers become members of a community initially by participating in simple and low-risk tasks that are nonetheless productive and non-threatening way to explore or test ideas necessary and further the goals of the community. Through peripheral activities, novices become acquainted with the tasks, vocabulary, and organizing principles of the community.Gradually, as newcomers become old timers, their participation takes forms that are more and more central to the functioning of the communitynewcomers who can directly observe the practices of experts, understand the broader context into which their own efforts fit.


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Com-Prac Benefits

Community of practices are networks of people who share a common interest in a specific area of knowledge. Communities can vary widely in their characteristics. Some exist for years and others disappear once the purpose has been achieved.

Following are some of the benefits of a community of practice :


• Provides a vehicle for developing, sharing and managing knowledge.

• Generate new knowledge in response to problems and opportunities.

• Access to expert help to expand horizons, gain knowledge and seek help in addressing work challenges.

• A non-threatening way to explore or test ideas.

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Com-prac on Yahoo Groups


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Com-Prac Message History

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec201065 13 200931 11 32 49 5 6 31 20 15 24 15 31 200848 42 32 15 20 10 31 31 22 22 12 33 200727 36 48 86 100 28 58 72 28 39 36 4 200698 82 227 198 90 118 23 96 69 110 171 41 200556 26 179 114 58 72 137 64 48 86 81 111 2004141 66 61 134 90 86 55 36 42 39 109 69 200362 96 77 61 80 102 177 96 22 71 153 109 2002147 96 81 95 51 23 60 79 20 114 82 46 2001113 64 53 96 101 94 112 231 85 95 57 22 200023 67 63 57 52 23 41 76 97 86 73 44 1999 30 44 18

Group InformationMembers: 1705 Category: Theory and MethodsFounded: Oct 25, 1999Language: English

Com-Prac is open to those interested in supporting communities of practice. It is a place where focused conversations, informal learning activities, are recognized, respected, and encouraged.

Members: Corporate, private, non-profit, and academic organizations; international; involved in consulting, research, and direct support of communities of practice


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OBJECTIVECreate an online community where product owners and prospective owners can collaborate on RV activities


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HISTORYJim Beletti and a partner, as product owners and brand enthusiasts, created the forum in October 2004


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OWNER BENEFITSAbility to enhance their own RV lifestyles through collaboration with other product owners


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PROSPECTIVE OWNER BENEFITSEnhanced ability to research product / make a better, more informed purchase decisions based on ongoing collaboration between product owners.


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HEARTLAND RVS BENEFITS HEARTLAND RVS BENEFITS• Product awareness through rapid info. dissemination• Qualified lead generation• Upstream product feedback


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CHALLENGES

• Cost• Mfr Approval• Content• Time

• Exposure• User Acceptance• Freshness• Relevancy


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FUTUREWe’re in the midst of significant enhancements to morph into a “brand communities” model in order to personalize the user experience


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FUTURE – BEYOND THE FORUMWe’re currently studying further development of our social media strategy: Facebook Twitter You Tube Wikipedia etc.


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PORTAL SCREEN CAPTURE

PORTAL – A launch pad to all things HEARTLAND!www.heartlandowners.org


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FORUM SCREEN CAPTURE

FORUM – The “Meat” of the productwww.heartlandowners.org


Social Networking

Two Cases


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Marketing tool Keep young adults connected to Charis Ministries Drive young adults to our website (marketing) and blog

(reflection resource)


Objectives

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Challenges

Format of Facebook “Group” was not always conducive to our needs. Solution: Facebook “Fan Page”

Striking a balance between posting frequently enough but not too much so people no longer want to follow us


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Benefits

• Fan pageAutomatically connected to twitter – can automatically update on multiple social media tools

• Organizational identity postings---no need to post from personal Facebook account

• Ability to market and provide resources on the same venue


The Wiki

Three Quick Cases


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Niche business financing company

Topics including those relevant to Guidant Financial’s business


A firm with a wiki that brings in customers

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Hosted on Wetpaint for free

Collaboration on Collaboration Collaboration on Collaboration

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Results have been very positive

Some posting of articles by Guidant staff

No editing, except to eliminate inappropriate links

No money spent to promote site

800 visitors per month (in 2008)

230 click on Guidant’s site via link on bottom of page

About 16% of those become customers (2X rate from search engines)

Source: Fortune Small Business, Feb 12, 2008


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A law firm with an internal wiki

32 employees Wanted to change

from Lotus Notes ($25,000 including IT staff) to something cheaper

Found PBWiki ($600)


Source: Fortune Small Business, Feb 12, 2008

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Shifted much of their work to wiki

“The biggest reason that we’re shifting is that the Wiki is easier to use. If employees see a better way to organize or present information, they can just go ahead and do it with a wiki. With LotusNotes, it required a programmer” – Leo Rosen

Caused contention over how to do things, but this eventually led (after re-editing) to joint learning and compromise


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Motivation was critical (and creative)

Motivated participation with contest (more wiki entries means more chance to win)

Got lots onto wiki and engaged people


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Our wiki (for this program)

On Google Sites – free Open to David, Rachel, and Bill (and Eric to help

us!!) Can write, upload attachments, and make

comments


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Our wiki (on Google Sites)


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Results

Tonight’s Event!!!


Micro-Blogging

Three Cases


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—enterprise microblogging, file sharing, user groups , mobile access, rapid communication tool

Cristóbal Conde President and C.E.O.

Source: NY Times interview


The Case for Yammer

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“Top-down organizations got started because the bosses either knew more, or they had access to more information.” --Conde

Today, “ Everybody has access to identical amounts of information….employees already have all the data, they have access to everything.”

This explosion of information, and flattening technologies starts with e-mail.

But Email is quickly buried, lost and too time intensive.

As CEO, the best “management” decision is the platform choice…how can I best enable collaboration, because command control doesn’t scale, nor does isolated business decision making


Collaboration ---one of the most difficult challenges in management

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Information and Management Challenges

How do I keep everyone connected? How do I keep everyone informed? Engaged?


Leveraging Collaboration technology SunGard’s unlimited WebEx license uses 4 million minutes of webcasts monthly, reducing the amount of business travel. SunGard also uses SharePoint, and video conferencing.

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Yammer—creates a flatter organization

Yammer allows you to:see what others are doing, share information, collaborate, brag about their successes and, in the process,

flatten the organization.

Mr. Conde, CEO, uses Yammer to share what he learns from clients ----their biggest problems, their biggest issues, and their biggest bets.

Broadcast email too formal, so he shares the lesson via brief Yammer posts.

He credits Yammer with helping him create a more collaborative and merit-based culture at SunGard.


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Why did they do it?

http://www.slideshare.net/michelle1908/why-we-should-use-yammer

Conde lost one of his most valuable lieutenants because SunGard failed to provide him the latitude to lead and grow. Conde also spent a year on the road visiting his 300 offices and clients in 30 countries. He was exhausted and finding he was repeating himself. Yammer offered him a secure way to learn what people across his organization were doing, and as importantly “share information, collaborate, and brag about their successes — that is what flattens the organization.”He realized his role, as boss and leader was to “work on those collaboration platforms, as opposed to being the one making the decisions. It’s more like the producer of the show, rather than being the lead.”It’s not my job to be the lead, “By creating an atmosphere of collaboration, the people who are consistently right get a huge following, and their work product is talked about by people they’ve never met. It’s fascinating.”

Cristobal Conde, CEO SunGard

Implemented in May of 2009, Yammer spread virally among employees; and is viewed as helping SunGard accelerate collaboration and internal communications across 20,000 employees in 300 offices in 30 countries.


Brian Robins, CMO, SunGard noted We're seeing all kinds of serendipitous connections across projects, cultures and time zones.

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Benefits

A free flow of information is an incredible tool because I can tell everyone in the enterprise“Look, this is one of our largest clients, and the C.E.O. just told me his top three priorities are X, Y and Z. Think about them.”

Conde prefers writing 5 lines in Yammer, rather than share what he just learned from a client via broadcast voice mail or a long email.


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Justin Nihiser--TweetDeck


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Ian Brodie has used Twitter as part of a social media strategy

Lots of followers

Combines own posts, reTweets (and referrals), and lots of conversation with individuals


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Also has a blog (and is on Facebook and LinkedIn)

Content tends to go here – since Twitter is not good for content


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Ian Brodie’s results

Claims to spend 10-15 minutes per day

Has generated two clients clearly

Has also generated other clients indirectly, or Twitter was part of the client acquisition process

Emphasizes the ability to build relationships with people who you meet via Twitter


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Twitter tips – from Chris Brogan

Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)

Add a picture. ( Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell

more widgets, but it shows us you’re human. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you. Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods

does this well). Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead.

( @jetblue gives travel tips.) Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it.

Others will tune out. Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories.

( @TheHomeDepot does it well.) Throw in a few humans, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc. Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from

Mzinga.


Best Practices

What will make you more effective


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Best Practices or Getting you to Success

Social Media Tool

Internal External My barriers

Online Forums

Social Media

Wikis

Micro-blogging


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Wrap up

What’s next?

A hands on approach to using these toolsWHEN: Evening, Wednesday, April 21, WHERE: Gleacher

Advance Preparation?


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Questions, Follow-up or Suggestions?

Bill BallingManaging Director of WRB, LLC Consulting, www.wrbllc.com a management consulting firm for Cities and Villages [email protected]

David Friedman, Bridgewell Partners, LLC www.bridgewellpartners.com

We help you grow valuable relationships

312-863-3489 (p) [email protected]

Rachel Kaberon, Arkay Solutions LLC www.arkaysolutionsllc.com

Measuring what counts, counting what matters

847-687-8480 (cell) [email protected]
