1. ON THE BUSINESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Benchmarks, Best Practices and Preliminary Next
Steps for Creating Corporate Social Media Adoption
January 20, 2011

2. Being Social
A social network is a social structure made up
of individuals (or organizations) called
"nodes", which are tied (connected) by one or
more specific types of interdependency, such
as friendship, kinship, common interest,
financial exchange, dislike, or relationships of
beliefs, knowledge or prestige.
–Wikipedia (as of 1/19/2010)

3. Being Social
 Social Media is the content, ideas, information and
updates shared via social networks
 Social sharing is as old as campfire stories, traveling
minstrels and early newspapers—Stories uncontrolled by
central authorities and spread amongst communities of
shared interests
 In the past decade there has been explosive technological
growth in the development and adoption of socially
connected applications, platforms, devices and networks
(Social Computing)
 The viral spread of social media offers challenges and
opportunities to corporations, and its adoption or
prohibition should be carefully considered

4. When considering how to enable social
media in your organization, it’s
important to consider previous
technology revolutions

5. Let’s Start with the Desk Phone
 Prior to WWII, the office phone was just that — a single phone
for a group of workers, usually controlled by a manager
 In the post war period, phone technology advanced to the point
where it was possible to place a phone on every desk
 But there were arguments against a phone for every desk
 It decreases productivity: employees will spend their time chatting with friends
and families
 It compromises security: employees can share company secrets from the privacy
of their offices
 It’s an unnecessary expense: other than convenience, how would a phone
improve the bottom-line (No ROI)
 It took about 20 years before corporate culture caught up with
technology and recognized the value of the desk phone. By the
mid-seventies, it was hard to imagine a workplace without a
phone on every desk but it was a nearly 30-year process.

6. Other Important Tech Revolutions Then Followed
Fortunately, the adoption process has been repeated
for new technologies at an increasingly rapid pace
Number of years from practical business use to wide-scale deployment
 Personal PCs (15 years)
 Mobile Phones (10 years)
 Email (7 years)

7. And the Revolution Continues Today
The pace has exponentially accelerated during the
social media era
Students only 2004 2005 2006
Public access 2006
CNN made YouTube a core
component of the 2008
Presidential Debates

8. Social Media Adoption by Generation
Digital Natives
Generations 2010, Pew Research Center 12/16/2010

9. Millennials = Digital Natives = Current and Future Employees
Accenture found that
millennials make heavy use of
social networking sites while
on the job, whether their
employers allow them to or
not. According to the report,
45 percent of employed
They’ve never known a
world without computers millennials use social
Are intensely collaborative
Adept at multitasking
networking sites when they’re
Social networking is an at work, but only 32 percent
essential communications
channel say that access to social
They are the future
employees and leaders of networks is supported by
industry
their IT departments.
Cisco 2010 Midyear Security Report

10. The Failure of Social Media Prohibition
A recent survey from Cisco found that when
workers want access to social networking
technologies, they’ll get it— even if it means
circumventing corporate policy.
The study reported that 50 percent of end
users admitted that they ignored company
policy prohibiting use of social media tools
at least once a week, and 27 percent said
they change the settings on corporate
devices to access prohibited applications.
According to a Gartner Inc. social media security expert
Andrew Walls, banning Facebook, and other social
networking services like LinkedIn and Twitter, is an
exercise in futility… Securing social media in the
enterprise is not a responsibility that should fall to
information security teams.
Social networks are being victimized by the same malware
plaguing email and websites. "So if I'm going to block
social media on the basis of malware distribution," Walls
asked hypothetically, "why not block email?"

11. Social Media Access by Company Size
100%
90%
80%
70% Block Access
60%
Control/Restrict
50%
40% Monitor Use
30%
No Policy
20%
10%
0%
Small (<100) Medium (100-1000) Large (>1000)
Organization Size (number of employees)
McAfee Web 2.0 Report 2010

12. Adoption and Use of Social Media by Industries
Question: Which of the following
indicates your organization’s use social
media in any way for business purposes.
By social media, we mean Web based
channels and technologies such as
Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube,
discussion forums,
online communities, etc.
The New Conversation:
Taking Social Media from Talk to Action
Harvard Business Review Analytic Services

13. Employee Access to Social Media at Major
Corporations (and the US Army)
Allows Allows Allows Allows
Allows Allows Allows Allows
Note: GE and Honeywell info not
available so we’re obtaining it
through unconventional means
Blocks

14. A Closer Look at Some of these Companies
There’s a great deal of commonality between the policies of
companies successfully allowing social media access. This
speaks to the normalization of these channels and the fact that
effective social media management is largely a matter of
adapting pre-existing policies into a set of common sense
guidelines.
Many policies & guidelines are available for review at
SocialMediaGovernance.com

15. http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html
 IBM produced its initial guidelines in 2005. They have released
subsequent updates in 2008 and 2010
 These guidelines have been produced with the involvement of
IBMers . A wiki was created to allow for the collective wisdom
of the organization to be captured and considered
 Although initially focusing on Social Networking, it has evolved
to encompass all forms of Social Computing
Introduction: Responsible engagement in innovation and dialogue
Online collaboration platforms are fundamentally changing the way IBMers
work and engage with each other, clients and partners.
IBM is increasingly exploring how online discourse through social
computing can empower IBMers as global professionals, innovators and
citizens. These individual interactions represent a new model: not mass
communications, but masses of communicators. Through these interactions,
IBM’s greatest asset—the expertise of its employees—can be shared with
clients, shareholders, and the communities in which it operates.

16.  Siemens has managed to build a diverse range of official
and unofficial social media voices and points of presence
without having a formal Social Media policy. However,
they have a strong set of business conduct guidelines that
employees adhere to in their communications.
 Dozens of Twitter profiles and Facebook properties exist
to support the disparate business units across the world.
 Siemens is currently contemplating options for enterprise-
wide social media policies.

17. http://www.slideshare.net/USArmySocialMedia/army-social-media-
handbook-2011
 In 2009, the US Army ordered its network managers to
give soldiers access to social media sites like
Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. That move reverses a
long trend of blocking Web 2.0 access from military
networks.
 It is “the intent of senior Army leaders to leverage social media as a
medium to allow soldiers to ‘tell the Army story’ and to facilitate the
dissemination of strategic, unclassified information,” says the order,
obtained by Danger Room. Therefore, “the social media sites available
from the Army homepage will be made accessible from all campus area
networks.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/06/army-orders-bases-stop-blocking-twitter-
facebook-flickr/

18.  Boeing does not have a specific Social Media policy.
Employees are governed by Boeing’s Use of Company
Property policy and other applicable employee policies.
Can I use my Boeing-issued computer to join or access a social
networking site?
Answer: Boeing-issued computers are provided for the conduct of
company business. Limited/infrequent access to social networking
internet sites from the Boeing network is currently allowed
within the guidelines set forth within PRO 10 (3B #2), The End
User Security
Handbook, and PRO-3439 (Release of Information Outside The Boeing
Company). In addition, employees are strongly encouraged to seek
management authorization prior to utilizing Boeing resources for
social networking use.

19. http://www.es.northropgrumman.com/ourvalues/assets/TYInternet.pdf
 Northrop Grumman does an excellent job of adapting its Social
Media policies to a defense contractor environment; it allows
social media usage while encouraging appropriate paranoia.
Some personal use of the Internet is acceptable and must comply with company policy and Standards of Business
conduct. Employee use of the Internet for personal reasons must not:
• Be done during working time, preempt company business, or compromise other employees’ productivity
• Compromise security or the company’s reputation
• Create a hostile working environment or set a poor behavioral example
• Use of the Internet for personal business use, such as running a consulting or side business, is considered
misuse of company resources and is prohibited.
“Social media sites can be used by cyber spies to engage in espionage and gather information on potential
targets for cyber crime. In order to minimize the chance that you will be targeted by cyber spies, the
following best practices should be employed when using social media sites on the Internet:
Do not use your Northrop Grumman e-mail address as the e-mail address associated with social media site
used for personal use.
Do not publish your affiliation with Northrop Grumman on social media sites used for personal use.
Do not post detailed information about your job. Remember that company procedure prohibits posting or
discussing proprietary information, trade secrets, private company information, classified data or
information subject to export control requirements.
Secure your profiles so that they are not visible to “everyone” or searchable via public search engines
(e.g., Google).
When joining these communities, the “public” part of your profile (which may include the picture associated
with the account, personal information, and friends list) may be visible to everyone who is part of the
community, including non-employees and foreign nationals.”

20. Applying the Social Dimension to the Lockheed Martin Mission
 Lockheed Martin has opted-out of allowing open
access to public Social Networking in favor of
creating a behind-the-firewall, private community to
“fill workforce needs”
“Lockheed is working on coming up with a broad social-networking policy, Dahlen
said, but today blocks access to most of the popular public social-networking
sites.”
“Although Lockheed Martin isn't keen on employees using public social networks
like Facebook or YouTube in the course of their jobs, the high-tech company is
rolling out an internal social network designed by its own engineers for business
collaboration.”
“Called "Unity," (later renamed Eureka Streams) the Lockheed Martin social
network combines blogging, Wiki functions, personal pages and group forums that
glitter with the kind of multimedia that keeps youthful employees engaged and
their elders agog. But far from being eye-candy entertainment, Unity is seen as
the company's evolving foundation for project interactions and the front-end to a
document repository.”

21. Key Elements of an Effective Social Media Policy
 Many policies/guidelines are very
similar in content and structure
 Forrester Research has
conducted a fair amount of
research and identified many of
the core tenets of effective
social media policies that could
serve as a good source for ███
 ███ has the opportunity to build
upon the collective wisdom of
others to create a unique vision
on how to guide and empower
the entire organization on Social
Media
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

22. Establishing a Social Media Policy: Who’s Job is It?
The creation of an effective corporate social media policy requires the support and
participation of all functional groups and key stakeholders from the very start of the process.
C-Level involvement is essential to demonstrate the importance of these guidelines, and to
promote their enterprise-wide deployment
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

23. It’s a Collaborative Process
 It’s important that no one team “owns” social media—all core
functional groups must be involved in creating, promoting and evolving
the policies
 Whenever possible, provide opportunities for input from business units
and employees
 Build upon existing ███ & ██ employee policies and procedures.
 Use this as an opportunity to update existing policies to streamline
procedures

24. Potential Initial Next Steps:
 Engage with successful leaders like IBM and GM, and 3rd
Party experts like Forrester, to gain knowledge,
perspective and insights for action plan.
 Consider who’d comprise the internal committee.
 Utilize wikis, surveys or workgroups to gather the input
from employees from the different ███ organizations.
 Recognize the special requirements that may be required
for employees engaged in confidential/defense related
projects.
 Consider weaving social features into internal systems to
encourage behind-the-firewall collaboration.

25. The Social Networking Spectrum
Social networks
span a wide
range of
community types
and missions ...
it would be
impossible to
have a unique
policy for each
network or
platform.
In fact, many
traditional news
and information
sites now
integrate social
networking
features and
content.
THE
CONVERSATION
PRISM
By Brian Solis & JESS3