Social Media inside the Large Enterprise (SMiLE London) 2015 highlights and best practice case studies of companies using enterprise social networks (ESN) / social media for internal communications and employee engagement. Synergy Creative attended SMiLE London in March 2015 and here we share the best bits, including case studies from Coca Cola Enterprises, Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Vodafone.

1. Social
media2015
insidethelargeenterprise
SMiLE London
The best bits

2. We’ve been at the SMiLE
Social Media ‘inside the
Large Enterprise’ conference
this month... keeping up with
the latest digital trends in
employee engagement.
It was a great conference,
but if you couldn’t make it,
fear not, here’s our roundup
of the best bits.

3. Trend watch / hot topics from the floor
/ Let’s be specific
Social media tools for employee
engagement are becoming more
sophisticated and specific, as people
seek specialised apps for particular
groups of employees.
/ On the move
Mobile workforces are driving the need
for social media apps. And as they
continue to expand, so too does the
growth in social networks.
/ Digital re-thinking
Intranets are old school. Now it’s all
about the ‘digital workspace’ where
you get your job done.
/ Listen up
The biggest challenges in getting
your employees to adopt social
media are mindset, engagement
and, in turn, change.
/ Big brother
ESNs are being used for more specific
purposes now, including employee
monitoring. While working may be
becoming more flexible, you might
start clocking in again!
/ Business first
Intranets/digital work spaces need to
be led by the needs of your business
and employees, not by IT, as things
move into the cloud.
/ Future focus
More companies are going online to
get employees to think up great new
ideas that can drive / support R&D
and innovations. (See our Novozymes
case study on page 14)

4. Trend watch / hot topics from the floor
/ Stats and facts
80% of companies now use social
media tools
(source: SMiLE survey)
Yammer, SharePoint, Zimbra and
Jive are the most popular internal
comms platforms.
(Source: www.451research.com)
Optimally engaged employees
are 120% more likely to generate
innovation and 150% more likely to
demonstrate customer advocacy
(Source: IBM presentation)
Employees are being treated as
consumers (segmentation, UX
etc). It pays to know your internal
audiences just like external ones
New technology now allows
businesses to try things
out faster than ever before.
You create a small team to push
the idea forward, then move on
if it doesn’t work – failing in two
weeks rather than two years.
Fresh thinking:
The fail fast
forward

5. / Step 1: Development
When you’re developing your tool, think about
how you’re going to encourage people to use it.
1 Try tempting them in with something of
interest or using the tool for something they
can’t get anywhere else. At Coca Cola, they
use their HR (payslips etc) as the ‘chocolate
bar’ to push people to visit their platform.
(See pg 20 for the case study)
2 Try using external feeds so that your
employees can find everything in one place.
3 Short, engaging videos can help distill your
complex messages into fun, engaging clips.
/ Step 2: Getting feedback
1 Want to run a pilot? Instead of using a wide
spread of employees, choose a small, specific
group like a project team to get a better
sense of what works and how much people
will use it.
2 Make sure your newsletters work for users.
Get feedback, review analytics and respond.
/ Step 3: Launch
1 Want to make your ESN visible, effective and
influential? Then you need your Exec team on
board. Get them to commit to being social.
2 Spend time at launch phase, don’t just
switch on and expect people to land!
/ Step 4: Training
While some employees might hate the
digital world, others will be technical wizards.
These differences are worth remembering.
Quick user guides, webinars and are all
important for roll-out.
/ Step 5: Keep developing
It’s tempting to cascade information and
training to managers, but think about using
a ‘water wheel’ instead: cascade out,
get feedback and respond.
Social media tools won’t do you much good if your people won’t use them.
But culture change can be hard work, so the experts at SMiLE had plenty of
advice for engaging your employees.
Focus on /
Getting employees online
(and coming back for more!)

6. Great quotes
On getting up close and personal with employees…
“Let people tell you what they need,
and then make it happen”
Katherine Lunn, Community Manager, XChanging
On identifying natural social media champions and not forcing it…
“Some people are allergic to social media,
some adopt naturally”
Toby Johns, Internal Communications Manager, Rugby Football Union (RFU)
“FUN is the best way to engage people
on enterprise platforms”
Frank Hatzack, Head of Innovation Development, Novozymes

7. Use Community Managers to moderate different
parts of the global community. If you’re looking
to build a case for these Community Managers,
remember that managing a global community is
more than a skill; it’s a valuable role that helps
drive trust and engagement.
Start from a position of trust - let people post
whatever they want, then moderate if there’s
a report of abuse. At XChanging, if there is a
report of abuse, the Community Manager will
have a conversation with the reporter
and abuser.
There’s nothing like the launch of a global online community to make your
senior leaders nervous. Suppose employees misuse it? Suppose there’s
abuse? In fact chattering and abuse are two of the biggest concerns when
it comes to introducing social technology. Here’s how the experts are
tackling it…
Focus on /
Managing a global community
IBM gives each employee a private,
personalised social dashboard
based on their online behaviour –
a useful way to flag issues quickly.
Fresh thinking:
The behaviour
dashboard

8. Great quotes
On abuse…
“Better to be punched in the face on your
ESN than stabbed in the back on Glassdoor”
Melanie Wheeler, XChanging
On the usefulness of social media…
“Research shows people with strong and diverse
networks are better at getting things done”
Marie Wallace, IBM
On working out loud…
“People don’t want to get fired” but social media
does actually help “surface the idiots”.
Melanie Wheeler, XChanging

9. Case studies
There were some fantastic
presenters at SMiLE.
Here are five of our
favourite case studies.

10. / The challenge
XChanging had eight intranets across the
world and lots of comms happening locally.
That made it hard to operate as a global
local company, so there was a real need to
improve comms, collaboration and knowledge
sharing. Their solution was to introduce a digital
workspace they called Leapfrog using Jive ESN.
/ Results
Adoption was simply phenomenal:
92% user adoption
72% active and participating (the average
‘active’ % is 16% if you don’t launch properly)
8-10% content creators
/ How they achieved it
1 Created a base of trust with plenty of
support from the exec board and the
big personalities of those heading up
digital platforms.
2 A ‘world tour’ to speak to as many
people as possible, get buy-in and find
natural champions.
Melanie Wheeler (Global Head of Internal Communication CSR)
and Katherine Lunn (Community Manager)
www.xchanging.com
XChanging

11. 3 A big, fun launch with a frog theme.
Now, if people don’t update their profile
photo they get a default frog image!
/ The big business benefits
Measurement: Now the team use Leapfrog
to see stats, give feedback to the exec team
and help them tune in to what employees
are saying.
Transparency: The online chatter has helped
cut down the volume of emails, while ‘working
out loud’ increases transparency.
Collaboration: Improved version control as
files don’t get ‘lost’ on email.
Teamwork: Thanks to their ‘water wheel’
approach, they can use feedback to keep
improving (rather than cascade)
Corporate moments: It’s now easier to run
company-wide initiatives such as diversity
week. Leapfrog provides a place to make
it happen.
Strategy: Managers can have strategy
discussions with staff and post the feedback
– really powerful.
“Business has been
social for so long, it just
hasn’t been visible.”
By getting “up close and
personal, let people tell
you what they need, and
then make it happen”

12. / The challenge
RFU had 600 staff, 2000 member clubs, 500
unis and colleges, 10,000 schools and 60k
volunteers. Around 2.5m people enjoy rugby
and 250k play, so social media was the obvious
route to get stories out from the field.
/ The solution
The comms team launched ‘RFU Connected’,
a SharePoint platform with Yammer that included
a feed on their homepage. Rather than a
standalone social media tool, this was a portal
that included:
News and info
A new phone book
Employee hub and Yammer feed (integrated)
Home page aggregator of external and
internal feeds
Exec diary and QA with leaders
Toby Jones (Internal comms manager) @tobyjones00
Rugby Football Union (RFU)
...social
media was
the obvious
route to
get stories
out from
the field

13. / Engaging people
Giving people plenty of materials has
been important: webinars, user guides.
The team got people early, kept things
short and kept repeating.
The tool is supported by regular employee
email briefings called Rugby Shorts, with lots
of links to the intranet.
Over time the people using the tools
changed so it’s been important to keep
encouraging and responding to users to
keep them coming back.
RFU now shares information with its internal
audience before releasing it to the outside
world (e.g. the squad list ahead of a game).
They repurposed their Yammer content.
/ Results
500 people engaged each month, a figure
that was helped by the tool’s integration
with SharePoint.
/ The big business benefits
Engagement: It’s a great opportunity to
communicate new values and engage
employees in new objectives / 5 year plan.
Culture: This tool underpins and supports
culture because the technology reflects
their values.
There was a divide
between HQ and those
in field. Now, using ESN
“has helped us join up
the stories”.
“Champions are key
to adoption”
When asked if he
was starting over again
– “I’d spend more time
on the launch phase.
I just switched it on!”

14. / The challenge
Four years ago Novozymes, the biotech
company, wanted a way of involving their people
more in innovation and RD. Their answer was
COLIN, a tool for collaborative online ideation
that would appeal to the company’s values and
improve lives.
/ Engaging people
The team focused on collaborative ideation
rather than ‘crowd sourcing’.
The leadership team was fully involved
in all campaigns, with videos addressing
the audience.
They used small groups with a 2-week focus.
/ The results
Since it’s launch, 35 of the COLIN
ideation campaigns have directly led
to RD/new products.
Following its success, COLIN is now
being rolled out across the entire business
(1800 employees) to get everyone’s input
into Novozymes’ strategy.
Frank Hatzack (Head of Innovation Development) @nzbioinno
www.novozymes.com
Novozymes
...a tool for
collaborative
online ideation...

15. / The big business benefits
Innovation: COLIN led to higher quality
innovation and more RD projects.
Talent: This is a good platform for the
company’s ‘young lions’ to get their ideas
heard and shared
Strategy: Appeals to the leaders’ need
for innovation as we work towards the
vision (this makes it an easy sell-in!)
/ Top tips
A good COLIN is intellectually compelling
and emotionally engaging
Use fun to drive engagement
People need to see a face, so make sure
you include the human side with video etc.
“Who wants to be
crowd sourced? People
want to be engaged!
Collaborative ideation is
a better phrase”
“Complex questions
create complex solutions”.
“Working with a small,
diverse crowd means
you get simpler, more
manageable ideas.”

16. / The challenge
With over 4,000 employees, internal channels
at the Financial Ombudsman were getting busy
and news pieces becoming too long to digest.
They needed a change of approach for their
in-house magazine so, with 50% of employees
under the age of 35, social media seemed like
the natural choice.
/ The solution
The team already used a Newsweaver platform
to keep in touch with external stakeholders,
so they used this to launch On the go, a short,
snappy online publication that combines
business with fun. They made the newsletter
social, with a marketing-led approach and used
Twitter to cut through the noise: people had
to tell the story in 140 characters! On the go
also includes:
Videos: Employees use Vine to create mini
videos that can be embedded, a great way to
make boring subjects engaging.
Corporate responsibility: Including voting for
charities, and ways to get involved.
Multi-format approach: With user-generated
content, a weekly CEO video etc.
Sally Young (Head of Publication) at the Financial Ombudsman,
and Denise Cox from Newsweaver
Financial Ombudsman Newsweaver
has an impressive
80% open rate
On the go

17. / Results
On the go has an impressive 80% open rate
/ The big business benefits
Measurement: Provides real-time metrics
that can be used to boost engagement
and understand audiences.
Accessibility: Employees can view
On the go anywhere, through any device.
Events: They can use On the go’s
functionality for events
Speed: In disaster recovery planning,
On the go can be used to send instant
messages to all employees.
/ Top tips
Before you start, set benchmarks and
build from that
Speak to people, get feedback and
look at analytics to find out how to
make things better
“50% of staff were under
35 so social seemed the
way to go”
Sally
“Access to quality data
is a big challenge for
internal communicators”
Denise

18. / The challenge
Sharing ideas, voicing opinions, talking to lots of
people at the same time, Vodafone wanted its
employees to start using all the behaviours they
used in their personal social media use, at work.
/ The solution
The Comms team set up Circle, an internal social
media platform using Sharepoint that is separate
to their intranet. Circle enables people to share
ideas on what’s working and allows directors
to interact with people across the globe. At the
beginning it was hard to get employees to shift
from email and instant messaging, but over time
they started to see and enjoy the benefits. Now,
employees can use Circle to:
Give opinions and get instant feedback
Request and set up their communities
(according to guidelines)
Give suggestions on new projects
(recently this was used to encourage
employees to name Vodafone’s new app)
/ The results
Over 75k registered users (there are 90k
employees around the world)
12-20k uses per month
2000 communities
Stanley Awuku (Internal Digital Experience Manager) @stanos22
Vodafone
Over 75k
registered
users
(there are 90k employees
around the world)

19. / Business benefits
Communication: Circle has helped
remove barriers.
Engagement: Circle has a Townhall
function that allows Vodafone’s leaders
to engage with employees and enables
groups to collaborate easily.
Feedback: Leaders can ask questions
and get ideas from workforce
Leadership visibility: One CEO in Qatar
even uses Circle to wish colleagues a
happy birthday!
Retaining knowledge: Circle is great for
project teams because all the information
is there, rather than being hidden in Outlook
and potentially lost if somebody leaves.
/ Top tips
Get your senior leaders to act as ambassadors.
If you think there’s a danger of tool overload,
then give employees guidance on what to
use, how.
“There’s never too
much interaction.”
“I love feedback,
I ask questions and
let them talk, then take
lots of notes.”

20. / The challenge
CCE wanted an employee and manager
self-service portal, a digital workplace that
would work on any device any time any location
– a one hit solution. So last month they launched
iConnect, the intranet in your pocket, that has
integrated their Sharepoint and SAP systems
into a single mobile platform.
/ Engaging people
The team used a ‘Force, Compel, Invite’ model
to encourage people to use iConnect:
Force – iConnect is the default home page.
If people change it, it’s simply defaults back
overnight.
Compel – Using a sweetshop analogy, CCE
uses HR as the chocolate bar for iConnect:
it’s the only place employees can access their
payslips and holiday bookings so people are
drawn in.
Invite – there’s now plenty of interesting, useful
information to keep people coming back.
The content is also unique to the individual
employee (training courses/manager etc).
/ Choosing what to include
The team don’t put everything on iConnect.
For example, people can see their objectives,
but can’t complete their appraisals on iConnect;
and they continue to use Chatter to collaborate –
it already works brilliantly so has been linked
from iConnect, but not integrated.
/ Access
Access has been an important part of the
iConnect development so that now:
In the office, the VPN connection knows
who the employee is, but they can also log
in to access it externally
iConnect is available in several European
languages
They’ve created iConnect Express, giving
employees quick and easy access to tools
and stripped-down content
Jonathan Philips (Senior Manager Digital Comms) @digitaljohnathan
Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE)

21. / Results and benefits
Although iConnect was only launched last
month, 65% of employees have already
connected. The target is for 100% to say
iConnect is a useful place to be.
/ Business benefits
Employee advocacy: Employees can share
stories from iConnect to the outside world.
Communication: iConnect has campaign
spaces using Twitter.
/ Top tips
Governance is important, start there with
clear strategy
Start small, build from that
On average people use mobile 150 times a
day – content has to be bite size in order to
be engaging. Short, sharp, no longer than
1 min.
“We don’t only
encourage BYOD [Bring
Your Own Device], we
rely on it!” 6% of their
ESN traffic comes from
personal mobile devices.
“We’re all aware that
different channels
serve different purposes
for us in our personal
lives.” That’s why we
must think the same
for the workforce.
“It’s not an intranet,
it’s a digital workplace”.
Watch the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGjWc-
CW5HE8noredirect=1

22. www.synergycreative.co.uk
www.synergycreative.co.uk/internalcomms
+44 (0)117 962 1534
Gemma McGrattan
gemma@synergycreative.co.uk
Get in touch
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More from SMiLE
For details of the full line up and contributors,
including a ‘storify’ go to:
www.simply-communicate.com/news/
event-reviews/smilelondon/storify-smilelon-
don-2015-march