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Points of View is our blog dedicated to exploring the critical corporate communications issues of the day through insights and videos of Fortune 500 business and communications execs, industry insiders and our team.

Grant Toups

SXSW Interactive Observations: Preparing for the Coming Resource War by Getting Really Smart


April 3rd, 2013

Settling on one or two things from SXSWi 2013 to capture in a blog post is, let’s just say, a challenge. The sessions were varied; some filled with “a-ha” moments, many with “duh” moments and many more with sales pitches. But among the great ones, a session on 3D printing stood out in my three-day whirlwind.

I wouldn’t be surprised if many of my fellow attendees will be raving about the possibilities of 3D printing in the coming days; let’s be clear, it’s pretty incredible.  But I was struck by something different.

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Grant Toups

A Case for Social Media Access at the Office


January 27th, 2011

It’s an oft-discussed question in many IT departments and beyond: should employees have unrestricted access to the internet (including all the social networking they can get their hands on) while at work? A recent SocialCast report suggests that there might just be a productivity bump to be had from such access.

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The SocialCast argument seems logical and intuitive, though almost certainly not the final word on the topic.

The crux of their point (available here) is that access to personal social networking as a bit of downtime to clear the head, can actually improve employee productivity. And it’s a valid point but the concerns about such a move are very real, from productivity losses to compromised corporate security. I’d like to add a couple more ideas to the mix.

I’d argue that social media is, especially with Gen Y’ers and younger, becoming more than just a tool. It’s an essential part of everyday life.  And as that evolution continues, employee pressure (from current employees and potential recruits) on companies to open up the proverbial social networking doors will likely increase.  The companies that do it before feeling the pressure are likely to be called “cutting edge, innovative leaders.” Those that do it after run the risk of seeming “behind the times.”

Further, almost every social media team I’ve come across feels under-resourced for the sheer volume they need to monitor.  So why not give employees access and ask them to watch out for the company that helps them put food on the table?  If your company has 10k employees and 10% actually keep an eye out, you’ve just built a network of 1k watchdogs capable of monitoring far more than even the largest, most well-resourced internal social media team can likely hope to.

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Grant Toups

The Continuing Evolution of Employee Engagement


January 20th, 2011

Mashable recently featured a piece by Soren Gordhamer, founder of the Wisdom 2.0 Conference, on the evolution of the enterprise in the age of social media. It’s a fascinating read, here, but there were two things I wanted to point a spotlight on here.

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First, he quotes a Towers Watson (formerly Towers Perrin) study that found:

  • Companies whose employees report high employee engagement realized a 19% increase in income and nearly 18% rise in EPS
  • On the other hand, companies with low levels of engagement saw income drop 32% and EPS decline more than 11%.

The data is from 90k employee interviews in 18 countries, and it seems a staggering endorsement for an increased focus on employee engagement.

Gordhamer also recounts a meeting he had with Zappos CEO Tony Hsiesh

” … the[n] Zappos realized that trying to force unhappy staff to treat customers with respect and joy was a losing battle. You cannot ask staff to give what they do not receive.”

Zappos, widely considered as a model for employee engagement, loyalty and morale, seems to succeed by living this mantra in everyday, very real sorts of ways. Which made me curious, is this evolution making its way to the pavement elsewhere? In what ways are your companies living this paradigm shift?

The original Mashable post can be found here.

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Grant Toups

Trendstream Study Finds Consumer Trust in Social Networking Contacts on the Rise


January 13th, 2011

Trendstream, the UK-based digital consultancy, has released its 2011 Web Index, available here.  It provides a thoroughly interesting, in-depth look at the evolution of social media engagement that observes a growing trend toward social networks and users as qualifiers and distributors of “professional” content, with individual content creation on the decline. I wanted to take a minute to point out one thing that really jumped out at me.

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While trust about products is generally rising (not surprising given the continuing economic recovery) nearly half of those surveyed scored their social network contacts as a level 4 or 5 (where 5=strongly trust).  The number for newspapers … about 3%.

I’ll avoid the temptation to wear my “student of the social web” hat and opine on the larger meaning of the results. But if there is one takeaway that strikes me as incredibly important to corporate communications groups as they plan out 2011, it’s this: there is a profound shift underway as consumers tell us where they get their most trusted advice, and it must force us to ask a serious question.  Are our strategies and tactics evolving as rapidly as our target audiences?

View the full report below:

Welcome to Social Entertainment – Annual Report 2011
View more presentations from Tom Smith.

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Grant Toups

Segmenting Audiences on the Net: Pew Segments Internet Usage by Age


December 22nd, 2010

A recent Pew study on internet usage by age paints an interesting picture.  A few of the key findings:

  • The age gap, where millennial usage far exceeds that of other groups that were identified in 2009, seems to be shrinking.
  • Email and search still reign supreme, so for those of us who predicted email was dying, perhaps we shouldn’t be editing its obituary just yet.
  • Depending on just how old you are, that friend request from mom or grandpa isn’t a fluke. The 74+ age group represents the fastest growing segment of social media users, quadrupling since 2008.
  • While traditional blogging seems to be undergoing a redefinition based on the emergence of Twitter, Facebook status updates and the like, the emergence of video represents perhaps the biggest shift in content choice, rising 14% in adult internet usage.

This infographic from Pew outlines the key findings.  The complete study can be found here.

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Grant Toups

The Infancy and Rise of Social Inquiry


November 23rd, 2010

Have any of you ever heard of Formspring.me?  Neither had I, until recently.  Mashable.com, the popular social media blog, recently reported that Formspring raised $10MM dollars in its second round of funding.  I mention that to demonstrate that this stuff is cutting edge.  But what is it, and why does it matter to the enterprise?

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Social Inquiry Defined

At its core, Formspring is essentially a Q&A platform.  You find a friend (or stranger) ask them a question, using your name or not, and they answer it.  Some of the content is highly personal, some of it is completely superficial, but in essence it is an always-on, always-open Q&A session.  It’s the Twitter version of the traditional Q&A, and aside from being unbelievably addicting, I think it represents a next big thing in enterprise social media, both internally and externally.  (For this post I’ll focus on internal, but the opportunities are nearly as limitless outside as they are inside.)

Simplicity Drives Usage

Imagine if, with a simple search and a one sentence question, you could access the insights and thinking of practically every employee within your organization.  Imagine if you could, in a matter of moments on your Smartphone, answer a question on the company’s updated approach to manufacturing safety or its new benefits package.  For that matter, imagine you could ask the manager of supply chain in Asia how they managed to get employee buy-in to the radical changes they’ve already adopted and you’ve been banging your head against the wall to make any headway on at all.  And you could do it without spending three weeks trying to schedule a meeting.  You could do it in minutes.

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Grant Toups

Can Social Networks Drive Professional Development?


July 20th, 2010

We regularly connect with people online. We keep in touch. We make new friends. But can we actually learn anything that’s professionally useful? Is it possible for our online networks, professional or personal, to help us become smarter people and more effective professionals with some level of certain regularity? Instead of stumbling across the occasional jewel, is there a way to come close to a guarantee?

Consider this. Subject matter experts around the world are already using social bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious to gather, screen, categorize and share relevant, insightful content. Prominent bloggers and Twitterers, like Guy Kawasaki, spend hours each day scouring the internet and linking to remarkably valuable content on their blogs and twitter feeds. And some companies are using Yammer to stream relevant news and other materials to employees on their closed internal networks. And let’s not forget powerful news aggregators like Google Reader that can put thousands of information sources at our fingertips and let us search all that content for even the most obscure word or phrase.

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Grant Toups

Do ask; do tell…Army encourages soldiers to speak up


August 18th, 2009

One of the findings in practically every recent study on social media is that in older companies cutting edge social media initiatives are sometimes harder to get off the ground because of the powerful muscle memory formed from years of success.  But, as many communicators in these companies undoubtedly know, the way we operate is changing and communicators at all levels of the corporate world find themselves fighting that muscle memory of broadcast-style push communications techniques.  Certainly this generalization doesn’t apply to every company; it may not even apply to most, but for some it seems a formidable challenge.

But support for the social media buy-in proposition is coming from an unlikely source … the U.S. Army.

A recent New York Times piece explored a new pilot program of wikis launched by the Army for developing a number of its field manuals.  These “rules of the road” documents were historically written by military thinkers at the various educational and training institutions across the country.  The pilot program allows for editing and adding content by any active soldier, from Private to General, using technology similar to Wikipedia while requiring that each entry be attributed to someone. (more…)

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Grant Toups

Why aren’t more companies using social media to build employee communities?


March 20th, 2009

Disclaimer: I’m a part of the Wikipedia/Facebook/Twitter generation, and I don’t understand why more companies aren’t using social media strategies as internal community-building tools.

These tools are a part of my daily life. They provide a real way to stay connected to people, issues and ideas I care about. They’re how I gather information, find answers to questions, brainstorm ideas and commiserate. They are a real part of how I exist in the larger world, and I’m not alone. But perhaps more importantly, to people like me, they aren’t something to be feared.

Now, I bet you’re wondering why you should care when you’ve got an ongoing financial Armageddon to worry about. Well, people like me, without impressive titles and decades of experience, are worried. We’re worried about our jobs and our bills … and our companies. And like everyone, we look for reassurance and strength in our communities. Only for us, communities don’t exist exclusively in three dimensions. So why aren’t more companies taking advantage of the realities of social media pervasiveness and building employee communities online? (more…)

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