Inside the Cubicle

Embracing the Community Manager

Over at his blog, the ever-insightful Jeremiah Owyang discusses an emerging position at several forward-thinking organizations: Community Manager. As Jeremiah defines it, a Community Manager should "engage the community around a company and it’s products, to be a company champion, and most importantly, a customer advocate."

I would argue that the community that needs to be cultivated most (and first) is the internal community of an organization - the employees. I would also go one step further and argue that every corporate communications department should develop a Community Manager.

Why Community Manager is an innovative and critical role inside organizations?

Traditionally organizations build a hierarchal structure that encourages small social networks and isolated pockets of information - both internally and externally. This is great for efficiently completing specific tasks, but stifles innovation and nimbleness. As former Harvard Business School professor, and all-around business guru, Theodore Levitt once wrote, “One of the collateral purposes of an organization is to be inhospitable to a great and constant flow of ideas and creativity.”  To me, the job of Community Manager is to break down the artificial walls that exist inside of organizations.

Once an internal community is established, then an organization can credibly establish relationships with customers and other stakeholders. However, until employees understand what the organization is really all about (not just what they do each day) they cannot effectively be ambassadors. And when employees see themselves as part of a larger community, they will be more likely to share that with others and provide discretionary effort - in sum, they will become more engaged.

What I love about Jeremiah's approach, is that he recognizes that it is not about online and offline, blogs versus in-person. Building a vibrant community is about cultivating relationships and providing credible, relevant information. While it is true that new media tools often provide a powerful vehicle to connect with individuals, they do not in and of themselves gaurantee the creation of a community - that involves people and compelling content.

Communicator or Community Manager
As Josh Hallett points out, one of the fundamental problems for organizations (and PR agencies are no exception) seems to be that knowledge of social media and the ability to facilitate communications within (or outside) organizations are viewed as separate skill sets.

Let's think about this: The job of a Community Manager is to help individuals learn, expose them to people and ideas that can help them solve problems, build pride and a sense of purpose, connect disparate but related networks. Hmmm...sounds a lot like the responsibilities of an effective internal communicator.

If your organization isn't a community, what is it? Probably a bunch of individuals working toward different objectives. Communities are something people want to be a part of, members of communities support each other and have collective power. What is your organization doing to build a sense of community?

Facilitating Communities Can Pay Big

Last month (yes, I am that far behind in posting) Harvard Business Review had a brief report discussing a study on the potential of customer communities (paid subscription required).

They found that eBay users in Germany who joined a customer community (they were provide prizes for doing so) provided far more activity and revenue than a control group that did not join a community:

"The differences were astonishing. Lurkers and community enthusiasts bid twice as often as members of the control group, won up to 25% more auctions, paid final prices that were as much as 24% higher, and spent up to 54% more money (in total). Enthusiasts listed up to four times as many items on eBay and earned up to six times as much in monthly sales revenues as the control users. The findings on first-time sellers were even more impressive: Compared with the controls, almost ten times as many lurkers (56.1%) and enthusiasts (54.1%) started selling on eBay after they joined and participated in customer communities." 

These numbers translated into several million dollars in profit from the increased activity, a good ROI on the $5,000 or so they spent on the incentives.

The big question - At the end of the article, the authors speculate that this principle of community building could apply to offline businesses as well. While I think this is certainly true (Think about Saturn, or Lego, or Harley Davidson) it seems to me that the benefits of community building online are vast:

• Inexpensive
• Greater reach
• Not bound by time or space
• Long-lasting and searchable
• Provides greater data

Companies often gain a majority of profit from heavy users and repeat purchasers. Building a community makes it easier for individuals to:

• Develop a relationship with the company/brand/employees
• Share information and reduce the marketing or support burden on the organization
• Create customer evangelists

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Technorati Tags: eBay, community

It isn't about what you know, it is about what who you know knows

Last week I attended a talk given by University of Chicago Graduate Business School Professor Ronald Burt (shout out to the Human Capital Institute, who put on the session). Burt is considered an expert on social capital and one of the leading researchers on the role of social networks within business settings. In 2000 he left academia to serve in an executive role at Raytheon.

Here are some excerpts from the talk (my apologies to professor Burt if I got anything wrong):

- As we flattened down bureaucracies, people became more the authors of their own jobs. This was necessary to compete globally, because you can’t afford the fat.

- Now you have to negotiate more for resources, get buy-in for novel approaches.

- Now it is not enough to be smart or have success, now more of your success is dependant upon your ability to relate to other people.

- Social capital refers to the assets you have in terms of how you are positioned in a market (a social network of competitors, collaborators and colleagues)

- There is a thriving science to the study of an asset known as social capital:

• It has a metric
• It has a substantial affect on performance
• It can be taught

- How is Social Capital responsible for innovation and good ideas? (creativity is an import-export game)

- Can Social Capital Be Taught? (yes, indicated by improved performance, promotion, and retention of desirable employees)

Human Capital: competitive advantage due to individual abilities or skills
Social Capital: competitive advantage due to surrounding organization

- If the group is not greater than sum of the parts, than you might as well break up the group and contract the work out.

- Our lives are filled with small worlds of organizations and markets, the idea that we have clusters that are joined through loose ties.

- There are information implications to this structure. People in similar groups tend to view things similar, and so information inside tends to become more homogeneous.

- Information becomes embedded in a location and becomes difficult to move.

- There are several Web sites that will model networks of related information: Touchgraph.com, Musicplasma.com, Digg.com, Dartmouthatlas.org

- In a small world, there are two leadership roles that individuals can have: Robert or James (Note: Burt had a nice graph to show this). Robert and James have the same social circumference – what is different is how their contacts are connected. James’ approach is to find a way to get contacts aligned and drive out variation – basis of lean manufacturing and Six Sigma. Robert is at the intersection of social worlds is more likely to be exposed to good ideas. He understands that a singularly strategy is a choice, and is in a position to see better option or new ideas (entrepreneur). James only knows right and wrong, one way for success and failure.

- Invention has its origins in the way you organize, not in your capabilities.

- People who work at the intersection of social networks make more money, get promoted faster, etc.

Burt refers to these gaps between social networds as "structural holes" and notes that individuals who are able to work in these holes and bring information from one group to another are a value add.

The lesson?: It isn't about what you know, it is about what those around you know  and your willingness and ability to take that information and apply it to new situations and problems.

For organizations, it is about valuing diversity of ideas and fluidity of relationships. The consistent innovation neccessary for success in today's global economy isn't likely to be born from disciplined R&D processes, it needs to come from everywhere and anywhere, anyone and anytime. Organizations who do not accept, cultivate and activate this type of thinking will be left behind.

In case you hadn't noticed, I am really interested in social networks lately...

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Technorati Tags: innovation, Burt, social+networks

How many friends do you have?

According to USA Today, Brittnie Sarnes has more than 5,000 friends.....on MySpace that is.

I had a party a few weeks ago where 20 people showed up and I thought I was pretty popular. Then again, I invited everyone through primitive means - calling them or talking to them in person. Maybe I should have posted the party of Craigslist, sent around an Evite, or left messages on people's profile pages.

There is no denying that the Internet is a powerful tool to connect individuals, and social networking platforms (MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Orkut, LinkedIn, etc.) facilitate this better than anything else. As soon as you sign in and establish a profile you are instantly connected to tens of thousands of individuals who share your music tastes, school affiliation, and occupation. With the click of the mouse, you are linked to more people than Kevin Bacon could dream of.

The question is, are these connections in and of themselves meaningful? At what point does a connection turn into a relationship? When does an online link or a shared membership in a community become the basis for action, a reason to share, the trigger to form an opinion?

On the surface, it would seem that these connections formed through online social networks constitute what sociologists refer to as "weak ties" - relationships that are formed through loose connections (acquaintances, distant friends, etc.) and whose members do not put a lot weight on the opinions of the others. The stereotype is that this online activity, because it lacks the tactile aspects of face-to-face communication, is inherently less significant.

However, this is not the case.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project published a significant report this January, "The Strength of Internet Ties" that concluded:

1. Internet users have larger social networks than non-users
2. People are turning to the Internet to make major life decisions like what cars to buy, where to live, where to work, etc.

The fact is that for many people (a number that will only increase in coming generations) the relationships formed online matter...bigtime. Just look at how elaborate the online world Second Life has become.

What does this mean?
With physical boundaries irrelevant, relevancy reigns supreme - Think about what you did as a kid - kicked the soccer ball around, played Dungeons & Dragons, sat around and listened to records. You were limited to joining up with the neighborhood kids. Activities were based on what those kids liked or what toys they had to play with.

Now, you have the whole world as your neighbor and whatever your interests are, you can find a community that supports that (for better or worse). All that matters is that community give the individual a place to connect and participate.

Diversity of communities is powerful -Closed networks are productive, but not innovative. Surround yourself with like minded people and you will be get things done. But you will never be able to see beyond what is right around you. You will not be exposed to new things, people will not question the status quo, growth will be steady at best, but never exponential. In short, the big idea will never come.

The most innovative and expansive knowledge comes from diverse networks of weak ties, a theory put forth by sociologist Mark Granovetter and furthered by Ronald Burt among others. The people who, as Burt says, "sit at the edges of social networks." are the ones that posses the greatest and most useful forms of social capital.

What does this mean for organizations?
Create communities (and make them inclusive) - Organizations are incredibly inefficient in terms of applying roles and responsibilities. Employees are bound by a job description and prescriptive responsibilities. Managers are reluctant to share resources (i.e., staff, funding) and so you are stuck "going to war with the army ya got." Organizations would be better off viewing people as able to offer more than their position and title imply. Do you know what your employee's interests are, their hobbies, their additional skill sets? Do you give individuals the chance to pursue interests beyond their team, their office, even their cubicle?

The payoff of employee engagement is discretionary effort, when employees go beyond what is required of them and give additional value. Is your organization set up to even allow this to happen? Don't be bound be time and space. Don't think employees have to work 9-5 with the people right around them. Open things up, create communities based on skills and interests, not titles and quotas.

Find people with tons of friends - A decade ago it was the size of your Rolodex, three years ago it was the number of Outlook contacts, now it is the number of MySpace friends, or your Technorati rank that matter. You want people on the A-list. Why? Because like it or not, people will at the least hear them, and likely listen to them as well. They will know people in organizations you want to work with, have friends who are prospective clients, put you in touch with someone who knows someone who can get that thing that you need. The world is not flat, it is a series of webs of interconnectivity, and as an organization you want the people who at the middle of multiple webs.

Brittnie Sarnes has more than 5,000 friends....That is 5,000 people she can turn to for information, her own personal library of knowledge and resources. Maybe one of them will help her get a job, get into school, get that hot new pair of jeans.

Brittnie Sarnes is taking advantage of the benefits of social networking, are you? Is your organization?

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Technorati Tags: Myspace, networking, community

Southwest employees share a defining moment

Over at the Southwest Blog, they have posted several videos from Southwest employees that were recorded after September 11th, 2001.

These videos are genuine, they are personal and they give us a window into the people that define Southwest. They make me proud to be a Southwest customer.

This is the best of what blogs can do!

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Technorati Tags: Southwest, 9/11, video

CTC - "Running Your Business on Web 2.0: Simple, Lightweight Apps"

This session, "Running Your Business on Web 2.0: Simple, Lightweight Apps," was run by Rod Boothby, author of the great Innovation Creators blog. Rod goes through about a dozen slides a minute, and a lot of visuals, so I suspect my notes will miss a lot.

His is a consultant - he works with knowledge workers.

He started a blog, found it was a good communication tool and asked why he couldn't use it in his work.

The key question to ask: Are you on the grid? (Can Google find you?)

The case for Web 2.0 in the enterprise is the case for hyper-linked information

(It is significant that more people are willing to read something via html than download a pdf.)

Everything in business comes down to greed and fear.

Greed

• Constant Innovation In order to acheive a constant stream of profits is to constantly innovate. You constantly innovate by leveraging the people around you.
• Improve efficiency
• Happier/ more engaged employees are more productive

Knowledge workers create ad-hoc things. They invent stuff and solve problems.

Fear

• Sarbanes-Oxley
• Global Communication

We rarely need to make life-and-death real-time decisions. It is more important to build relationships and communication

We rarely need to collaborate in real time. We can build off each other in a continuum.

Knowledge workers = Innovation Creators

We don't need knowledge management, we need better communication tools

Business case for blogs
- Empower employees - as a manager you need to be able to take people with small or big ideas and give them the ability to make that a success.

Example: In his organization, everyone is getting a People Pages and Project Pages (blogs by another name).
This will create:

• A searchable database of everyone (130,000 globally) and what they are working on
• Make a personal benefit by having by-lined articles that show readership and ranking
• Will have client blogs
• Focus pages that will talk on a particular topic

The point is to create blogs with a obvious business purposes. A way people can construct and link information that makes sense.

Simple tools:
37 Signals
Google
Joyent
Wordpress
MovableType
SocialText
Traction
Zoho

These things are agile

The key is:

• Individuals and interactions over process and tools

• Working software over comprehensive documentation

It is important of encouraging a cottage-industry of internal  user-developed-application (UDA). This allows others to do work and increases

Who gets it?: Blogtronix, Automattic, Socialtext, iUpload (others I didn't get down)

Problem is IT's first job is to not get fired and second job is to protect the information.

IT is slow to adpot SOA because it is not linear, it is messy.

Suggestion of Enterprise Web 2.0 Gateway

What Should Go Behind the Firewall:
Authentication, Access Control, Encryption, Audit Trail

Already sort of happening with Sxip

We are going to have to consider the laws of identity.

Conclusion:

• To profit you must innovate

• To innovate you need to empower innovator creators

• Innovation creators need the tools (blogs, wikis)

In the end the business case comes in terms of innovation. These things are all just tools that will facilitate innovation, people still have to use these tools. In the end it comes down to defining what you need in terms of tools in the business. This will different in each business. Give people the tools to make their own application.

He makes it clear that all of these conversation are INTERNAL. External conversations need a lot more control. Think about going slowly.

The distribution of blogging policy actual resulted in increase in usage. You need a senior person to communicate this stuff (preferrably in person). Then get that senior person to recognize participation.

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Technorati Tags: ctc2006, CTCBoston, CTC, collaborative+technologies+conference, Boothby, Innovation, Innovation+Creators, blogs

Looking for community, use your own

Ben McConnell at Church of the Consumer Blog says what I have been saying all along.

What is the best way for your company to get involved in communities?

"Start internally. The affordability and ease of social media tools make it easy to launch community experiments. Get thee to a wiki. Bless thee with a blog!"

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Technorati Tags: community, internal, employees