This article first appeared in Business Tech on 5 May.

12 years ago there was an ongoing debate about the value of open internet access in the workplace.  Many corporates did not allow personnel access to the Internet in the workplace.  Then it was restricted access for the few who “actually needed it”. After all, why should they allow staff to browse for jobs or surf aimlessly. Fast-forward a few years and internet access had become an integral part of the working environment.  It became impossible to exist in the business world without having constant access.

The same questions now surround social access.  Why should business let their staff play Farmville and socialize all day? What would happen to productivity?

Businesses that restrict or forbid access to social platforms is a symptom of just how mis-understood social business is. They have not seen just how integral social interaction is becoming to business.  More importantly they are missing huge opportunities that come from engaging customers and employees in new ways. By the time they do realise it they may find themselves very far behind the international trend.

The ubiquity of Blackberries, iPhones, Samsung Galaxies and other smart phones means personnel will be accessing social platforms with or without the consent of their employers.  Online social interaction is becoming second nature to a growing number of people and they will, more and more, find ways to connect and do business socially by bypassing company structures and systems which is a recipe for confusion.

Add to that a recent study be Keas (keas.com) that shows that benefits of social media in the workplace can actually increase productivity.  This study focused on breaks that allow personnel to connect socially.  According to this study social connections make people happy and breaks that involve browsing or connecting socially increases productivity.

More important though is the benefit of having a social strategy that makes the best of socially savvy employees who become brand ambassadors on the social web.

Some notable South African companies have loosened the shackles and allow social access at work.  These include Ernst & Young and Discovery.

Ernest & Young open access across the board to all staff toward the end of last year. Asked if this decision has been beneficial Sugan Palanee, Head of Markets for E&Y said “The age of our average employee, the changing needs of the business world, the global reach of an organisation like Ernst & Young all add to the need for our people to be nimble and responsive.  The significant benefits are empowerment of our people and the trust we instil through the freedom that social media allows, sees us consistently in the Top 10 Employers to work for.”

Significantly, he adds “We all have something to sell, and no matter what it is, people who want to buy it are using social media.”

It simply makes sense to take advantage of the instant communication that social platforms provide by making them a part of the work environment.

Asked about the negatives Palanee said “In reality technology has grown and staff still stay connected with smart phones anyway. Indeed, social media, comes at a cost, but the benefits outweigh the negatives.”

On Tuesday the Deputy Minister of Communications, Stella Tembisa Ndabeni, delivered a speech on  “Building ICT infrastructure for South Africa’s advancement in the knowledge and digital economy”. See the report on this speech at BussinesTech.

Every now and then someone will say something on Twitter that has an impact with me.  I saw such a tweet last week.  I only wish I had favourited it because I’ve been thinking about it all week and it has brought me to this article.  Now I can’t credit this sage person who made me think!

At any rate it went something along the lines of “I don’t follow a brand to connect with the brand, I follow to connect to the person behind the brand”

This steps into one of those long standing debates in social business:  If you work for a brand, who owns your followers and what to do if you leave?

I am not going to weigh in on that argument.  I’m more interested in the statement itself and the fact that it signals another significant change of the business/customer relationship. It’s a deepening of the idea that a brand needs to be “friends” with its customers.

Traditionally, large brands have always been large walls of marketing hype.  Even when successful (i.e. Levi, Coke, whatever) consumers have connected with the campaign rather than people. Now that social has given us the idea that we can be connected to anyone in the world through our Facebook and Twitter accounts, they have warmed to the idea that in supporting a brand we are connected to its people.

It creates a blurry line. Last year I wrote about individuals personal and professional lives blurring. This now extends out to the line between a brand and its representatives blurring. Who owns their followers is only part of the problem.

These are still the early days of the development of this but I believe it will become a bigger and bigger factor as time goes on.  As my current favourite saying goes “nothing gets old faster than the future” so it is an issue worth thinking about now.  Not just the problems it may present but rather the opportunities it affords.  If your customers want to be connected to real people dealing with real issues relating to your brand then provide that. Social marketing are forever going on about “opportunities to engage”.  This is one of them.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that this is one more important factor in building a community around your brand.

Picture Credit: David Castillo Dominici

I wrote this article for Human Capital Review where it originally appeared

2011 was a breakthrough year for social media in business.  Word spread swiftly about its rapid growth, fantastic size and global domination. This created a wave of businesses that rushed out to start up Facebook pages and open Twitter accounts.  A tally of the number of South Africans on Linkedin that have “social media” in their job title increased by 5 times over the past year.

There have been notable successes for certain businesses on social media from large to small.  Woolworths, Vodacom did well but so did a local plumber and iRide, a biking brand, however, in the main businesses were left asking the question “Well, now what?” as they found themselves struggling to engage beyond their close circle that connected to their Facebook or Twitter profiles.

And indeed “now what?” is the question.  I will endeavour to answer that question.

Perhaps some perspective may help.  We should understand that we are in the midst of a revolution, a communication revolution.  A revolution is defined as “a radical and pervasive change to society and the social structure.  Especially one made suddenly”.  Since the beginning of this century, just 12 years ago, we have seen a pervasive and radical change in the business/consumer relationship.  It has changed everything.

For the better part of the 21^st century business owned the media through advertising spend on radio, television, newspapers, magazines and every other platform available for broad communication.  Due to this ownership by business, it was business that controlled the message -  what was said and how it was said.

With the arrival of social media this has changed remarkably quickly.  It is now possible for an individual who has no connection to traditional media to build up a following and become a person of influence within an industry – any industry.  Social media platforms have been the catalyst for this.

Business was wholly  unprepared for this change.  Being rooted in the past where long deliberations could take place about how your brand was to be perceived and communicated, how do you prepare for a million or more online conversations that discuss your brand, your industry, your competitors with or without your participation?

We, the people, now own the media and we are directing the course of the conversation.  We expect your participation but we expect it where we are and more and more we are on the social web.  In fact frustration is growing with brands that are not on the social web.

Strong parallels can be drawn with website development 12-14  years ago.  It used to be that a website was a new, stand out thing to do but a number of corporates pooh-poohed the web and saw no need for their participation.  Then came a time where a brand was considered odd, possibly even a bit dodgy if they didn’t have a website. Eventually it was a given, of course you must have a website.  And so it is now with social presence.

By the end of 2011 there were 4 billion connected devices in the world – smart phones, tablet computer, laptops.  By 2013 there will be 15 billion and by the close of this decade over 50 billion.  We see from this that being connected will become more and more important.  In truth it is already getting harder NOT to be connected.  You find yourself being cut off more and more by not being on the social web.

This brings us back to the question: “Social media and business:  Now what?”

In 2012 and beyond smart business will focus on “Social Intelligence”, tapping in to the vast intelligence (information) that exists on the social web.  Being socially intelligent breaks down as follows:

• A new mindset.  Social media is not something additional to your business.  It is not just marketing. A successful venture in becoming social must, by necessity, include your whole business.
• Monitoring social conversations to determine your place on the social web.  What platforms should you be active on?  What are the opportunities that exist for you to participate on the social web?
• Social training. A thorough understanding of social mediums and how it relates to your business throughout your workforce.
• Social employees.  Tapping into the vast reservoir of shared knowledge within in your business by providing platforms for all employees to share, collaborate and communicate with each other.

New Mindset

Up to now Social media has mostly been considered a marketing tool.  This is not wrong but it is only part of the story.  As we all know service trumps marketing every time.  The biggest social media disasters have centered around terrible service.  This undermines any marketing effort.  The classic example is accounts.  If a business can’t issue a correct invoice or double debits or cuts off service unfairly, you can be assured you’re customers will take to social media to let everyone know.  So much for that massive marketing campaign.

It is a revolution.  Revolutionise your business, rethink it for the modern communication revolution. The opportunities to innovate will become a lot clearer when you tap into the vast amount of intelligence available to you, which is covered below.

Monitoring

Moment by moment there are thousands, hundreds of thousands of conversations taking place on the social web about every brand and industry.  What are they saying about you? Your industry? Your competitors?

This is vital knowledge for any business.  Through answering these questions you will determine what place your business should be occupying on the social web.  You will start to understand your audience.  Most importantly you will know what they respond to, what engages them, what moves them.

Armed with this information in your rapidly evolving new mindset you will be able to formulate a strategy and plan that has far greater potential for success.  This strategy must include:

• What platforms you will use and how you will use them
• Policy guidelines for use of social media throughout your organization.
• Defined goals.  What will determine the success of your programme and how will this be measured?
• Content plan.  Know what content (video, stories, pictures, information) you will be putting out there.  Don’t get caught scrambling for something to say when it hasn’t been planned.
• Who will champion your social programme?  Someone who cares for social media that will ensure your programme will always move forward.  Depending on the size of your business this may be one part time person or a full time team.  Remember to include representation of your whole business as well as your employees.

Social Training

Whether or not every employee will be engaging on social media they must understand what it is and how your business will be using it.

Through this process you will tap into the natural flair of employees who want to communicate on the social web.  If you encourage this flair you enhance the engagement your business will have with its community.

This also goes a long way to eliminating the “left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing” syndrome that often appears in businesses.

Provide training.

Social Employees

One of the more controversial points of social and business is allowing opening access to social platforms in the work place.

Refusing to do so increasingly creates more problems than it solves.  With smart-phones rapidly becoming the norm employees will have access anyway.  Allowing access during lunch time creates massive strain on servers and creates headaches for IT.

Instead allow the access and provide clear policy guidelines on how social media is to be used.  Encourage it’s use for work and provide training and guidelines on how they can use it to do their jobs better.

There are also social platforms such as Podio that are restricted to your organization.  Employees can use these platforms in much the same way as they use Facebook in their personal lives.  This is the perfect way for employees across your organization to interact and share with each other as well as to collaborate on projects.  In short, it removes many of the barriers to effective communication in your business.

Conclusion

There was a saying coined not too long ago when it comes to social business.  Be Smart. Be Engaged. Be Human.

Studies continue to show conclusively that customers will be loyal to and buy from brands that they follow and engage with on social media.  Your business must be there.

By realizing that we are in a communication revolution you will understand that social media provides an opportunity for what you have always wanted.  Better, faster and more effective communication with the people most important to you in business – your customers!

Now is the most exciting time in our history to be in business.  I wish you all the very best success with yours.

I watched an interview yesterday with Futurist Gerd Leonhard (@gleonard).  I’ve included the interview at the bottom of this post.

He talks about the massive amount of data becoming available through the social web. Every like, tweet, share or update adds to the vast amount of data that can be mined.  In fact it has been postulated that data is the new oil. It’s a fascinating interview and well worth watching.

He makes a passing comment about the amount of data that will be available when 5 billion people are connected.  It struck me then that connected and social platforms are changing the world so drastically yet this is with only a third of the worlds population connected.

Bringing this more local in the South African context only around 12% of our population is connected.  This figure is set to radically increase in the next 18 months with bandwidth becoming more available and cheaper. I tried to imagine what it will be like when 25 million South Africans are connected.  Honestly it is difficult but the potential and the possibilities are amazing.

Imagine a scene at a rural school, with kids sitting in what barely passes as a school, with tablet computers connected to the Khan institute or a similar initiative with full access to abundant knowledge. That would represent a seismic change in our education.  Fantasy? Only just.  But it becomes more and more real the more access is available.

From a business perspective corporate South Africa only has around 12-18 months to position themselves for the rising tide of connected customers.  A business may not see a need right now to have a digital and social strategy when the majority of their market are not currently connected.  In about 18 months that won’t be the case and I believe many will be caught napping.

The new CEO of Cell-C, Allan Knott-Craig has announced plans to shake up the mobile market.  He will have a heavy focus on data, making it faster and cheaper.  This will in turn put pressure on MTN and Vodacom to follow.  At the end of June we may no longer be paying for landline rental along with our ADSL connections and there are at least two more undersea cables coming providing even more bandwidth.

The trend is irreversible and inevitable.  Any business without a solid social strategy is going to find their markets usurped by those that have move along with their market.  Connected customers will be more powerful than ever.

A social workforce.  An amazing concept.

12 years ago businesses were fretting about employees having unlimited access to the internet and all sorts of restrictions were put in place  to “increase productivity”.  Now the thought of holding any job where internet access is restricted is unthinkable.  Today it’s a integral part of our productive lives.

And so it will be with social media but we are going through the same productivity worries. I love this cartoon which sums up my feels on the matter, courtesy of 9gag.com.

In truth employees are already connected and they will (and have) find ways to connect with or without sanction.  They have Blackberries and smartphones.  They have tablet computers.

But beyond just begrudgingly allowing your employees to update their Facebook statuses there is a far more important picture. There are many advantages to having a social workforce:

• Every employee becomes a potential brand ambassador on the social web
• Tapping in to the vast shared knowledge base of your employees
• Greater collaboration among your workforce
• A social workforce will identify and present excellent opportunities for better customer engagement.  Being social allows innovation from staff you would otherwise never think of bringing in to the creative process of your business.
• In large corporates with offices spread over the country or the world, social platforms allow for interaction, sharing and collaboration between this otherwise disconnected employees.
• Being social internally makes your business social and being social means you will start truly connecting with your customers where they are – on the social web.

In the next few short years this social integration with be a natural course of business so it makes to get in there now and get the best possible use out of it.

Of course there are issues of policy, risk, training as there are in all aspects of business but the rewards to be had will make the effort very worthwhile.