22 March 2007
Should you be worried about "disintermediation"?
Melcrum's Social Media Forum discusses the latest uses for new digital media within internal communications.
"Disintermediation" is just one of the buzzwords and hot topics getting tongues wagging at this week's Melcrum Social Media Forum in the UK's futuristic Canary Wharf.
A range of internal and corporate communicators have gathered in London to discuss the latest social media phenomenons and find out how they should and could be using tools such as blogs, podcasts, wikis and RSS feeds to their organization's advantage.
If you build it, they will come
Yesterday, David
Ferrabee, MD of change and
internal communications at PR specialists Hill & Knowlton (and
a new expert on the forthcoming Hub editorial board) and his colleague
Phil
Turner, a change and internal communications consultant at the organization,
explained how using clear, concise and gripping language should improve
your blog's popularity – no matter who the target audience is.
Using clear, concise and gripping language is likely to improve your blog's popularity – no matter who the target audience is.
Their parting messages to delegates regarding blogs, were "Be controversial, but don't be stupid" (Turner) and "If you build it right, they will come" (Ferrabee).
Internal video contest
Philippe Borremans, European Leader
of IBM's Global New Media Team, discussed
how effective his company's internal video contest has been for enhancing
employee engagement.
Borremans' main messages for encouraging the successful take-up of social media tools were "start small and educate internally" – the emphasis being that if you set clear blogging guidelines, for example, there's little room for error, or harm to your company's reputation.
Isn't it time you got a Second Life?
As well as highlighting the business opportunities available in virtual
worlds such as Second
Life and Outback
Online, Neville
Hobson's
session focused on the latest social media tools currently worrying
the CEOs of companies across the world. From Twitter to Flickr,
Techmeme to Facebook,
shows of hands and the delegate discussions indicated the biggest reason
companies haven't embraced blogging (in particular) so far, is fear.
Fear that an employee will inadvertently, or otherwise, harm the company's
reputation.
Day two: Do you do online video?
Blogging and online video were the big themes of the second morning of
the Social Media Forum. Blogging consultant, Debbie
Weil, was keen to show in her presentation how effective blogs
can be for external and internal relations. In an interactive demo,
she blogged from the lectern, showing how
to insert a YouTube video clip to demonstrate the ease of adding interactive content to a blog
posting.
Delegate discussions indicated the biggest reason companies haven't embraced blogging (in particular) so far, is fear.
In an earlier presentation today, Helen Love, internal communications manager for software organization, Microsoft, and Steve Clayton, chief technical officer of the firm’s Partnering Group evangelized about the way public, external blogging has changed the image of the company.
Other social media resources
The Social Media Forum coincides with the release of the preliminary
findings from Melcrum's Social Media survey. For
regular updates about the rest of the action from the Social Media
Forum, visit the Melcrumblog,
and read a Daily
Telegraph article about the event.
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