Internal Corporate Communication: Going Social!

How to communicate effectively with your whole team? A question that has plagued execs since there were corporates.  And the bigger they get the bigger the plague.

Today I sat down with Gerry Skerrit, Managing Director of Dream Team Catalyst,  probably South Africa's premier Team Building company.  With their head office in Midrand they have 20 staff including 4 in their Cape Town office.

I discovered a couple weeks ago that they use a social media platform for their internal social interaction and communication called Yammer.  Since I've been billing myself as a social media expert I was embarrassed to admit that I had not heard of it till then.  But what a revelation!

So much focus of social media marketing and business application of the platform is brand interaction with its customers.  But a major stumbling block in implementing a strategy is how to get all employees and departments singing off the same sheet.  The answer is as obvious as it is profound: Your internal company structure needs to go social!

Yammer is essentially a Facebook type platform but it is only open to the employees of a company.  This is enforced through the company email domain.  Only people with your company email address can join the network.

I asked Gerry how this has benefited the Dream Team. "Everyone feels a part of the team.  Our Cape Town office often felt isolated because they didn't always know what we were doing.  With Yammer they are in the loop constantly.  And being an instant platform there is no lag in information." There is a Yammer smart phone app which is what makes it instant so even when staff are on the road they can interact with their colleagues and be informed and, of course, engage themselves.

Gerry emphasizes that it is a fun platform where staff can interact, post pictures and poke a bit of fun at each other.  I was amazed to learn that they have been using it for 18 months - that's some impressive forward thinking.

When I asked him why Dream Team went this way his answer was also blindingly obvious - being a team building company he says "we realise that the medicine we dispense [team building] is also good for us. We must have a good sense of ourselves as a team and Yammer has made this easier."

Although they do still make use of an internal email system for "chunkier" communications Gerry is very definite when he says that going social internally has revolutionised the company's communication and there is no going back. The longer they use it the more it has become an integral part of the every day workflow.

The vibe of the Dream Team office reflects this socialness. It's easy going and people appear to be enjoying their work.  This may have a lot to do with Gerry's infectious jovial nature but the focus on social engagement in the office must surely help.

But what about a company that has a far greater workforce?  In a few weeks I will be interviewing someone who is implementing Yammer in a company that has 6500 employees across the country. It's an old established company and she took the cowboy approach of setting it up without the proper clearances.  So far 10% of staff have joined the network. I can't wait to see the waves of change that is generating.

Does your company have any kind of internal social media platform? What have been your experiences?

South Africa's 10 Most Popular Company Facebook Pages

I just read a blog by Jeff Bullas covering the world's 10 most popular Company Facebook pages. That lead me to thinking which are the top 10 pages in South Africa.

It is very interesting to note that there is only one company that features in the top 20 overall in South Africa.  The rest are all musicians, celebrities or sports teams.  I was stunned to see that Cell-C didn't make the top 10, languishing with just under 5000 fans. If the list tells us one thing it's that there is real estate to be claimed by companies and brands that think quick and act social. Where are the big tech companies? Vodacom just makes it in while MTN lags far behind.

Here we go, from 10 to number 1:

10. Vodacom (34,452 fans)

Vodacom has a huge community (40+ million customers throughout Africa) and are definite contenders one feels that they would have done a lot better building their Facebook presence. Their landing page presents a great call to action with the possibility of winning a Galaxy Tab.

9. Mr. Price (38,439 fans)

This page is doing well considering they have no "call to action" buttons on their page.  Their landing page is the wall, not necessarily a bad idea but the first thing I saw were complaints about rude staff.  To their credit Mr. Price responded quickly.  It would be a better idea to land visitors on a page that presents a better idea of what they offer. Being in retail they could do a lot more to encourage engagement through incentives.

8. Blackberry South Africa (38,864 fans)

With Blackberry's domination in the South African smart phone market it is not surprising that they would be up there. There is very little in it for the last three places in the top 10 with just 4000 fans separating these three. 

7. Discovery Vitality (45,467 fans) 

With this many fans they must be doing something right.  However there is no clear indication when you get to the page what you are supposed to do with it.  The landing page is the wall with posts from numerous customers - both compliments and complaints. There is a "tell us your story" tab which has a image that links to their website but no clear "Call to Action" buttons. 

6. www.rentaskilldirect.com (46,558 fans).  

I wasn't even sure that this one should count.  I had never heard of it.  It's basically a place to list (advertise) your skill and hopefully get work.  More power to 'em. 

5. Doritos South Africa (47,335 fans) 

This is a fantastic page - great call to action with a competition on their landing page.  Their wall is filled with customers engaging with the brand. 

4. Woolworths (72,431 fans)

There are only 13,000 fans separating the top five. But in 4th position Woolworths is 25,000 fans ahead of Doritos so they've done something very right. Great page, great incentives and great engagement. 

3. 5FM (87,301 fans)

5FM have been defining youth culture since I was a youth and so they continue. They have used social media very well but I am surprised they find themselves behind #2 on the list.  I have a suspicion that this has got to do with fears of diverting traffic from their very well developed website. A well thought out strategy of tighter integration between their website and their social presence would soon get them challenging the number one spot. 

2. Huisgenoot (140,487 fans) 

Beating third position by a whopping 53,000 fans Huisgenoot has capatalised on its large and loyal readership and extended it's community very well onto Facebook. 

1. Nando's (568,333 fans)

The out and out winner by a lap or three is Nando's.  They've always made great use of their marketing spend and I'm sure it is their adverts, which are featured on their page, that have drawn the fans.  However one complaint: They have allowed the page to be hijacked by spam postings and there doesn't seem to be very active engagement - a posting every few days.  Perhaps they're waiting or their next big campaign. 

Which companies do you feel are conspicuous by their absence? Let me know in the comments. 

Source: www.famecount.com was the source for much of the information in this post.  However, for reasons I couldn't decipher Vodacom was not listed on this site. This means there may well be discrepancies. Please let me know of any. 

The Dog Ate my Observation

Businesses, both large and small, are at an interesting juncture in South Africa with regard to social media.  There is a sense of anxiety about it.  Businesses are aware that they should be "doing" social media - the numbers are just too overwhelming to be ignored. But all too often there is a knee jerk reaction to it - slapping up a Facebook page, opening a twitter account and working desperately to rack up the followers and 'likes'.

After a rush of excitement the pages go stale and the Twitter account lies dormant. Or worse, negative sentiment takes over and sits unresolved. (Examples are SAA'S Facebook page and @AltechAutopage's Twitter account)

Like any failed plan the homework was left at home.

Before any business can implement a social media plan that will actually be sustainable there has to be a period of observation - listening to the conversation that is going on.

What crowds are talking about your industry, your brand, your competition?  Where are they having these conversations?

Only by having the complete picture can you then make the best use of the appropriate tools.  These days social media tends to be synonymous with Facebook or Twitter.  Yet there are so many platforms that focusing on those is like trying to see the entire room through a keyhole.  There are blogs (and there are at least 4 major blogging platforms); video sites, group buying and many more.

As when we were at school it always home work that ruins the afternoon. Often we would leave it for later only to be frantically scribbling on the bus the next morning to school.  The result was generally the same. Trouble. The most obvious solutions often tends to be ignored.  Do the homework and then spend a worry free and fun filled afternoon and evening doing what you want.

And so it is.  Doing your social media homework can be tedious and it can't be rushed.  Patiently searching and looking and noting results.  Over a period of two weeks, or even a month the picture emerges.  You will know where you are.  And only once you know where you're located can you figure out how to get from there to the destination.

Without this step you are squandering your investment in this platform.

The results that will come from proper observation will be clear.  Before long you will have built a community that is engaged enthusiastically with your product.

LISTEN. OBSERVE.

Ryan Hogarth - Talking to the Crowd

On the 22nd of February 2001 I delivered a presentation entitled "Talking to the Crowd: Your Business and Social Media".

I have included here a few clips from that presentation which will hopefully give a sense of what this presentation is about.

Autopage Cellular: Unavailable at Present?

A week ago I read an article by tech journalist Ben Kelly on a sequence of dreadful customer service he experienced at the hands of Autopage Cellular after being robbed in his home.  The article really upset me.  I've never dealt with Autopage Cellular but I have experienced the sheer frustration that Ben describes in trying to get something done by a seemingly faceless corporate that won't talk to you.  And we've all shared similar stories around a braai or at dinner with friends.

The bigger the corporate the worse the engagement seems to be at times.  How is this is possible in the social media age?

I thought I'd take a quick look at how Autopage is working to engage its customers.  Unfortunately the short answer is that they are not.  They have a twitter account @altechautopage.  Take a look at it.  They've tweeted 46 times spread over 4 different days between September last year and 20th Jan (no tweets since then).  All tweets are advertising a phone or contract.  In short, no conversation but old school shotgun advertising which has no place on the social web. They did submit a response to Ben Kelly's article - standard corporate stuff that did nothing to mitigate the obvious problems.

And sadly that's the sum total of their social engagement - no facebook page, no blog. I made an attempt to contact them through their website but their contact form didn't seem to work - at any rate I've had no feedback from them since filling in the contact form yesterday. A search on twitter for "autopage" shows some very unhappy customers and I sent out multiple tweets on the matter, yet they are oblivious to the conversation taking place without them and a light year from responding to it.

Close to a billion consumers worldwide are today engaged through social media and we now demand personal engagement with the brands and businesses who want our money and loyalty.  The digital artillery exists that we can and should cease being apathetic about horrible customer service and make businesses feel our frustration and pain.  Bad service should go viral wherever it exists and companies that treat us like individuals and talk to us should get all the support we can throw at them.

So pull out your tweets, your status updates, your blogs and your Foursquare tips and do not allow disengaged corporate South Africa to get away with ignoring us.  Let us drag them screaming into the conversation.

What are your views on how to get corporates talking to us? Give me your thoughts in the comments.