My perspective on how organisations implement social networking would be, ‘hmmm… not bad’. Lately, I came across one such organisation which has certainly gone an extra mile to impress its customers, and I really liked the way it had collaborated social technologies into its business. My post for this week would be on, how IBM has managed to use social platform as a base for socializing itself to the outside world. IBM is a popular multinational technology and consulting company, which has revolutionised computer engineering to a new level. The company has not only been successful in research and inventions, but also it has never failed in proving its presence worldwide. This definitely wouldn’t be possible without the proper implementation of the social platforms.
How has IBM developed
into a Social business?
IBM has a community for developers,
where individuals can share and learn from experts. This community reflects an
overall experience of a social platform which comprises of blogs, wikis,
forums, podcasts, events and a personalised profile for every user. The
access to this community is publicly available which requires registration.
With access to this community, one can participate in various discussions with
IBM experts and other developers worldwide. You can have a look at the IBM developer’s
community by referring the following link:
Further, IBM has been developing
various social collaboration solutions for business, through which employees
can share ideas, insight and information in the enterprise level. This has
empowered the management to take quick business decisions in an efficient
manner. These products are named as ‘IBM Connections’,
and they consist of diverse range of products to satisfy different business
needs. ‘IBM Connections’ have been implemented in various Australian organisations
which has resulted in better work experience, increase in productivity, proper
human resource management and easy interaction between the employees. Following
is a video of Australian Bureau of Statistics, Assistant Director Stephen
Wellington, in which he has conveyed on how ‘IBM Connections’ has helped his
business.
How has IBM made use
of Blogs and Wikis?
Blogs:
IBM has managed internal and
external blogs through its community. This has encouraged visitors and bloggers
to socialize and share their blogs within the IBM community. Blog listing
consists of the latest blogs and featured blogs, which are decided on the likes
and votes from the community members. Also, they have got a platform where only
the employees can advertise their blogs, which is known as ‘IBMer’s blog’. ‘IBMer’s
blog’ generally consists of all the internal blogs, where the IBM employees
present their blogs on technology, enterprise and IBM products. IBM has another
blog named as ‘IBM software blog’ which is related to the software and
business prospects of the company. In this blog; bloggers and visitors post
articles, discussions, case studies and information on various softwares and
packages that serve the growing business needs; to be more precise it’s a business
and technology oriented blog. There’s another similar blog named as ‘IBM
Impact blog’ which shares the same objective as the previous one. Following
are the links to the various blogs of IBM:
Wikis:
Wiki’s is another social platform
utilized by IBM to educate the employees and for public use. Wiki consists of
ample of information pertaining to the products, technological concepts, business
modules, guidelines, documentation, presentation, and audio/video tutorials. ‘IBM
Connections Wiki’ is a platform, which has a collection of all the relevant
wikis, and are publicly accessible to its customers who have implemented the
product ‘IBM Connection’. IBM also has another Wiki for general topics which is
a knowledgebase source for all its users. Following are the links, to two of
the IBM Wikis:
Following is a video on public
Wikis by IBM:
Analysis on the publication
‘McKinsey Global Institute 2012’
After a keen research on IBM
social technology implementation, I was able to co-relate with the few among
the 10 value levers of social technology published by McKinsey. After my analysis,
I derived the following conclusion on IBM way of handling its customers and
employees:
i) Encourage consumers to share
their views and thoughts towards the development of new products.
ii) Frequent analysis on the
consumer requirements and feedback.
iii) Use of the product ‘IBM
Connections’ has certainly paved the way for quick business decision making.
iv) Customer’s have been provided
with support and assistance through social platforms like Blogs, forums and
Wikis.
v) Interaction within and outside
the organisation has been improved with the introduction of internal and external
blogs and forums.
Considering all the above
factors, I can say that IBM has been focusing on aspects such as ‘Product
Development’, ‘Operations and Distributions’, ‘Customer Service’ and ‘Business
Support’. With this I conclude that, IBM has certainly made the best use of
social technology than its current competitors. Further, we can hope to witness
more of a social technological oriented market in the near future.
And to all my blog visitors, thank
you for going through my blog. Please leave a comment on the following query. According
to you, what possible social platforms could replace the use of blogs and wikis?
I would really appreciate any sort of suggestions and opinions.
References:
http://www.ibm.com/us/en/
References:
http://www.ibm.com/us/en/
In terms of blogs and wikis on the IBM Connections site, moderation should be used to ensure relevancy and utilisation of the services available to users. I noticed that there was a wiki created a year ago with no further content added to them. It is empty, useless and purposeless. Moderation would alleviate such problems and maintain a flourishing and active online society instead of stubs and ghost users (people who set up something only to never follow up or through with actually using it as intended).
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm curious as to whether IBM actually uses Connection between their internal functions...
I would really be interested to see a massive culmination of all the best enterprise social platforms to create one that can support every need for any organisation. It's a dream but it might become a reality one day.
Thank you for your opinion. I too agree with you that, moderation has to be maintained for effective social business.
DeleteIBM uses an Intranet tool named 'W3 On Demand Workplace' for internal communication. This has been awarded as one of the best platform for internal communication.
Great post Linton. The curation of the various posts on the blog seem to be a bit better than the wiki ones. Just in terms of ease of finding posts. IBM have certainly embraced social technologies. The use of registration for some of their community facing sites makes sense, as they have to ensure they protect their brand.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question, What could replace blogs and wikis? I'm not sure, as we've only really just changed from one to one knowledge sharing (email) to the broad persistent form of knowledge sharing (wikis / blogs). Whatever it is it will need to be able to handle a lot of information.
Hi Wendy, thank you for your comment. I definitely agree on the fact that IBM needs to improvise on their Wiki user interface. Especially they need to develop a better search and filter algorithm for refining data and information.
DeleteGreat insight. I like the fact IBM offers a platform dedicated to developers to clarify some doubts and concerns about technology. However, little interaction is showed on the blogs as there are no many people engage and leaving comments. Perhaps IBM can try to foster their blogs across their community.
ReplyDeleteThe wikis seem an interested source for interactive learning and keep up-to-date with technology.
Hi Giannina, thank you for making time to read my post. I agree with what you have commented on IBM blogs. One of the drawback of blogging would be lack of response from the visitors. I noticed that few IBM blogs which had 500+ visits but no comments. Eventually, it depends on the Blogger on how well they manage their blog content to gain visitor feedback and response.
DeleteGood Post linton. Today socializing has become the greatest tool for any company to promote any kind of services they provide to their clients.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to socializing IBM allows only certain designated people to speak on behalf of the company. They even have a core value 'trust and personal responsibility in all relationships'. IBM trust and expects them to exercise personal responsibility whenever they participate in social media. This includes not violating the trust of those with whom they are engaging and also not using these media for covert marketing or public relations on behalf of IBM. In this way they maintain their integrity and make use of social networking in a better way.
Well said Jeevan, and thank you for providing an insight on IBM work ethics.
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Good post Linton.Technology is only the enabler into a different type of income. Social tech and social business helps drive ideas in more real-time. Putting great tolls in front of the people helps drive real intelligence for the organization.
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting down your opinion Arpit.
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Gr8 post Linton.
ReplyDeleteIBM social business enable real-time knowledge sharing, increased productivity and faster innovation.
Thank you for your comment Dimple.
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Amazing post Linton. Innovation has nothing to do with how
ReplyDeletemany R & D dollars you have. When
Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was
spending at least 100 times more on R
& D. It's not about money. It's about
the people you have, how you're led,
and how much you get it.
Well said Akshith! Thank you for your opinion on my post.
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That's cool!! Such type of social networking could provide great help in knowledge sharing by people having expertise in different domains and could help in reducing knowledge gaps within a technical corporate company,which is, really much required in the IT world today. And of course, providing support and assistance to your customers with such an ease would really help in your business growth. Great approach by IBM!!
ReplyDeleteVery true! IBM has certainly been making good use of social network to gain success through social business. Thank you for your comment Preeti.
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Linton, great post first of all.
ReplyDeleteIn this ever changing world, social business is a new innovation to attract eyes into something new, not only a way to interact or socialize but also a way to keep up the brand value intact and advertise new products and services. Company like IBM may be a great example to medium and small scale companies. Great work!!
Thanks Vaibhav for sharing your views on IBM.
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Just wanted to add a me too........ you've done well on the blog and as I see it covered the subject very well.... Just one thing I'd change the image urls to links that would take you to the sites... The images are big enough so there is no need for a full size version... But that is only nit picking... keep up the good work
ReplyDeleteThank you for your suggestion John. I truly appreciate your time for having a read through my blog.
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I agree that moderation is a big deal when it comes to blogs and unfortunately a lot of companies set up a blog but forget to maintain it. Great read.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Hannah, and I agree that companies should maintain moderation in their Blogs and Wikis to achieve success in social business.
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