Repost IBM Insights Blog: Food For Thought - The New Player on Stage

I recently started writing for the IBM Insights blog http://ibm.com/blogs/socialbusiness. As part of a team of Redbook Residency bloggers. The aim is to write about anything having to do with Social Business or Social Media. To keep track and a personal log of it all I will repost the blogs I write for the Insights blog on my personal blog as well.

 

Original Publication: https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/socialbusiness/entry/food_for_thought_the_new_player_on_stage1?lang=en_us

Original publication date: February 22 2012

Food For Thought: The New Player on Stage 

by Femke Goedhart, Business Consultant, Silverside

So here’s a thought…. At this year's Lotusphere, IBM’s annual collaboration and social software conference, during that all important Opening General Session (OGS), Who was the real star of the conference?? 

Was it the band ‘OK Go’? Or Michael J. Fox with his inspirational speech? The IBM executives sharing plans for the upcoming year?  The people demonstrating it all?  Or the customers telling their success stories? Or was there another star to this show….. the audience? 

It is interesting to see how social media has changed the role that people are taking while listening to someone on stage. They are no longer a passive audience, waiting to be impressed. They are active participants using social media to hype the event and their fellow audience members, updating those staying at home and in doing so broadcasting their personal expectations, experiences and opinions to the world - effectively becoming a presenter themselves.  

They are far from uninformed either. Social media exposes any news with lightning speed and search engines allow users to quickly proof check any statement made. The audience no longer is a passive listener; it’s a fiercely regarded critic and a channel to reach a much wider audience. A 5,000 man audience in the room easily reaches a hundreds-of-thousands-strong audience outside. A power not to be ignored! 

And a power to be utilized by those on stage as social media is also quickly leveraging the power of peer-to-peer recommendations. An enthusiastic commentary on social networks by the audience members often does more for creating a positive vibe around a product announcement than any official reporter or analyst could ever hope to accomplish with their articles. 

But the audience is also a fickle player to include in the play; one that generally has a short attention span and has a nose for set ups and over-embellishings. One that wants to-the-point information, real demonstrations, interaction and involvement. And one that can make or break an event, a speaker and an announcement. 

Something that was clearly shown at last year’s Lotusphere OGS. The audience did not like the lengthy customer panels and made that abundantly clear on twitter and other Social Media channels - bringing the overall sentiment on the OGS down to an absolute low. Only after a bright new face - Brian Cheng - entered the stage to do demos did that sentiment change -- instantly elevating Brian to a Twitter celebrity. However, by that time, some damage had been done.  

It must be hard sitting back there watching all this going on, knowing that there is little or nothing you can do to change it. The scripts are set, the show is staged and you can’t just break into that. At the same time you can’t ignore what’s going on either.

 So this year was different. IBM clearly listened to the critiques and tried to accommodate that all important new member of the cast. Shortening the length of the OGS, dividing it up in short sound bites, acknowledging last year’s missteps, involving the audience as much as possible  and using lots of graphics and live demos to keep people’s focus on the stage instead of on their Twitter streams. Even showing an actual representation of the audience sentiment of the event as it was going on.

And it wasn’t just in the OGS where this was felt. Instead of being afraid of the social backlash that had occurred the previous year, IBM embraced the challenge and invited the audience to be even more ‘social’. Setting up Social Lounges where people could learn how to use social tools, offering communities and apps to connect to other attendees and by actively promoting the use of hashtag #LS12  and showing those Tweets on blogs, Web sites and at the event itself. 

Not just involving the audience, but effectively making them stakeholders in the success of the event.

To unleash and actively stimulate thousands of internet savvy critics to comment on your work is a bold move to take. But Lotusphere this year showed it can work. The opening session was highly appreciated resulting in 3 positive trending topics on Twitter that day. Sentiment was definitely up and it set the stage for the rest of the week. Being heard and being taken seriously meant that the audience, that all important player, was part of the team once more.  

So what is the future of this? This new player to the stage is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Not just for major events like the Lotusphere OGS but within daily business as well. People are utilizing internal as well as external social tools more and more as a medium to not only update their friends of what they are doing but also to gather information, discuss things going on and to gauge opinions. Broadcasting their feelings to their audience and connecting to people and sources both inside as well as outside the company. They are no longer just contributors or consumers of information; they are becoming the main distributors as well.

Ignoring it is dangerous, controlling it often impossible… or is it?

The fear of the unknown and a loss of control is what is holding back many companies in really addressing this. But with millions of people joining social networks each day, it's a force that can’t be ignored. And even though the company might not be so far, the people often are, branching out on public networks and forging connections to co-workers, customers, friends as well as competitors, building their own audience as they go. It is time to catch up and start talking. Because if there is one thing social media has made clear, it is that individuals love to be part of a social team/network....

So isn’t it about time you define your stage team and make them a part of that?

Watch the Lotusphere 2012 OGS. Registration required.

Know your client...

Yesterday I signed up for the life web coverage of the exciting unveiling of the new IBM PureSystem which was hosted not by IBM but by external virtual event organizer Unisfair. Nothing wrong there. Each to its own and they are probably better in organizing these kind of things, but....

I have two pet peeves with how they organized it:

1. At registration you could indicate whether IBM & Affiliates are allowed to contact you by mail, phone or postal mail. I deselected all entries and saved. Guess what. Postal mail and Phone were automatically selected anyway which I saw in a flash while the page was saving. Even logging in and editing the settings does not allow you to deselect this. Sure, it will look deselected but save, switch page and come back and it's selected again (and yes, I cleared my cache).
Big interface NoNo here. Even if that is actually saved as deselected you should never show it as selected as it is confusing and misleading. If it is saved as an approval then even worse, don't give a user an option that really isn't an option!

2. The second one (and yeah, I know I'm nitpicking here) is that when you organize an event for a major player like IBM and require the attendees to register you should at least make sure you know that customers products. So don't send out a registration message with an "Outlook reminder" option..... sigh

Big issues? No, the first one I simply corrected by changing my info to fictional data and the second one... Well... I'm probably one of the few that even noticed.

But.... it does influence my feeling about the whole thing and makes me distrusting of it all. So if you use external companies to organize events and campaigns for you, make sure they obey to the same standards you do, are familiar with your products and don't call out competitors products in their communications to your customers. The same goes for organizers. Know your client! It really doesn't take much now a days for customers to get weary and distrusting on the internet and that can directly impact the brand as well as you as an organizer....

The power of words

I AM DUTCH… So, there you have it. An obvious point, I know, but I need to say it. And why do I need to say it? Well because it means my first language isn’t English and that frustrates the heck out of me.

Yes, I write in English, I can speak English, I can even stand up and address groups in English and feel comfortable doing that but I am never as good or as fluent as I would like to be. I’m always grasping for words, searching for meanings and struggling with spelling. Especially while writing.

Writing to me is the ultimate form of expression. It is where I can pour my soul, humanity and creativity into and really express what I feel. Doing it in English though also means it is a constant struggle of searching for words and meanings to capture my thoughts. You don’t realize the power of words until you find yourself searching for them all the time.

Those words and combinations you only use in exclusive situations, the finer nuances of language, all those specific details that the 2-4 hours a week of high school English I got in my teens, didn’t cover.
And so I learn. I learn daily, from reading other peoples blogs, from watching English TV, from interacting on social Media. Analyzing and Googling every word and linguistic anomaly that triggers my interest, expanding my vocabulary constantly.

It’s my obsession, it’s my frustration, and it’s my insecurity… as it makes me feel so inadequate and unprepared.

So?! Why don’t you write in Dutch then? Well because I want to be heard. I write to invoke a response and many of the people I would like to reach don’t read Dutch. So yes, it is a choice to write in English and therefore to struggle with it.

I’m well aware my English is already better than most non-native English speakers. I’m also proud of the fact that apart from Dutch and English I can have conversations in German and even have basic skills in French but at the same time I’m jealous. I envy all you native English speakers for having a language at your fingertips that allows you to communicate with at least a third if not more of the world population. A language that is seen as the standard and that you have been taught from the crib, a language whose finer details and quirky depths to you aren’t a mystery so much as well as a tedious lesson in school.

I want to be you, I want my brain to grasp those words I’m often searching for, those expressions and fantastic nuances... till I do I will struggle, with every blog, sometimes with every tweet. I will make mistakes and get corrected, I will mess up and be told off, I will experiment and get it wrong but, I will not give up. And not just because I feel an urge to be heard, but also, and maybe more importantly, because during all this struggle I didn't just get to appreciate the English language, I got to love it; its variation, its complex simplicity, its quirky uniqueness….

So next time when I ask you for a word definition, or use an uncommon word in a chat or tweet with a “(?)” behind it, know that it is me learning and grasping and tell me if I do it wrong. And hopefully, one day, I will be able to express everything that goes on in my head in English as easy as I do in Dutch. Till then, bear with me, smile about my silly mistakes and help me get better.

It’s simply me loving the English language.

Social consolidating: Facebook buys Instagram

It was just announced that the popular social photo network Instagram was bought by Facebook...


Wow! With that Facebook is doing yet another major buy in social Media land. I can't say I'm happy with that. Yes I Facebook and yes I like it but what I like most about social media is that it allows me to pick my networks and contacts for each of the situations I operate in. My contacts on Twitter aren't necessarily the same as on Instagram or on Facebook or on LinkedIn or on Google+ and neither is the content I share across those channels. I'd like to keep it like that. Different situations warrant different posts.

So when two of my favorite social networks merge..... Yeah, I don't like it.

I think Facebook got that message too as Mark Zuckerberg announced in his post that it is their plan to keep it completely separate and keep all current options (like posting to Twitter) intact but for how long that is...we'll see.

I just hope we don't end up with a Social Media landscape that is completely dominated by just 2 or 3 major players  that control it all and I'm going to make it my goal to keep supporting those independent players out there. I don't hate the big boys, I just think we need a lot of smaller players out there to keep the big boys in check.

Thinking outside the box - Optician

I used to have perfect vision..... used to have. Because lately I found myself readjusting the font sizes on my screen to bigger fonts more then once (Windows: CTRL +, Mac: CMD +) and so I decided to have my vision checked.

Walking into the optician on a whim I asked for a test.
[optician] What is your reason for wanting a test, are you experiencing problems?
[me] Lately I seem to have trouble reading the finer fonts on my screen sometimes. I have to enlarge them, never had to do that before...
[optician] Ok, how many hours a day do you sit behind your pc?
[me] Ehhh..... not sure, do smartphone, and iPad count too? 
[optician] Yes
[me] Pretty much all day except when I sleep, run or eat then....
[optician] Ok, well then we're finished. Limit your time behind the screen to 6 hours a day max and all your problems will go away!
.....

Lol, ok now this was not the answer I expected, especially considering that my work alone requires me to spend at least 8 hours a day to look at a screen, but she explained to me that looking at something so close as a computer screen requires your eyes to constantly focus, tiring them out, causing my problems. She tested my eyes and well apart from a very light adjustment they are actually really good (normally I would not require any glasses). Seeing however that I'm not likely to limit my 'screen habit' (as she called it) she proceeded in measuring me with glasses.

Now after all the usual checks, she took away the eye machine and the vision cards, walked out, got her laptop put me behind it and asked me to open a site where I had had problems reading the fonts. She then put on the test glasses again and tested to see whether it would actually make a difference. It did! She then proceeded with the same tests while I was watching the laptop, changing glasses to see what would work best and finding that up close to the screen I really needed stronger glasses then when I was using the vision cards. She explained that by slightly overcompensating the glasses my eyes would have to do less, making them less tired and more likely to hold out. As long as I would take some more 'down' time too.

I love this. She completely thought out of the box. In stead of telling me to bugger off or sell me glasses just for the sake of it she actually analyzed my problem, adjusted the testing to fit my personal circumstances and gave me some pretty good advice!

So they are ordered now and I'm curious to see if they are going to help me with my eyes. At the same time though I'm also going to try to limit my 'screen habit' a bit. Who knows, maybe I should take up yoga like she suggested on the way out :)

ps. Don't they look nice? Feel like a proper school teacher in these! ->

Gamification - putting out the welcome mat

I love IBM Connections. It's a great way to connect and share information and it allows me to broadcast my opinions and ideas within our company. Out of the box though IBM Connections can be a bit sterile. Yes, there are some templates and yes you can customize it of course but it's still all a bit aloof. It can take some time to really feel connected with it, which means getting the adoption going can be a struggle.

Cue gamification: We recently became a partner for Kudos Badges, a gamification module that helps drive adoption of IBM Connection and implemented it within our own environment to try out. Suddenly everyone was talking about the badges and checking out their scores. The overall usage picked up immediately.
Ok yes, I work with mostly males and regardless of what you say.... THEY ARE MORE COMPETITIVE than females (although I'm usually worse then most of my male co-workers but that's really the exception). So there was a definite surge in activity visible and it caused most of my co-workers to really start exploring and using IBM Connections.

But apart from the competitive element it adds something else: A visually appealing effect.
It personalizes the for some relatively overwhelming digital social tools environment and adds a bit of humanization and color to it. Making it less sterile and less intimidating. It's like putting the 'Welcome' mat out and a pot of flowers in the windowsill to invite people in.

Now yes, I am competitive but that is secondary to visual for me. When I look at something I notice style, color, layout and navigation first and functions second. The better the visual appeal and logic the better I understand and recognize the functionality and the more I am inclined to explore it further.
And I am not alone! Why do you think Apple products are so appealing to so many...? Their way of putting design on an equal level to the functionality clearly works. Gamification for IBM Connections, if done right taps into that as well.

So in a quirky way Kudos Badges is livening up IBM Connections in more then one way. On the one hand with a competitive element, offering leaderboards and scores and on the other with a bit of visual appeal and logic, offering clues and tips on usage, colorful achievement badges and challenges and goals to strive for.

Does this mean it is something that will entice everyone or that this is an end to it self? No, but it's a great onboarding tool, something that can help you get that initial adoption going and get people interested. Helping them overcome their initial hesitation of using IBM Connections.
So use it to put out the Welcome mat and give your users a warm welcome. Let's get them over the threshold! 

 

The forbidden vocabulary

Last Friday I visited TEDx Dordrecht. An independently organized TED event in my home town listing 12 speakers on topics related to Sustainability and Food. It was a good event. There were some excellent speakers, good food, a nice venue and enough breaks to socialize with some of the other visitors.

The last speaker of the night was a 19 year old student and member of the Dutch national youth council for sustainability. Excited and in the heat of her youthful exuberance she used some words during her speech that where, well... how do I put it....

Ok she used the word 'F*ck' more then a couple of times. Now to be fair, using that word in Dutch is, although still seen as a swear word better to be avoided, really not to big a deal. Especially as it is an incorporated English word and therefore doesn't really have the same weight to it as it would have in English. It is often used to stress a point or an exclamation of annoyance among younger generations. So using it in a Dutch context, although frowned upon, wouldn't normally cause much of a reaction. Probably also because we aren't that easily shocked. The session however was in English and was being broadcasted to 35 countries world wide.

Right.... now that mischievous word suddenly became a full blown profanity and probably caused some stirs around the world as was hinted on afterwards by the host.

It is funny as it emphasized to me the subtle differences in language. To my shame I have to admit I too use that word on occasion. Most times though, not in an English or public context as I know the word really does have a bigger weight to it in English then it does in Dutch.

In fact, it seems more and more people prefer using foreign swear words. As if swearing in a different language has less impact then saying a similar swear word in Dutch. And it probably does, as to a lot of people, the word becomes just that: 'a word'. It's original context and meaning fade a bit and it becomes a word on its own. Yes, everybody still knows it is a profanity but it is seen less connected to what it actually describes. Especially as the Dutch translation of the word (verb) 'F*ck' isn't officially classified as a swear word at all. It is somewhat of a taboo word, not to be used often or in a formal or public conversation but it isn't considered a real profanity either.

Somehow, not having the same context, makes swearing in another language less harsh then using a similar swear word in your own language. And it's not just the Dutch that do that or have a fascination for foreign swear words. I've had numerous situations where foreigners of all nationalities proud to show off their skills, start reciting all the Dutch words and sentences they know. Stumbling their way through the obligatory 'Hallo', 'welkom', 'goedemiddag', 'mijn naam is...' unto some pretty harsh Dutch swear words... often with a big grin to their face.
In that regard, using foreign swear words seems to allow us to be that little kid again trying out the new forbidden vocabulary we picked up in the school yard.... It reminds us of the good old times when innocent as we were we really didn't know yet what all those words meant, the actions it described and the cultural load it had.

No wonder there are so many sites around that will teach you the most gruesome swear words in almost any language around. I guess some fascinations just never die, do they.... :)

BLUG, the unknown gem on my doorstep

BLUG, the annual Belgium/Luxembourg user group held in Antwerp was a great success and although Antwerp literally is only 45 minutes from where I live this was only my first BLUG.  It has left a big impression! We are more then a week on but I'm still going over it in my head.

It was a great event. The organization was excellent, the venue catered exactly to the needs of the event, the sessions, the speakers, the food, the socializing, the people, .... I could go on and on. Simplest to say: it just came together. Theo & staff did an amazing job and deserve all the credits (and MORE) everyone has been sending them!

BLUG to me was about learning, meeting people and discussing ideas. Being able to talk to and exchange ideas with so many that are right there in the trenches, implementing Social Business, learning as they go and muddling through all the caveats and problems that they, as true pioneers, encounter on their way. Because lets face it. Although we all talk about it it is still a relatively small contingent of modern businesses that are actually doing it.

That is the funny aspect with things like this. If you focus so much on it you start to lose sight on the larger picture and to be frankly, the larger picture is that a lot of our customers really haven't seriously thought about implementing Social Business yet. So we try to show them the benefits, take them by the hand and help them grasp this great new concept of....what?

"Social?!?"Well what is social, and more important why should I?!? 

So I talked and I listened and I discussed. Debating 'social' on the social panel with Paul Mooney and Luis Suarez, listening to the Belastingdienst with their amazing business case (truly, if you get a chance to go see one of their sessions: DO! It's worth it), IBM's own business case as presented by Laurent Boes, talking to partners, community members and others during intermissions and delivering my own session...

It was all just one big roller coaster of impressions and ideas. And the one thing I found was that although the basic principles are more or less the same to everyone: Respect for the role of the individual within the business Eco-system and empowerment of the employee to participate and connect - the way people envision how it should be implemented still differs greatly.

Do you control, or not? Do you steer or do you let it evolve in itself? Do you need to change your corporate culture first or do you let the social process change your corporate culture? It all just depends on the people, the business and the situation. There is no 'one size fits all' when it comes to Social Business and although I already knew this, BLUG has certainly reinforced that to me.

I learned so much from so many these two days. Information I will be taking along to customers, in projects and to my own corporate social environment. So yes, my head is still spinning from two days of BLUG. It is sparking new thoughts, it is exciting and it is daunting. I still know so little and can learn so much. Thank god for events like BLUG, Social Connections, NLLUG, AUSLUG and many others like it for offering this to all those that want to improve their knowledge! Because let's face it isn't that what 'social' is all about? Connecting, sharing and collaborating!

The machine?

To rebel against the system doesn't necessarily always mean 'refusing to do it' as long as it means 'doing it consciously'. Social Business is like that.  It doesn't necessarily mean changing everything you are used to do but it does mean doing what you do as a conscious individual. An individual that realizes it has the power, ability and responsibility to leverage, to transform, to improve and if necessary to even leave.

So is it really the 'system' that is holding us back in making our workplace a truly Social Environment or is it our own perception of what we think being a good employee is? Do we expect the companies to lead us into the social age or should in fact we shed our often self-imposed role as a quiet, diligent and opinionless workforce and take our companies by the hand and show them what social can really mean?

Luis Suarez writes in his last blog how employees have far to long been seen as mere 'resources'. He is right but is it just the companies task to start recognizing us as intelligent living beings or should we in fact ourselves first start realizing what our intrinsic value is?

After all isn't it really our own perception with which we empower the system and not the machine that has been holding us back in becoming truly social all along?

 'When they give you lined paper, write the other way' - Juan Ramón Jiménez

Yellowverse world wide social challenge yourself challenge!

I LOVE running... when I do it. The problem is: I don't do it enough. There simply doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to do so and well... I'm way to attached to my laptop / ipad / MacBook / smartphone screen. I know I'm not alone in that and I need some motivation to get going again. So when I was talking to Garett Wolthuis (@GarrettWolthuis) last Wednesday night at BLUG and discovered he was the guy who wrote an amazing blog of his personal achievement of running a 5k last November a plan grew.
We challenged each other. Literally! We set a date: The weekend of May 19th and made the agreement to each run a 5k in that weekend and to motivate each other to train for that.
It is not about the time, it is not about the distance, it is not about the place it is about setting ourselves a challenge, motivating each other and sticking to it. And as we got talking we got some others involved too who are either going to be running or doing a hike. So yes Garrett, Paul, Kathy, Eileen and Steve and anybody else who wants to join; you don't know it yet but I am going to keep you to that pledge as I need that stick behind the door to do this :)

Great idea? Well lets see, I need some serious training to get back in shape and I know that I will need you guys to help me do this. A social experiment? You bet! What better way to test the strength of the social idea in our community then to use it to motivate each other through Social Media to do a physical challenge.

So this is day 1. And I am heading for my first #YellowverseRun training run. It is going to be a challenge I'm sure but I'm up for it knowing I'll have some supporters who will kick my butt if I don't and give me an encouraging (virtual) arm around my shoulder when needed.

It's time to man up and start doing, social running here we go!