BBC Tells Staff to Get with Social Media

February 18, 2010 at 4:00 am · Filed under BBC, Social Media

According to the Guardian (BBC tells news staff to embrace social media), BBC news journalists have been advised to use social media as a primary source of information by Peter Horrocks, the new director of BBC Global News. He took over last week and said it was important for editorial staff to make better use of social media and become more collaborative in producing stories. They quote him, “This isn’t just a kind of fad from someone who’s an enthusiast of technology. I’m afraid you’re not doing your job if you can’t do those things. It’s not discretionary.”

I would agree and have written a bit about how mainstream media does need to get more creative with its use of social media (see Mainstream Media versus Social Media? Not Really the Right Question.). Getting material for articles is one of several ways that traditional television news media needs to make use of social media to survive the social media onslaught.

For BBC news editors, Twitter and RSS readers have now become essential tools and aggregating and curating content with attribution have become essential skills. In addition, BBC’s journalists have to integrate and listen to feedback for a better understanding of how the audience is relating to the BBC brand, another important use of social media for mainstream media.

The BBC also created a social media editor post in October. This is another related trend we have reported on here (see Mainstream Media Take on Social Media Directors).  The Guardian concludes by noting that as technology is changing the nature of journalism, the BBC is trying to keeping up with the pace. Horrocks is quoted again, “If you don’t like it, if you think that level of change or that different way of working isn’t right for me, then go and do something else, because it’s going to happen. You’re not going to be able to stop it.” Ahem.

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Webinar recording: Media and the Money Trail

February 16, 2010 at 3:19 pm · Filed under FASTforward'09, Social Media

Below you will find the audio recording of today’s conversation between Jennifer Kavanagh of Oxygen and Greg Clayman of MTV. Moderated by Deloitte’s Ed Moran, the discussion explored how Jennifer and Greg’s respective companies are taking on the challenges of today’s media landscape and innovating new ways of attracting audience, driving revenues and engagement, and putting technology to work in connecting entertainment companies and their assets and advertisers to consumers.

Tune in the recording by hitting the “play” button below or download the recording as a podcast to listen to later.

(We’re also posting all the questions that were asked during the call in the comments field of this post. We apologize to those whose questions we weren’t able to get to.)

 

 Media and the Money Trail [57:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1406)

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Creating an Internal Services Market Facilitated by Enterprise 2.0 Platforms

February 16, 2010 at 3:17 am · Filed under Enterprise 2.0

Marc Andersen, my former colleague, posted on an interesting idea recently on his blog, applying “product service systems” to corporate environments.  He was inspired by a recent Boston Globe article, The Leased Life, on how people should share products across their communities. Many people purchased tools and other things they rarely use, causing an unnecessary strain on their budgets and the environment.   The globe reported that this has been recognized and Web sites have started to facilitate these transactions.  This is another example of the potential of Web 2.0.

Marc wrote about how this practice makes sense for more efficient use of services inside the enterprise and I agree. He also noted that today’s collaborative tool sets can facilitate these internal marketplaces.  Enterprises would have to modify their cost structure and accounting to facilitate these exchanges but that should not be too hard.

However, making people aware of the services and arranging for micro-efforts and the associated micro-accounting would have potentially difficult with older technologies. However, just as on the Web with Web 2.0 sites, the transparency within enterprise 2.0 platforms can also make these internal micro-markets for service exchange more accessible.

Now that the right tools are available the remaining factor to make this work is the ability to understand the value of these exchanges and the vision to implement them. In a market where employees are asked to continuously do more with less, an internal services market for under-utilized resources should appeal to most executives.  Thanks to Marc for making the suggestion.

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And you think that you have a tough job?

February 14, 2010 at 4:45 pm · Filed under KETC, NPR

We all know that we should cooperate and collaborate more. We all know that the world is moving to a more open and 2.0 culture.

But if you work of the Department of Defense – you not only know this but you have Directive 501 in front of you that demands this.

B. PURPOSE:
1.    This Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) establishes in part the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) guidelines called for in Section 1.3(b)(9)(B) of EO 12333, as amended, addresses mandates in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to strengthen the sharing, integration, and management of information within the Intelligence Community (IC), and establishes policies for: (1) discovery; and (2) dissemination or retrieval of intelligence and intelligence-related information collected or analysis produced by the IC.
2.    The overall objectives of this policy are to:
a.    Foster an enduring culture of responsible sharing and collaboration within an integrated IC;
b.    Provide an improved capacity to warn of and disrupt threats to the United States (U.S.) homeland, and U.S. persons and interests; and
c.    Provide more accurate, timely, and insightful analysis to inform decision making by the President, senior military commanders, national security advisers, and other executive branch officials.

But it’s one thing to know that you have to change the habits of a life time. It’s one thing to be told that you have to do this or else. It is another to make the change.

So how do you do this? For it is not as if the people involved don’t want to do this. We all know that we should not smoke and that smoking is bad for us. Or to lose weight etc. But we also all know that changing the habits of a lifetime is the hardest work of all.

The Research and Development Branch of DOD hired Level 5, a consultant to help them start. (I have no involvement other than interest in this assignment or Level 5). Kurt Lane from Level 5 and I have been chatting about the work.

Here are the results of their work – in essence that that system is now talking to itself and there is agreement to move ahead. No small thing really

That’s not much you might think. But there are over 200,000 people in the branch. Without a broad conversation, nothing will have a chance.

How would I know? Ask yourself, what media organization is making the most progress in moving to a 2.0 world? Few indeed but one stands out, NPR. NPR spent nearly 9 months in a massive system wide conversation with itself back in 2005/6. More than 200 of the 800 NPR staff were involved and nearly 1,000 people in the system. The “New Realities” project was all about having a family conversation. A new terminology was developed and whether acted upon or not – some people really got it. After a 2 year germination, NPR has burst out.

So in the world of media, only one organization took the trouble to set up the cultural ground work. Only one has moved so far. Not really science but still worth thinking about.

For in the DOD as in all organizations, the issues that really confront us are cultural. Many start out by thinking that this is all about technology. But it is culture that drives the technology.

Now DOD do have a unique IT environment. You have a firewall right but not like the top level DOD Firewall. Nothing gets through that!!!!

But even to think about how to cross that road, the culture has to be moved. For even top down directives like 501 don’t work against a fully embodied culture. I am not being critical – it’s just how it is.

My advice to Kurt and the gang at Level 5 is to look at what has happened in Public radio and now TV.

The Conversation – opens up the possibility of a shift. But then it is all about leadership in the old fashioned way.

The most progress that we made in New Realities was with the NPR Board. Many of them played an active and a major role in the assignment – leading meetings and groups. They were part of the process not just the readers of the report. This was their work.

They chose a new President who had all the attributes of a change agent and she has driven change with their support. They are so close now.

In TV, the process has been a bit different but stemmed from the same process. One of the leaders of the system who had also played a big role, was appointed the CEO of one of the largest public TV stations, KETC.

In 4 years, Jack Galmiche has taken KETC to the brink of proving out a sustainable 2.0 culture and operational model.

If this is a model – then it is to start broad as broad as you can with the conversation – then find the champion/leaders and help them take a more narrow and harder driving approach.

NPR and KETC show us that it is easier to prove it and to show it than to persuade all to move broadly. Once the new is embodied, than the debate goes away. The rest are left with a clear choice. Adopt what works or die.

Then you can do what the new BBC Director of Global News told his staff:

Peter Horrocks assumed the position of director of BBC Global News last week, and he’s not wasting time with niceties. The self-proclaimed technology enthusiast is telling journalists to get with the social media program or get out.

The new director told the Guardian, “This isn’t just a kind of fad… I’m afraid you’re not doing your job if you can’t do those things. It’s not discretionary.”

But the ground work has to be done first.

I think that when we look back, we will see that this kind of intervention is the hardest work of all. For change will not come from making the rational case – the typical consulting approach. It will not come from supporting the Big Guy – the other approach. Change will come from “infecting” the organization with the ideas and in getting behind the new virus. All very subtle and not how things are done in consulting 1.0.

I look forward to hearing what Level 5 and DOD do. After all, how do they do affects us all.

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Social Media Usage in the Inc. 500 in 2009

February 12, 2010 at 3:40 am · Filed under Enterprise 2.0, Inc 500

The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth conducted a study on social media by Nora Barnes and Eric Mattson on the usage of social media in fast-growing corporations. All interviews took place in October and November of 2009. The 2009 study looks again at the Inc. Magazine 500 social media usage for the third consecutive year, allowing for a longitudinal study of corporate use of social media.

In 2007, the study found that the Inc. 500 was outpacing the more traditional and larger Fortune 500 companies in their use of social media. For example, with blogs, the 2007 some research showed that 8% of the Fortune 500 companies were blogging compared to 19% of the Inc. 500. This difference continued in 2008 with 16% of the Fortune 500 blogging vs. 39% of the Inc. 500. And it appears the Inc. 500’s lead in blogging will continue in 2009 with the Inc. 500 now blogging at a rate of 45%.

This research shows that social media continues to penetrate parts of the business world at a fast rate. In all three studies, questions looked at with six prominent social media (blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, message boards and wikis).  In 2009, several new tools were added including Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and MySpace.

Social networking continues to be the most familiar social media tool to the Inc. 500 with 75% of respondents in 2009 claiming to be “very familiar with it” (compared to 57% in 2008). Twitter’s has captured “share of mind” in the first year of being studied with sixty-two percent of executives reported being familiar with it.

Looking across the three years, social networking and blogging have have continued to grow in adoption, the use of message boards, online video, wikis and podcasting has leveled off or declined. The addition of Twitter (considered by respondents to be both a microblogging site and a social networking site) in the latest study shows that 52% of the Inc. 500 companies are already using this tool for their business.

Forty-three percent of the 2009 Inc. 500 reported social media was “very important” to their business/marketing strategy and 91% of the Inc. 500 is using at least one social media tool in 2009 (up from 77% in 2008). In addition, as they ramp up their usage, the Inc. 500 companies are also seeking to protect themselves legally, with 36% having implemented a formal policy concerning blogging by their employees.

This is consistent with other studies I have seen in the past two years. It is nice to see the continued increase in social media use by business. It also makes sense.

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