Inside Out

I tend to think of things in Venn diagrams.

As I start to contemplate companies such as EMC entering a social media world proficiently, I find myself drawing the same Venn diagrams over and over.

This is INSIDE our company.  This is OUTSIDE our company.

And here is the relationship between the two ...

It's Behaviors, Not Tools ...

People new to this stuff tend to rant about this tool, or that site, or whatever.

What makes social media exciting to me is the dialogue and the collaboration that occurs.  It's like having a real cool meeting, without the need for face-to-face.

I have been extremely aware that it is social media behaviors (rather than social media tools) that is responsible for success in this arena.

What do I mean by social media behaviors?

• The ability to join a discussion and contribute without being obnoxious ...
   
• The ability to express yourself in your own voice online, without sounding like someone (or something) else ...
   
• The predisposition to jumping on a forum, track down an answer, and getting back to someone, without getting a Medal of Commendation from your management team.
   
• The ability to rationally discuss opposing viewpoints without having your head explode, or worse ...
   
• The ability to live in a world where every voice (no matter where it's coming from) is worthy of being heard and encouraged.

I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea.

Why Is This Important?

Social media (and community, and web presence) is all about conversations. 

Voices.  Intelligent dialog.  Honest and open interaction without the sense that it's all being mediated by some vast corporate entity.

And unless hundreds (or thousands) of EMCers learn social media behavior, and -- more importantly -- to find their online voice -- it's all nothing more than a slick marketing exercise that's doomed to ultimate failure.

So, if you're transforming a ginormous company to social media, how do you learn social media behaviors?

I think the answer will be in having a safe place to practice.

Why Do We Need A Safe Playground?

I think, on one level, interacting with social media requires a distinctly different mindset.

Now, some people are very comfortable conversing online.  They've learned to express themselves comfortably and confidently without the need for real-world social cues.

Alas, they are few in number.  Many more need to feel comfortable and confident in this world.

When I approach them about things like blogging, or having an active voice on community forums, they look at me like I'm nuts.

Remember, I grew up in Northern California during the 1960s and 1970s, so I am very experienced in sharing a thought with someone and having them look at you like you're mildly hallucinating.

A good example is blogging.  At EMC, we need a much larger EMC Blogging Corps.  The behavior of blogging (and managing the discussion that inevitably results) I believe is a core social media skill.

But when I go around and ask people who have something to say "do you want to blog for EMC?" they look at me as if I asked them to run around naked outside.

Clearly, many feel they need a place to practice.  And I want to provide that for them.

The other related skill is community building. 

Right now, the corporate consensus is that social media is all about creating content in usable form, e.g. static web pages reposting existing content in a different form.   People are missing the idea about collaboration and community involvement in a topic, document or project.

I think we'll need a fair amount of practice in designing, implementing and growing vibrant communities.  Again, this is something I think we can get good at behind the firewall (so to speak) and then venture outside.

Inside Out

I think people enjoy engaging in vibrant, thriving, participative communities that revolve around shared interests.

But unless EMC bring to the table authoritative voices on multiple topics, and a community-engaging behavior, any ventures we have outside the firewall will have a flat, empty and marketing feel to them.

Bottom line: I am firmly committed that the best way to engage the outside world in social media is to get good at the behaviors behind the firewall first, and then venture out.

Some Examples

I went to an IBM product launch on Second Life.  Nicely rendered, professionally done, an interesting visual experience to be sure.

But when I went to the presentation, I found a virtual rendering of an experience that would have been painfully boring in the real world. 

A dofus on a stage marching through meaningless powerpoint.  People sitting in the audience who were probably IBM employees, or similarly on the payroll in some fashion.

No intelligent dialogue.  No intelligent discussion.  No community.

I felt they'd missed the whole point of the thing.

During my explorations, I visited many corporate sites/forums/etc. that promised a rich, immersive experience.

I found dead message board forums.  Blogs that hadn't been updated in months, or never really had anything interesting to say in the first place.  A vast wasteland of IP addresses that were irrelevant as dot-bomb sites in the earlier part of this decade.

I came away with the distinct impression is that SM was all about voices and intelligent dialogue in a community setting.

And, from a business perspective, that meant that we had to be able to carry on our part of the conversation.

We'll See

So, for the next few months, we're setting up an internal, behind-the-firewall site to get some internal dialogue and discussion going.

My hope is that hundreds of EMC people will learn to express themselves in their own voice, learn how to seek out and participate in intelligent discussions, and learn the subtle-yet-important art of building vibrant online communities.

If we don't learn how to do this, we're doomed at this SM thing.