Navigating the Social Age

Martin Thomas @crowdsurfing

The Social Age

o Socio-cultural changes are as important as technological

Socio Cultural Shifts

Trust deficitDeath of deference

+

End of the ExpertDispersal of Authority

Expert? Expert?

Socio cultural shifts x2

Collective ActionSelf Expression

+

Supercharged ActivismCulture of Collaboration

“Amplifying Volume of Moaning”

Powered by New Technology

Organisational & Cultural Challenge

o New behaviours & heightened expectations

Real time problem solving Real time expectations

Instant access, instant response, instant gratification “living life through shortcuts” MTV

“The trouble with McDonald’s is it’s too bloody slow”

o Amplifying cultural & generational trends

Organisational & Cultural Challenge

Dramatizing institutions’ structural, operational & cultural weaknesses

Connected Consumer meets Disconnected Institution

“Digital communications is a destabilizing force in a bureaucratic environment. And I am sitting right in the middle of a bureaucratic environment.’”Senior corporate communications director

“We’re not set up for this shit”UK CEO

Why Many Institutions Struggle

o Not configured to work in real time, in terms of speed or resources

10 minutes10 minutes60 minutes60 minutes

* Critical response time for responding to negative comments

Thriving by Loosening Up

o Operational & cultural traits of successful organisations

TrustingOpenAgileInformal Collaborative

Tight Thinkers Need Not Apply

o Organisations & people that struggle with this new worldHierarchicalBureaucraticProcess orientedDistrustful

“the approval time for each Tweet, by the time it had gone through compliance and tone of voice, used to be 10 days”

Tight Thinkers Need Not Apply

o Organisations & people that struggle with this new worldHierarchicalBureaucraticProcess orientedDistrustful

90%of public sector bodies restrict staff use of social media to some extent (Socitm 2010)

67%block access entirely(v. 20% in private sector) (Socitm 2010)

1. Trusting

o Bedrock of strong internal cultureo Allows shared responsibility & real time

decision making

The best company rulebook ever written?

IBM Trusts Its People

25,000 IBM employees are on Twitter

“We don’t have a corporate blog or a corporate Twitter ID because we want the ‘IBMers’ in aggregate to be the corporate

blog and the corporate Twitter ID” Adam Christensen, social media communications at IBM Corporation

Social media guidelines written by employees & only then signed off by lawyers

2. Open

o Transparency & honesty non negotiable Capable of transforming reputations Thicker skins essential

TED profits from “Radical Openness”

o Shifted from closed, exclusive content to open access (“Ideas worth spreading”)500 million viewsGlobal, highly profitable franchise

3. Agile

o Ability to improvise & operate in close to real time rather than institutional time

4. Informal

Authenticity & timeliness more important than production values

5. Collaborative

o Tapping into spirit of collective self expression

o Leveraging people’s willingness to shape service & product offers

Leveraging Community Power

Mutualisation: Collaborating with readers and communities to better understand, explore or reflect situations, topics, perspectives or experiences

Harnessing Fan Power

o Fans create customised album – tracks & covero Share revenue from on-going sales

@crowdsurfing

Get your organisation & culture right … & the social media will look after itself