alexmanchester.com

How to use social media to solve critical internal communication issues

Back in January 2010, I began working with internal communication research agency Melcrum to write a new social media-focused report. That report has now been published.

How to use social media to solve critical internal communication issues is a 138-page report featuring case studies, global survey data (over 2,000 respondents) and advice on social media in business.

It features case studies from the likes of AEP, Aviva, BT, CBA, Deloitte, ERM, IDEO, ING, NetApp, Scottrade, Telstra, The Coca-Cola Company, Van Marcke Group and Virgin Media, and opinion and insight from the likes of Euan Semple, Lee Byrant, James Robertson, Ross Dawson, Shane Morris, Philippe Borremans, Gavin Heaton, Lee Hopkins and more.

Key topics include:

• Creating the business case for social media
• Developing a social media strategy
• Social media technologies (and CMS integration)
• Governance, policies and more
• Return on investment
• The role of social media in the future, including job roles

The report is now available in hard copy via the Melcrum site. You can download a free executive summary, be and look out for more extracts of data and information over the coming weeks.

Social media interviews from Melcrum and iPadio – Euan Semple first up

In tune with the current research I'm working on with them looking into social media and internal communication, the Melcrum team are focusing on the topic in a number of ways this year, notably with a major social media conference taking place in London in a couple of weeks (9-10 February 2010).

Ahead of the event, Melcrum have teamed up with iPadio, a smart 'live phonecasting and social media service' to stream phone interviews with conference speakers.

The first set of interviews feature Euan Semple, Lee Bryant, Louise McGregor from ING and Helen Farrar from Virgin Media.

Euan's interview is below, and check out the others over at iPadio. For full details of the confernece, head over to the Melcrum site.

Get involved: new research project on social media and internal communication

Kicking off 2010, this week I'm very pleased to be starting a new collaborative research project between Step Two Designs and the internal communications research agency, Melcrum.

James Bennett (Melcrum's Head of Content) and I will be working on this and it will run throughout January, with the findings published later in the year in a full research report on  'Social media and internal communications in 2010'.

That's the working/umbrella title, and it will encompass a multitude of topics, including:

• social tools and technology in the workplace
• social media strategies
• social media roles and teams, governance
• measurement and ROI of social media
• lessons learned
• content, examples, models and more, all related to the internal/employee side of business.

Get involved
Given the scope, we're looking for input and contributions to the research, specifically: case studies, insight and examples from internal communications, social media, and intranet practitioners and consultants that have had experience in experimenting with, deploying and having success or failures with social media as part of an employee communications, engagement, collaboration etc. strategy.

Are you involved in this type of work, or do have an example to share or story to tell, short or long?

If so, we would love to hear from you, wherever you are in the world: alex [at] steptwo [dot] com [dot] au, or via any of the other links on the first right column of this blog. We're scheduling interviews and research work all the way through January 2010.

The end product of these research projects is a full report, an example of which you can see and download here, and there are many more excellent reports over on the Melcrum site, including the original 2007 report, How to use social media to engage employees, which I was also heavily involved with.

What's in it for you? Global recognition, complementary reports
In return for your contribution to the new report, your work will be profiled to the extensive and global internal comms and intranet audiences of Melcrum and Step Two Designs. You'll also immediately receive a complementary PDF of the full 2007 report, and PDF the new report when its launched.

Accompanying survey
James will also soon be publishing details for the accompanying social media survey which will is ready to go and will run throughout this month (I'll republish details here when launched).

Get in touch
So, as said,if you're working in this field, we'd be very pleased to hear from you.