Sean R. Nicholson

Sometimes opportunities knock quietly….and sometimes they hit us with explosive force. The trouble is, we often miss them even though they are staring us right in the face. As an example, take a look at the recent volcanic explosion in Iceland. This natural disaster has demonstrated the need for business travelers to have access to their corporate information, regardless of where they are located.

The reality is that modern business travelers are more reliant on technology than ever. Sales professionals need access to updated rate sheets and sales contacts, marketing professionals need their product collateral, legal professionals need access to up-to-date case notes, and the list goes on. Without access to the critical information required to do their jobs, traveling professionals would be at a significant disadvantage to those that are able to access their corporate information remotely.

The MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured an Ash plume from Eyjafjallajokull Volcano over the North Atlantic at 11:35 UTC (7:35 a.m. EDT) on April 15, 2010. Credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response Team.

In addition, the ability to keep in constant contact with employees in the home office allows travelers to make alternate arrangements for travel,meetings, and information distribution. If a sales professional is stuck in the airport in London but has access to email, their travel reservation system, and their Contact Relationship Management (CRM) system, they could reserve a train ride to France, reschedule a business meeting with their customer, and send updated product information…all from the airport.

Estimates indicate that the recent eruption caused more than 100,000 flights to be canceled. Business travelers from Okinawa to Orlando were impacted and their activities potentially disrupted. In many cases, however, employees were able to continue operating remotely due to application access provided via Virtual Private Networks (VPN), remote meeting technology like GoToMeeting, and Web-based email systems.

As a result, Intranet professionals should be looking for ways to highlight the importance of portal, security, and productivity benefits offered by Intranet applications. Demonstrating to executives how internal social media kept employees in touch and helped them conduct business during potentially disastrous times demonstrates the value of investment in an Intranet infrastructure and highlights its benefit.

I’d love to hear stories of travelers who benefited from remote technology and access to the corporate intranet. Feel free to comment and share!

Sean R. Nicholson

About a year ago, I had a conversation with a then SocialMediaphobe who tried to convince me that social media was a fad that had no future in the workplace. His argument was that Facebook was too personal and Twitter too truncated to ever offer any value to business culture. I tried to convince him that, like all emerging technologies, social media was still finding its place in the workplace, but it was slowly, almost imperceptibly changing the way we communicate. His response was to try to dissuade me by saying “it’s just a bunch of people talking about what they ate for breakfast.”

As I look back the amazing strides social media has taken in the last year, even I’m amazed. The importance of short, meaningful messages tugged at my heartstrings as major news outlets like CNN and MSNBC relied on Tweets from survivors of the tragic earthquake in Haiti to keep us informed. YouTube has become the second largest search engine in the world (arguably the largest content engine), and Facebook continues to grow at astonishing rates, becoming one of the largest photo repositories on the Web.

Yet, somehow….corporate executives continue to ignore social media like it’s going to go away. These social media ostriches often argue that Social Media is a “B to C” (business to consumer) activity, meaning that businesses can only use it to market directly to consumers. They argue that companies selling “B to B” (business to business) can’t effectively leverage social media, because it’s the wrong market and businesses don’t pay attention to social media.

Little do they understand that businesses are not faceless organisms that make decisions without human input. On the contrary, business decisions are influenced by people and made by people, making “B to B” marketing almost irrelevant in a world where social media dominates the conversation. Executives need to understand that consumers of all type rely on product advice gained from other consumers, and the value of marketing Web sites that expound on the value of their product is diminishing. Need more convincing? Take a look at the Answers section of LinkedIn and you’ll find thousands of professionals (working for businesses) asking for recommendations on ECM, CRM, Intranet, and back office software. Yes…they even ask for advice on what blogging and social media platforms to use.

A shining example of a “B to B” corporate executive leveraging social media is Carolyn Douglas, the CEO of Intranet Connections. Her passion about Intranets, collaboration, best practices, and social media are evident in her blogs and tweets. Her thought leadership in the Intranet industry influences her peers, colleagues and customers on a daily basis. She demonstrates that although her business is technically “B to B”, her social media communication is aimed at interacting with people.

Great examples of executive leadership can be found in the “B to C” markets, as well. Just look at leaders like Marc Cenedella of TheLadders.com or Bill Marriot of Marriot Hotels. Each has established a meaningful blog and/or twitter presence that educates the public on topics ranging from interviewing tips to downtown revitalization efforts. Both activities are ancillary to their business, but provide meaning to their readers. The effect of the trust they earn from their readers is often carried over to the brand the represent.

And product marketing is just the tip of the iceberg when looking for social media opportunity. The value of collaborative activities inside your organization can justify an investment relatively quickly. You see, your employees are people, and people like to share. They share their stories, experiences, and knowledge. They talk around the water cooler, at the coffee pot, and at their cubes. At work, they feel valued and important when another employee is able to use a past experience to solve a problem. They get frustrated when they discover that the knowledge in their head could have been useful to another employee in a previous experience.  It’s the age-old knowledge management problem. How do you get the knowledge out of your employees heads and into a media that can be shared and leveraged by other employees?

The answer is social media. Give your employees and platform and they will share. Sure, they’ll share personal information, too…but mixed in with stories about their weekends, cats, and World of Warcraft are valuable nuggets of corporate knowledge that can help you solve problems, produce new products, and deliver a higher level of customer and employee satisfaction. It’s up to you to find ways to filter or segment that information to uncover that which is valuable to your business, but once you do…you’ve unlocked the potential of your employees.

In summary, social media is not about people eating oatmeal. Well…actually it is. But it’s also about people solving problems and people serving customers and people buying products. Social media is about your employees and your customers. It’s about your friends and colleagues. It’s about what they want, and what they want to offer. It’s a valuable tool that will provide insight to markets, products, and ways of doing business that you probably never thought about.  It’s up to you to get involved and show leadership. Good luck!

P.S. I’d love to hear from Execs who have taken the plunge and how your efforts are proceeding. Feel free to comment or email using our contact form.

Sean R. Nicholson

Continuing with my posts on great Twitter resources, this is a followup to my 99 Great Internal Comms Resources,  99 Great Intranet Resources and 99 Great ECM Resources posts. Below is a link to my list of 99+ great SharePoint Resources on Twitter. If you’re looking for the folks who tweet about SharePoint as an Intranet platform, ECM solution, and a collaboration tool…these are your folks! Pay careful attention and you may see folks who are also providing links to some valuable SharePoint alternatives, as well.

Sean’s list of 99+ Great SharePoint resources on Twitter

Know someone that I missed from the list? Definitely let me know. Shameless self-promotion is also allowed if you think you should be included, just make sure your tweets back up your request.

You can check out the list below, and feel free to leave a comment if there’s anyone else I should add.

Sean R. Nicholson

2009 has been a great year full of exciting opportunities, great projects, engaging conversations, and healthy dialog about the topics of Intranets, Enterprise Content Management, and Enterprise 2.0. As I reflect on the events that have occurred over the last year, I’m amazed at how much has transpired and how many new people I have had the honor of connecting with.

Here are some of the highlights, that I thought I would share. In 2009, I am please to have:

• Started the IntranetExperience blog as an effort to capture some of my Intranet design and implementation experiences and share them with others.
• Created a Twitter account, which drove me to read hundreds (maybe thousands) of articles posted by fellow Tweeps.
• Compiled a following list of more than 600 invaluable resources who tweet on Intranets, Enterprise Content Management, Social Media, and Enterprise 2.0.
• Earned the privilege of being followed by more than 700 folks on Twitter who think I might have something valuable to say everyone once in a while.
• Connected online with some amazing Intranet resources including:
  • Toby Ward of Prescient Digital Media;
  • Carolyn Douglas and Rachel Lai of Intranet Connections;
  • James Robertson and Alex Manchester of Step Two Designs
  • Peter Richards, who writes the Wheat and Chaff blog
  • Jane McConnell of NetJMC
  • Christy Season, who blogs at ChristyWeb.com
  • Wedge, who blogs at kilobox.net
• Engaged in thought-provoking dialogs on enterprise content management with ECM gurus like:
  • Cheryl McKinnon of Nuxeo
  • Martin Sumner-Smith of OpenText
  • Carl Frappaolo and John Mancini of AIIM
  • Sascha Ohler and Mike Wessel of Perceptive Software
• Had incredible face-to-face conversations with other Intranet and ECM professionals including folks like:
  • Karl Geisler
  • Jeff Allen
  • Michele Sperle
  • Dan Dillon
  • Ken Berlack
  • Dan Kneeshaw
  • Angela Cullen
• Developed 20 different subject matter-oriented lists on Twitter of outstanding experts in their respective areas.
• Helped educate others that social media isn’t just people blogging about their families and tweeting about what they ate for breakfast. I successfully convince others that tweeting is a good thing, and some of them have even stuck with it.
• Worked with great folks like Patty Dugan, Matt Feeny, Jill Ducey, Paul Arhnold, and Jeremy McNieve to develop an initial Social Media strategy around Twitter.

All of this, on top of enjoying a great day job, spending quality time with my family, and carving out a bit of time for myself.

Not too shabby, if I don’t say so myself.

What’s even better is I have even higher hopes to build on the foundation of 2009 and expand these activities, conversations, and opportunities in 2010!

A special thanks to everyone I have listed here for their thoughts, comments, and engagement. And to anyone that I might have left off, this post is likely a work in progress and a gentle reminder of any accomplishment that should be added to the list is much appreciated.

Happy New Year to everyone and my 2010 be your best year yet!

–Sean

Sean R. Nicholson

I took some time this weekend to categorize my Twitter friends and followers into various Twitter lists. If you’re looking for some great Intranet resources to follow, this list contains 99 great folks who tweet about all kinds of Intranet topics ranging from taxonomies, governance,  platforms, and products.

You can check out the list below, and feel free to leave a comment if there’s anyone else I should add.

Sean’s Intranet Twitter List

Sean R. Nicholson

When creating hyperlinks in your Intranet portal or social media application, it’s important to know when to create a link that reuses the existing browser session and when to open a new browser.

Best Practice #1 – When your hyperlink is pointing to another page within your Intranet, reuse the same browser window. The purpose of reusing the same browser is that creates a sense of continuity and flow and doesn’t leave the user with 20 different windows open after just a few minutes of browsing.

For instance, if your Intranet portal is called OurPlace and the URL to reach it is http://ourplace, then any URL that begins with http://ourplace should reuse the existing browser.

Best Practice #2 – When your hyperlink points to an external application or Web site, it is acceptable to open a new browser session. By opening the link in a new browser window, you ensure that the user can easily return to your portal, specifically to the page they were reading when they clicked the link. This also signals the user that they are exploring a link that is outside or your Intranet portal and, potentially outside your firewall.

Using the example of the OurPlace portal, if you create a link to a news story published on the local newspaper’s Web site, the best practice would be to open that link in a new browser window.

Reminder: Best practices are guidelines for common situations. There are always exceptions and it is up to you as an Intranet professional to use your best judgement as to what works best for your user experience.

Comments and feedback are always welcome!

Sean R. Nicholson

Warning: This is a long blog post detailing my adventures through blocked blogs and suspended Twitter accounts. If you’re looking for a short read or have a really short attention span, you’d be better off checking out my Tweets or skipping to the end of this post where there are some key lessons learned from this experience.

If you have a few minutes and are looking for the “juicy details” (you’ll learn what that means later), grab a cup of coffee, get comfy, and read on

Blogs, Tweets, Hackers, Oh My!

Okay, it’s official. I am not a social media addict. Well, not a certifiable one, anyway. As of yesterday, I successfully survived 12 days of withdrawal from my main sources of social media and came out on the other side alive. Okay…so I cheated a little bit using Facebook and LinkedIn, but shhhh….don’t tell anyone.

I’d love to report that my 12 day hiatus was the result of some exotic retreat to an off-the-grid island paradise, but unfortunately, I was forced into seclusion from my blog and Twitter by the nefarious forces at work on the Internet…probably some 14 year-old kid with entirely too much time on their hands.

Banned From Twitter – Uh Oh!!

So it was Friday morning and I had just finished up a conversation with a fellow employee about an internal microblog (similar to Twitter) that we are running at work. He had some questions about TweetDeck, so I offered to show him how I had TweetDeck configured. As we started to go through my configuration, I noticed a tweet from @carolyndouglas indicating that my account had been suspended (thanks Carolyn!).

One of my followers alerted me to the problem. Thanks Carolyn!

Huh?? How could that be? I headed on over to the native Twitter Web site and lo and behold, there was the Twitter Foul Owl right on my home page indicating that everyone should mosey along from my profile. Ouch! What had I done? Who had I offended? I consider myself to be a model tweeter, offering constructive dialog, links to valuable content, and I try to keep my snarky comments to myself (albeit sometimes unsuccessfully).

The Dreaded Foul Owl - Who Goes There?

So what was this “strange activity” that the wise Foul Owl was referencing? My follow:follower ratio wasn’t unbalanced, I wasn’t spamming anyone, and I wasn’t pitching Viagara or Xanax to my followers, so what’s the deal? Why are my Document Management or Intranet-focused tweets being considered strange? I was downright befuddled.

My Response – A Kneejerk Reaction To Being Called “Strange”

Being told that your tweets are “strange” isn’t a good feeling and my initial reaction was one of frustration and irritation. Unfortunately, I was headed to back-to-back afternoon meetings, so I had to brew a bit over my Twitter suspension before I could seek resolution. I found that the longer my day drew on,  the more fixated I became on having my content called “strange”. Who’s to judge what is strange? Was I strange because I like to talk about technology, Intranets, and Enterprise Content Management? My wife seems to think so, but she never banned be from prattling on about the latest portal upgrade or cool new document workflow solutions. Instead, she just politely nods a lot and her eyes get a bit of a glazy look, but she always smiles and pretends to be interested…but I digress.

At the end of the day, I finally had some time to look into the issue. My first step was to click the Foul Owl link below the image that offered the “juicy details” to find out why I had been suspended. Unfortunately, Foul Owl didn’t provide any useful information and there were definitely NOT any juicy details as the wise bird promised. Instead, I was taken to a Google “Oops! page indicating that the juicy details I was seeking were not available.

The Twitter Foul Owl promised me juicy details, but dumped me to a Google Oops! page.

In the immortal words of Homer J. Simpson, “DOH!”.

How dare the Foul Owl promise me the details on why I was being blocked and then send me off to the land of unfound content. Talk about strange! Well, being that I was already worked up, I decided to go the next step and check out http://help.twitter.com to see if they could provide me with some relief and maybe a description of why I was “strange” and “suspended”.

Twitter Help Wasn’t Much Help In Understanding Why I Had Been Suspended

Unfortunately, the Twitter help site was less than helpful. I was already frustrated and the Google Oops! page didn’t help, but at least the Twitter help site looked like a wealth of information. However, instead of getting any useful information about suspended accounts, I got a lot of “how to” content on Finding People on Twitter and information on the Twitter text commands. After searching and searching for a way to open a support ticket with Twitter, I finally found a tiny link buried in the middle of a TON of content.

Twitter buries the link to create a support ticket.

Now I don’t mean to complain, but when someone is looking for help, burying the link that offers that help in the middle of the page amongst a ton of content doesn’t seem to be the best user experience. Maybe this is Twitter’s strategy since it forces  folks to read through the how to find people and text commands, but my guess is that Twitter support isn’t being flooded with requests for help on finding Uncle Joe or Aunt Sally or even “how do I use the official Twitter text commands??” so I’m not sure about their strategy in burying the support link. Maybe they figure that if they bury the link amongst useless information, it is less likely to be found.

Tip #1: If your account has been suspended by Twitter and you feel the suspension is unfair, go to http://help.twitter.com and scroll down the page half way to find the link in the image above to open a ticket.

The Support Ticket Is Opened, But Still No Reason Why!

Having found the link, I went ahead and opened a support ticket. With my frustration level being pretty high, I think I did a pretty good job asking politely why I had been suspended and what I needed to do to reverse the decision. After all, I am a firm believer that ticking off your support engineer, garbage man, or waitress rarely has a good outcome.

Although the ticket was opened, I still didn’t know why I had been blocked, so I took a look at my most recent posts to see if I had offended someone.  Fortunately, I didn’t have to dig too deep to find the problem. My last tweet had been a response thanking a fellow Tweeter for a comment she made on the title of one of my blog posts

A seemingly benign tweet until I clicked the link to my blog site and was presented with the Google warning that visiting the site might harm my computer due to issues with the site. Double-DOH!!

Now what had I done? My Twitter account had been suspended, my blog was giving me a warning….ping. The lightbulb went on and I connected the two.  Since my blog was being blocked by Google and my tweets often contain links to my blog, Twitter must rely on Google warnings to identify people who are posting up links to spam or malware. Genius!! Well….Except for the part where they suspended me.

So My Blog Was Hacked And My Twitter Account Suspended

It appeared as though my weekend was about to be shot to bits. Now I had to figure out what was wrong with my blog and then figure out how to convince Twitter to un-suspend my account. Fortunately, having been in the Web business for some time, I know a few tools that helped me troubleshoot the issue quickly. First, I checked the most recent version of my blogging software. Unfortunately, I was one dot release behind, which could have exposed a weakness allowing someone to inject malware code into my site.

Next, I used a really nice tool at www.dasient.com which does a complete scan of your site to search for malware. It then tells you which pages are potentially infected. Since I had a couple of pages that were infected, I decided not to take and chances and restored my entire site from a backup to ensure clean pages and then upgraded to the latest dot release.

Tip #2: If Google, IE, or Firefox is indicating that your site is unsafe to visit, it’s a good idea to take the site offline so as not to infect any additional visitors and then run a check against your offline files (using a test server or subdirectory) at Dasient.com. Having an offline backup of all your files makes a site restore much easier.

After restoring the site and rerunning a Dasient check to ensure that no additional infection existed, I used Google WebMaster tools to request a review of my site to have the warning removed. After fixing the issue, it took less than 12 hours for Google to unblock the site.

So The Blog Is Fixed, Now To Just Get My Twitter Account Un-Suspended

Sounds easy enough, right? Blog fixed in under 24 hours, Twitter account should be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, no. To Twitters’ credit, they take malware seriously. Links are critical to the vitality of Twitter and if they didn’t take malware seriously, Twitter would quickly become a dumping ground for attackers looking to spread malicious links across the Web. So, I do have to give kudos to Twitter for taking this issue so seriously. According to the Twitter information on suspended accounts, it could be as long as 30 days before my account was cleared and I was able to tweet again. Triple DOH!!

Fortunately, it only took 12 days.

According to Twitter support, they address tickets in the order they are received, so I guess I just had to wait in line until a support tech got to my ticket. I checked in daily on my ticket, anxiously awaiting a response. Fortunately, once my ticket came up in the queue, the support rep was able to review my site, ensure that I was tweeting within their guidelines and was a good Twitter citizen, and restore my account quickly.

Five Lessons Learned From This Crazy Adventure

1. If you are using open source blogging software, it is imperative that you keep your blog software on the absolute latest release to ensure that any security holes are closed. Because the software is open source, hackers have access to the code and will exploit any security issue they can find. This means checking your site daily for new releases.
2. Twitter does not notify users when their accounts are suspended. If you’re lucky, you’ll find out from your followers. If you’re not lucky, you’ll find out when you go to post.
3. Fix any blog or site issues before you ask for your Twitter account to be reinstated. If your ticket comes up for review and your blog or site is still not clean, Twitter will not un-suspend your account. A great tool for assessing your blog or site is www.dasient.com
4. Open a Twitter ticket as soon as you have a clean bill of health for your site. It will probably take a while for Twitter to reinstate your account.
5. Vigilance is key. Pay attention to those Google and Firefox malware warnings. Don’t visit the site. Give the sitemaster time to fix the problem and check back later.

Okay, so those are the “juicy details” that Foul Owl promised, but never delivered. I hope that by sharing this adventure, I can help my fellow bloggers and tweeters navigate these waters in case your are faced with a similar situation. I’d be more than interested to hear similar experiences and will try to answer any questions you might have about the process in comment responses.

Happy (and safe) blogging and tweeting!

Sean R. Nicholson

Okay…I have to admit that I find these types of tweets mildly humorous:

or

It’s not that I find the pain of employees funny, but the shortsightedness of companies in their efforts to ignore new technologies always makes me wonder what they are thinking. Over the course of my career, I have worked for companies ranging from small boutique shops all the way up to Fortune 500 and 100 companies and my experience has been that the bigger the shop, the more resistant to new technologies the decision-makers are.

Case In Point – Email & Internet Access, And A Fortune 100 Company

Flashback to 1996, when I was working for an up and coming division of a Fortune 500 company. I had a pretty heated argument with my Manager because I had requested external email access and Internet access, both of which required Vice-President approval. I was in the initial  stages of a company-wide asset audit and need to email third-party vendors. I was spending so much time on the phone with them going over spreadsheets on the phone that I need to be able to send email back and forth. But no….this particular company was nervous about email, Internet access, and how much time employees would spend wasting their time if everyone was able to email and/or surf the Web.

Flash forward to 2009, when every company realizes that email and Internet access are key tools for most back-office employees in the company to do their job. This same company issues laptops, email, and wireless access to all of their employees. Hmmm…slight change in position, eh?

What Generates The Resistance To New Technologies?

It would be easy to chalk this type of resistance up to age, but I think that would be short-sighted. I have found plenty of “more experienced” (the PC term for older) Directors and Execs that are interested in leveraging new technologies. I have also found plenty of younger (and not necessarily “less experienced”) folks who still tell me that they “just don’t get it” or that “social media is just about people posting high school photos or talking about what they had for breakfast”. Based on these experiences, I’ll attribute the failure to embrace these new mediums as either lack of education or fear of change. Some folks just don’t like the idea of trying something new. Instead, they’ll let everyone else try it and, if it works for others, they’ll give it a shot. Others, just haven’t had that light bulb moment when they realize the value. Now, don’t get me wrong, not everyone needs to be on the bleeding edge…but I firmly believe that organizational decision makers should strive to be on the cutting edge in order to stay ahead of their competition.

Every time I hear of companies blocking Blogging Sites, Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Media sites, it makes me wonder what curmudgeon or poorly informed leader is calling the shots and what experience drove them to make the decision. Obviously, these folks don’t realize that a new generation of workers is entering the workplace and expecting to leverage tools like text messaging, Twitter, blogs, and Facebook. Why not just sit them in front of a typewriter and say “be productive”.

Messages like the following make me wonder just what IT Manager or Director made the sweeping decision that there can be no useful information in blogs, so let’s throw the baby out with the bathwater and block blog access:

Okay, okay…so I admit that by making sweeping statements like that, I’m being a bit hypocritical since I don’t know why this particular company blocked the blog, but my point is that there are too many stories of companies making sweeping IT and HR policies banning social media, instead of embracing it or encouraging their employees to use it responsibly.

What the executives at these companies are failing to realize is that more and more of their employees are reading and contributing to the Websphere via blogs, microblogs, forums, etc… and they are often shaping their decisions at work based on the most up-to-date analysis that they get from these interactions. In addition, by allowing their employees to position themselves as thought leaders and expand their sphere of influence, they could enhance their organizations position in the market, have happier employees, and maybe…even open up some new markets that might not existed without Social Media. Just look at Zappos as an example. An online shoe retailer that has blown the door off marketing and expanding their sales opportunities  and customer support through the use of Twitter.

In short, by ignoring new technologies like Social Media and Social Networking, companies are not only burying their proverbial heads, but are actively engaging in hypocrisy regarding their messages to employees.

My Five Hypocrisies Of Blocking Social Networking Sites

1) Smoke breaks are okay, but blog breaks, tweet breaks, and Facebook breaks aren’t

Just to be up front, I am a non-smoker. My goal, here, isn’t to throw stones at smokers, but to point out that employers allow employees to take breaks from work so they can breath toxic fumes into their lungs, so I’m not quite sure why employers would have a problem with an employee updating their Facebook status or reading the tweets/blogs of their favorite netizens. Short breaks during the work day energize employees and give them a break from their daily duties. Sometimes, employees use those breaks to learn something new that actually might relate to their job or the industry.

Even if they’re not learning, maybe their taking time to catch up with a friend or family member. I’d be curious if those same employers would prohibit employees from reading a book or calling their family on their break. Seems a bit illogical, right? Catching up on Facebook or reading a few tweets can be just as energizing to an employee as a phone call, a good read, or for those who prefer, a smoke.

2) Make good quality decisions using competitive information, but don’t leverage your online networks or intelligence tools

Imagine being in touch with news about your company, customers, or markets before the news breaks. There have been quite a few situations where folks on Twitter have reported news before the local or national news outlets. Earthquakes, plane crashes, even (ironically) the closing of the Rocky Mountain News are all news items that are being scooped by Twitter before being reported in traditional media.

As more news and events are reported first via social media, employees who have access and actively monitoring social media sites are going to be able to react more quickly. If employees don’t have access to these sources, they’ll be two steps behind their competitors.

3) Be a happy employee, but don’t be a social employee

Everyone wants to enjoy their job and, for some employees being social is part of being happy. Not just around in the break room or at the coffee pot with employees that they see every day, but also being social with peers and thought leaders in their particular line of work. Each day, I enjoy reading the updates of employees that I currently work with, as well as previous co-workers and even employees at competing companies. Many of these interactions broaden my understanding of the industry that I work in and eventually will come back to benefit my employer.

By blocking social media sites, employers are limiting their employees ability to collaborate with others in their industry. There is a lot of good information being traded through blogs, tweets, and forums. Each of these venues allows employees to learn more, share their perspective, and grow as an employee, all without a single dollar being added to your training budget.

4) Be creative and innovative, just use the antiquated tools we have given you

Often employers challenge their employees to find new ways to do things better, faster, and cheaper. In some cases, you don’t have to invent the tool that makes the change, you just need to determine how to make it work for you. Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile or the assembly line, he just figured out an innovative way to combine the two to redefine the industry.

Now, imagine two companies. One allows access to Social Media sites to its employees and the other does not. Company A has a marketing department that has come up with new ways to announce product launches using Twitter and Facebook and, in doing so, has increased product awareness by 5% over the last year. In addition, their product support team has begun interacting with customers in a whole new way using Twitter, Facebook groups/discussions, and LinkedIn discussions to identify suggested enhancements to their products and help resolve customer issues. In doing so, they have impacted customer satisfaction and increased recurring sales by 2% globally.

Company B, on the other hand, has blocked employee access to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and their leaders are scratching their collective heads trying to figure out why Company A is beating them to the sales opportunities and stealing their customers.

5) You are an adult and a professional, but no Facebook for you!

There are two excuses I hear most frequently when it comes to the reasoning behind blocking social media sites. The first is the protection of Intellectual Property or organizational intelligence and the second is that employees will just “waste company time”.

When it comes to protecting intellectual property, if a company is seriously using this as an excuse then they better have confiscated all cell phones and digital cameras from the workplace and ensure that all laptops are heavily encrypted in case they get lost or stolen. One company that I am aware of that blocks access to some social media sites also allowed their entire employee list, along with Social Security Numbers, to be transmitted via an unprotected MS Excel spreadsheet over email. The problem, here, wasn’t that the employee was trying to harm the company, but that they didn’t understand that doing so exposed the company to risk. The answer isn’t to remove their access to Excel or email, but to better educate the employee on the proper method of protecting corporate information.

In response to the “wasting time” argument, there are really two approaches. First, let your employees have a little fun. Let them explore new information, personal or professional. Teach them to use social media responsibly…just as you did with email. If you do, they will continue to grow as employees and professionals. Second, if they’re wasting excessive time on Twitter or Facebook, they were probably wasting excessive time on something else before social media came along. The way to address it is to remind them that they are employees of the company and, while some Internet usage is allowed, if it interferes with their duties, it might become an issue.

So to those of you who work for these Social Media Ostriches that choose to ignore the opportunities being presented and stick their heads in the sand by blocking your access…my condolences. I count my blessings each day that I work for a company that not only embraces Social Media, but actively works to develop its employees as thought leaders and encourages them to blog, tweet, and Facebook in a responsible manner.

To the Executives of the Social Media Ostriches…I’d shoot some snarky remark at you, but you couldn’t read it anyway, because this blog and my tweets are probably blocked from your network.

Sean R. Nicholson

Each day, it seems that more and more folks are dipping their toes into the world of Social Networking by creating Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and LinkedIn accounts. And each day, we’re entertained with stories of folks who get “Facebook fired”, shoot off an improper Tweet that lands them in hot water, or  and share confidential information on their personal blog. Recently, Helen A.S. Popkin wrote an excellent article for MSNBC.com called “Twitter gets you fired in 140 characters or less” which details some of the follies of folks who have overstepped the boundaries from responsible social networking into, well…just TMI.

Unfortunately, these types of activities are fodder for the cannons of reactionary corporate zealots who use these follies as examples of why companies can never allow employees to blog, tweet, or otherwise engage in social networking on company time or about any company activities. In fear of expensive litigation, disciplining employees,  or losing valuable corporate information they would rather conjure up hard line policies stating that no employee may engage in these activities using corporate resources during work hours. As if these policies are actually going to stop employees from updating Facebook or slipping in a periodic tweet from their Blackberry.

Flashback To The 90s…When The World Wide Web Was The Target Of Corporate Policies

I remember a time in the late 90s when I was working for a major Telecom company that required VP approval to have access to the Web at any PC. The company was so worried about employees wasting time surfing the Web that they turned a blind eye to the fact that it could be used as a powerful research tool.  In addition, the corporate policy on computer usage clearly stated that those found in violation of the Internet policies (meaning using it without VP approval) could be subject to discipline and/or terminated. Fired…for surfing the Web.

Unfortunately, those of us that were around during these times also remember why these draconian policies were in place. Come on…you remember the dolt in the cube next to you who just couldn’t resist sharing that latest chain email (remember the Nieman Marcus Cookie?) or  risque photos (a polite term for porn) using the “Reply to All” button. These folks were the reasons that the rest of us were under house arrest when it came to Internet access. They surfaced the dark side of the Web, driving the need for restrictive policies.

Luckily companies have evolved and removed or relaxed these types of restrictions and often encourage their employees to use the Web as a powerful research tool. Some have even moved some their primary business applications to “Software As A Service” (SaaS) applications like SalesForce.com. So instead of playing “duck and cover” and shielding their employees from the dangers of the Web, they’re realizing that, while minor infractions to corporate policies my occur, the benefits of using the Web as a tool far outweigh the risks.

Fast Forward To 2009, As Companies Wrestle With Social Networking Policies

So how do companies deal with social networking without repeating history and sticking their heads in the proverbial sand? The first step is to recognize that these activities are not going to go away. They’re not a fad, and they can be just as useful business tools and the Web has become.  To ignore these tools or discourage employees from using them would be just as narrow minded as pulling the Ethernet cables from the backs of their computers ala the 90s.

Employee Collaboration Fuels New Opportunity

The second step is to understand the tools. All too often I hear folks who say things like “Twitter…I just don’t get it.” Yet these very folks have either never created a Twitter account or have never spent time researching the whys and hows of Twitter and how it has worked for others. Instead, they scratch their head and shake their fist at a new, strange technology. By learning about the successes of others, we can all identify new uses within our workplaces for new technology. Feel like you’re out of touch, get yourself a Social Media mentor, as suggested in the ChristyWeb.com article “Do you have a social media mentor?”

The third step in embracing social networking tools is to guide your employees on their usage. Note that I didn’t say “Discourage Their Use” or “Mandate against their usage” or even “Tell them how to use them”. I very clearly said “guide your employees”. Let them know that their knowledge is valuable and that they are encouraged to share their thoughts and views, as long as it doesn’t violate the existing privacy policies, NDA agreements, or Intellectual Property agreements that are in place.  Remind them that sharing information on the Web in any form can be perilous and that they should consider whether they would want their boss, spouse, or mother reading or seeing their online exploits. Often, a simple reminder of good judgment can have as powerful of an effect as a harsh corporate policy.  Yes, you are going to have the dopes who just can’t seem to keep their “inside voice” from leaking out to tweets and Facebook updates and you’ll even have the odd photo or video that stirs up an HR hornets nest, but the reality is…those same individuals would probably be in HR jail even if Facebook never existed.

The other 98% of your employees will explore the technologies and some will find useful ways to grow your organization. Maybe they’ll find ways to enhance collaboration, present themselves to others as a leader in their field, or maybe even find new products or customers. The reality is, they will find new uses and opportunities when given the chance.

What’s the alternative? Write a complex policy banning them from social media activities that is both unrealistic and unproductive.And what fun is that??

For the record, I am blessed to work for a company that has chosen to embrace Web 2.0 and encourages their employees to find new, innovative ways to blog, tweet, and explore the value of emerging technologies. The result is engaged employees who think about new technologies and think twice before they hit the ‘Submit’ button.

Have thoughts or comments? I always appreciate feedback and constructive criticism through comments.

Sean R. Nicholson

A few years ago, I was in charge of an RFP for a Fortune 500 company to select an Intranet portal application and portal content management system. Thinking about the requirements for that portal and how they would change in this age of social networking got me thinking about how the requirements would change if I were to conduct that same RFP today.

Portal Requirements in 2005

Back in the “olden days” of horizontal portal requirements (you know…a few years ago),  the top requirements for our enterprise portal were as follows:

1. Enterprise scalability, with current requirements at 25,000 end-users, but scaling to 100,000 with additional hardware and licenses.
2. Easy to use, graphical user interface that allows end users to view targeted content and easily navigate to pages within the portal using  either an organizational or functional page taxonomy.
3. Provide portal administrators with the ability to secure content to groups, organizations, and individuals.
4. Provide a WYSIWYG rich text editing interface that allows users to create and edit content, based on their permissions and group membership.
5. Provide a single search interface that allows users to search for content that is target to their account based on assigned permissions
6. Provide a workflow tool that allows content to be reviewed and approved prior to publication
7. Provide a customizable portlet or widget-based interface that allows end-users to customize their experience.
8. Provide portal administrators with a flexible design and administration interface that allows administrators to create page templates that standardize on some page elements (e.g. header, navigation, mandatory portlets).
9. Provide functionality to interface with an enterprise Identity Management Solution.
10. Provide analytical reporting that details usage activity, content quantity, and hyperlink status (e.g. number and location of broken links)
11. The ability to integrate with existing enterprise applications such as the document management system, time reporting system, and expense management system using a Services Oriented Architecture.

Like I said, these were the high level requirements that we looked at. We actually had more than 300 specific technical and functional requirements, but these hit the major functionality we were looking for.

As you can see, though, these portal requirements are based on an “information-push” concept, where a core group of individuals (maybe 50-75 for the entire corporation) create all of the content and push it out to the masses. While we did have requirements for collaborative items like forums, they were listed as optional and we weren’t quite sure whether we wanted to allow end-users to start creating content on their own in a forum environment. Pretty much typical information control tactics that are present (even today) in many large organizations.

Changes To The Portal Requirements In 2009

While many of these requirements would still hold true, an information portal in today’s culture would definitely focus more on collaboration and content management than the pushing information out to the masses. Based on my experiences with some of the popular social networking platforms, my top requirements for the same sized organization would probably look more like this:

1. Enterprise scalability, with current requirements at 25,000 end-users, but scaling to 100,000 with additional hardware and licenses.
2. Easy to use, graphical user interface that allows end users to view targeted content and easily navigate to pages within the portal using  either an organizational or functional page taxonomy.
3. Provide portal administrators with the ability to secure content to groups, organizations, and individuals.
4. Provide both a rich-text content management system that allows portal administrators to deliver content and a WIKI environment that allows end-user to create their own page content
5. Provide a single search interface that allows users to search for content that is target to their account based on assigned permissions
6. Provide content creators (both in the CMS and WIKI environments) the ability to review content additions and comments if they choose to enable the feature.
7. Provide a customizable portlet or widget-based interface that allows end-users to customize their experience.
8. Provide portal administrators with a flexible design and administration interface that allows administrators to create page templates that standardize on some page elements (e.g. header, navigation, mandatory portlets).
9. Provide functionality to interface with an enterprise Identity Management Solution.
10. Provide analytical reporting that details usage activity, content quantity, and hyperlink status (e.g. number and location of broken links)
11. Provide the ability to integrate with existing enterprise applications such as the document management system, time reporting system, and expense management system using a Services Oriented Architecture.
12. Provide end-users with the ability to create custom application and information widgets that can be shared across the enterprise.
13. Allow users to easily share updates with others on their work through personal status updates
14. Allow users to create and manage groups/networks that can collaborate through a WIKI interface or a discussion forum interface. Users should be able to store and review documents as attachments within these groups. Users should be able to collaborate and version these documents and the applications should maintain an audit trail.
15. Allow users to create custom events and invite users and groups to those events. Individual and group events should roll up to a common corporate calendar that displays events to users based on their permissions and group memberships.
16. Allow users to share digital media including photos, audio files, and video files. Users should be able to collaborate and version these files and the application should maintain an audit trail.

So What Just Happened? Those Don’t Sound Like Portal Requirements!

Basically, in the process of writing those new requirements, I changed my RFP from being one focused on a portal, to one focused on an Enterprise Content Management system. Not an ECM as we know it today (which are primarily focused on Web/Intranet content management, document management, and digital asset management), but to an ECM platform that requires the following:

• A customizable presentation layer (the portal)
• A flexible content management system (traditional WYSIWYG content management and collaborative WIKI)
• The ability for end-users to create application mashups
• A lightweight document management system
• Social networking capabilities through collaborative groups/networks
• A lightweight digital asset management system
• Enterprise search functionality

Previously, ECM players such as Stellent, Documentum, and OpenText have not offered a portal interface to their products. Instead, they focused on their ability to interface with portal such as WebCenter Interaction (formerly AquaLogic User Interaction (formerly Plumtree)), IBM WebSphere, Microsoft SharePoint, and Vignette portal.

As a result, some of those solutions are being gobbled up by the portal players in hopes of creating the true Enterprise Content Management System of the future. Some of the portal players, like Vignette and Microsoft have anticipated the merging of portal and CMS, and have opportunities to add social networking to their platforms. In the end, the days of offering a standalone portal are probably long gone and we’ll soon see the horizontal portal players roll into the ECM magic quadrant.

Thoughts or comments? I’m always open to additions and constructive criticism in you comments.