Company Culture at HP creates an Integrated Social Media Program

Part one of an "interview" with HP's Tac Anderson

Tac Anderson is a the Web 2.0 Strategic lead for HP's Imaging and Printing group. HP is one of the brands that I benchmarked for blogging best practices in 2005, so I was curious to find out what they are doing today with social media. Tac has been a student of social media since back in the 90s when we used to call this stuff "Community." He truly loves his work, saying:

If I wasn't getting paid to do this, I'd be getting in trouble for doing it too much at work.
- Tac Anderson

Does HP have the Three "Success Indicators" For Social Media?
As I have previously blogged, there are three factors that are present in Enterprise Companies that are successful in the use of social media:
1. A top-down driven approach
2. A robust internal community
3. A company culture that encourages openness and trust.

At HP the hierarchy is flat, with small, empowered work teams and managers who control their own budget. There are 3 business units, Tac works in Imaging and Printing (IPG). Tac's BU is advanced in their use use of social media, mostly because their executive Vice President was a key driver of Web 2.0 technologies inside HP. So, just like we saw at Cisco, Intel and SAP, there was a top-down driven approach at HP

Tac described a strong internal community at HP, with hundreds of blogs, and an Internal Wiki called "Pligg" (like "Digg.) There are many more social media tools used internally than externally.

The motivated, empowered workforce at HP creates a culture that is conducive to embracing social media. The business units are independent of each other; there is no Corporate Social Media Team. There is a lot of social-media-related activity at HP, but it's more about integrating Social Media into existing Corporate Communications or product launches.

A Comparison to Dell's Unified Corporate Approach
It's critical to understand this company culture if you want to understand HP's approach to Social Media. It's different than -- for example -- Dell, which has a unified approach to marketing and social media. (All the Tweeters use "@Dell" as part of their name.) But let's remember that at Dell, someone wrote a blank check to get the company out of "Dell Hell." And Comcast, now the darling of every Social Media presentation, had to do something to erase the memory of the technician sleeping on the couch, didn't they? Does it really take a major Brand Disaster to get Enterprise companies on the Social Media bandwagon?

How Did Social Media at HP Evolve?
HP's social media program was originally driven out of marketing, and began with a handful of corporate blogs. HP Communities
Seems to be the "official" HP Community, complete with employee-contributed video that you can vote on, podcasts, a link to the idea lab and to the "Wet Paint" wiki, which is a community for members to show off their creativity. And 50 "official" corporate blogs.

Then there are 60 HP "Employee Business Blogs" that are hosted on HP Platform, written by various business groups. A few executives even have their personal blogs. The number of blogs is growing weekly, recently they launched their first foreign language blog.

But the real jaw dropper is that there are links off to the employee's PERSONAL blogs. I love this! My legal team would keel over if we tried to do this. But HP's Legal team was apparently satisfied with the following disclaimer.



How Does HP Mitigate the Risks of Blogging?
1. The HP Blogging Code of Conduct is posted front and center on the Community site.
2. HP has an organization called the "Core Community Council" that reviews blog applications and approves them. But they don't follow up or monitor the bloggers in any way.
3. Legal advises bloggers on how to protect themselves from risk, but unless it's an obvious violation, they don't interfere.

So, in other words, employees are trusted to not act like idiots. As Tac puts it:

"We hire the right people and we let them do their job"
-- Tac Anderson

Nicely done, HP. Your unique company culture seems to work pretty well.

Thou Shalt Blog and Tweet and Google Thyself

And the Lord of Social Media said "Go forth and blog and tweet and link to others, and ye shall rise from certain obscurity." And I did. And it was good.

I've been googling myself for eight years with very little satisfaction. I never ranked above the fourth or fifth page in Google. In fact, if any old friends tried to Google me, they probably thought that I ended up as a motivational speaker.

I don't run marathons or do anything newsworthy. The other Karen Snyders have outshone me in every way: I get their email, I'm given their prescription glasses, my address is never the first one listed at the pharmacy and the local health club.

UNTIL NOW.

"What has changed?" you might ask. Well, I started this blog a couple of months ago. That bumped me up a bit (maybe page three?) But then, my Twitter friend Jeff Moriarty from Intel linked to my blog from his.

And lo, and behold, when you search on "Karen Snyder" it is I who appear on the first page of Google Results. If I wasn't a believer before in the power of social media, I am now.

Cardio or Weight Training? Social Media is a Lot of Hard Work...

After meeting with other Social Media professionals at Cisco, Intel and SAP, I have noticed three distinct characteristics that appear to contribute to the success of Social Media programs:

1. Social Media Initiatives came from "the Top:"
At Cisco, John Chambers' blog post about the iPhone lawsuit set off an avalanche of external blogging. At SAP, the CMO requested a social media strategy.

2. Internal Community Helps: Both Cisco and Intel have a robust internal community that allows potential bloggers to try out the medium and find their voice.

3. Company Culture:
Cisco and Intel (especially Intel) both have an internal environment that is receptive to social media. Here is what I wrote about their cultures: "Social Media at Intel" and "The Evolution of Social Media at Cisco.

I just spent a week at our corporate headquarters where I met with execs who are supportive of social media initiatives for our company. As I think about how we should move forward, I am working with a PR agency that specializes in Social Media. They have lots of good ideas for me. But I still have a lot of work to do on my own...

As I vividly recollect how hard it was to drag my butt in to the gym this morning, this analogy of Social Media to personal training by Jim Durbin reminds me that we still have a lot of "heavy lifting" to do internally -- and the agency can't do these things for us:

Paying Sven to do your workout for you isn't going to help you, it's only going to enrich Sven. And for far too many of us, purchasing a 3 year membership at the 24 Hour Fitness of Social Media hotspot is a subsitute for actually exercising.

So, while our agency (a.k.a "Sven") can help with some efforts (like monitoring the blogosphere), we have to continue to lay the groundwork of a social media program. I still need to persuade legal to open up the blog program, and update our policies so that employees won't feel scared to start a blog. And finally, there are our marketing folks, whose favorite phrase is "viral video." : - )

Social Media at Intel: Humor Included

Thanks to some Gia Lyons matchmaking, I spoke with Jeff Moriarty, Social Media Community Manager at at Intel. We discussed their social media program, along with a variety of other things, including social media job titles and Intel's new Intel Insider Program. Jeff has created some new titles for us (e.g., "Social Media Ninja" and "Social Media Sherpa.") He's posting on that soon.

The culture at Intel is open to social media, and the higher ups have a sense of humor (Jeff's well-received parody "Lord of the Re-Org" featured the CEO and other execs in starring roles.) There is a robust internal community, and internal bloggers who discuss all kinds of topics, not necessarily work related. They even have "internal blog ambassadors" to monitor them and keep an eye out for posts around politics and religion -- flame wars have already been waged over those topics. Jeff teaches his co-workers by helping them start an internal blog so they can play with it first hand. Or he'll brainstorm with a group that might want to experiment with social media, but may be better served by a forum or wiki.

But, similar to Cisco, social media at Intel didn't just blossom overnight. Jeff told me how "Intelpedia" was started on an employee's desktop, and it grew organically until IT had to support it.

And apparently, I am not the only soul to suffer from marketing folks who salivate at the idea of creating viral videos. Jeff keenly observed:

Saying "let's make a viral video" is like saying "Hey guys, let's plan to be spontaneous next Tuesday at 2 pm.

Finally, we decided it would be awesome to have a community of all the Social Media types from Enterprise Companies where they can share best practices. Jeremiah Owyang's List of Social Media folks at Large Corporations is a good place to get started. In the meantime, I'll keep sharing my conversations with the Enterprise Social Media peeps I meet. So far I have also chatted with friends from Cisco and SAP, and I try to organize a little "Social Media Roundtable" with friends from the New York Times, AAA, Logitech and Disney.

Conversations with Steve Mann from SAP (social media strategist extraordinaire) merit their own post. Stay tuned...

"Where the Hell is Matt?"

This is a cute idea. I wonder how long it took him to create this? The dancing is so well choreographed.

"What the F**K is Social Media?"

This slideshow contains the Social Media messages that many of us have heard over and over (and agree with).

If it takes the "F" bomb to get this the attention it deserves, then so be it. 'Cuz I am getting tired of explaining it : - )

So, see it for yourself, first hand.

And btw,I think Marta Kagan really is a genius (and she does too.)

Evolution of Social Media at Cisco (Part 2 of a Series)

I had another fun conversation today with Amy Paquette of Cisco. Our first chat was in June: see my post on "The ROI of Cisco's Social Media Program." Amy and I plan to chat at least once a month "until it doesn't make sense for us to chat anymore" (but that will hopefully never happen because she is so much fun!) Their social media program is so evolved that they already have people who specialize in things like "virtual communications" on Second Life. Something to aspire to : - )

It is interesting how the Social Media Program at Cisco evolved -- it certainly did not happen overnight. One thing that fueled the fire: as the external communications team was putting together their social media program, the internal comms team was simultaneously building a robust internal community. They had several hundred internal blogs before the external program took off. Amy said:

Having internal blogs is a great way for [potential external bloggers] to find their voice, and learn how to communicate with their blog. People feel more free to ask questions.

Probably the biggest differentiator at Cisco is the culture. Social media has support at the highest level of the company -- John Chambers regularly reads the external blog posts: Cisco has 12 Corporate Blogs with more than 80 bloggers. And let's face it, even the staunchest "blog haters" might waiver when the boss reads 'em.