Double the Value of Your Social Software

November 20, 2008

Connectbeam’s Social Profile for Microsoft Outlook

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Here’s what we’ll cover
hc What’s happening in the enterprise right now?
less than 5 seconds ago

hc Three ways to double the value of social software

less than 5 seconds ago

hc A bit about Connectbeam

less than 5 seconds ago

hc Let’s see how this works

less than 5 seconds ago

hc @you Q&A
less than 5 seconds ago

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 Enterprise social software is growing…

blogs forums microblogging

video wikis

social bookmarking podcasts photos

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 …but we’re creating a new set of silos.

Book- Micro
Blogs Photos
marks blogs

Pod
Wikis Forums Video
casts

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What happens when we integrate these tools?

Each social 1. Expand information’s reach

software application
provides value by 2. Create a dynamic skills
itself. database

Tie them together, 3. Diversify and strengthen

and a new layer of workers’ information sources
value takes hold.
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Expand Information’s Reach

photo: flickr.com/photos/melodycampbell/2656648032/

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Why expanded information reach matters

Today, more than 85% of a typical S&P 500

company's market value is the result of
intangible assets.

For many companies, the bulk of these

intangible assets is its people, its human
capital. It is no longer what you own that
counts but what you know. . .

Craig Symons,
Forrester Research
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 To improve reach, put information in the flow
A large online publisher was experiencing a low rate of online
subscription. Out of 10,245 visitors they got 27 subscribers…

Then they reduced the number of pages in their online subscription

process — a long sequence of 9 pages — down to just 3 pages.

After the change — another 10,314 visitors passed through the site,
resulting in 107 subscriptions… a 300% improvement.

Lesson: Remove extra steps to get

Ed Rivis, information, and improve reach
Web Marketing with Ed Rivis

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Three types of information reach

Search
you seek information

Serendipity
you happen upon information

photo: flickr.com/photos/craigmdennis/3027968531/

Notifications
information finds you

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 Where are employees most likely to run
searches?

“Only 44% of business “Yet, 87% of people

users can find what say they can find
they want on their what they are looking
corporate Intranet.” for on the Internet
most of the time.”
- Forrester Research - Pew Internet &
American Life Project

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Then make sure your employee generated
content shows up there!

Connectbeam’s integration with Google search

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How Connectbeam search integration
saved $50,000

Departmental Other departments

employee writes interested in same
about software software, but
contract discount unaware of existing
on wiki discounted contract

Result? Other
So other
departments
departments ran
participate in
web searches, saw
existing dept
the wiki entry,
contract, save
inquired internally
$50,000

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Serendipity is useful information when you
aren’t seeking it

Pixar's campus was

designed to maximise
serendipity - lots of places
you bump into people

Kevin Marks,
Google Engineer & Twitterer

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 Consider serendipity in a portfolio context

The odds are low that any

productivity resp specific item of content
at ion ons
v
inno iven
es
created in social software
s will be useful to you.

But multiply information

exposure over thousands
of interactions, and
strategic advantages
emerge.

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 But serendipity better not require a lot of time!

Connectbeam’s real-time enterprise tag cloud

Connectbeam’s real-time activity stream

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How do you foster awareness of new, relevant
information? Notifications.
Search is only done when you
have a specific need.

Serendipity does not provide

systematic coverage of areas
you care about.

Notifications are the third

component of information
reach.

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Notifications help you find relevant content in
a sea of information

It’s not information

overload.

It’s filter failure.

Clay Shirky,
Web 2.0 Expo

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 Enterprises provide a natural filtering basis

Hiring process results in colleagues

with judgment you can trust

Colleagues’ daily work provides

relevant context

photo 1: flickr.com/photos/dedrawolff/2361072444/
photo 2: flickr.com/photos/timpatterson/476108035/

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Let workers personalize their filters

People are not

Groups monolithic information
consumers – give them
control and options to
personalize their
content filtering.
Individuals

Keywords

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 So let’s recap this…
hc It is no longer what you own that counts but what you know
less than 5 seconds ago

hc Establish an information reach program built on 3 components

less than 5 seconds ago

hc (1) Put employee-generated content right where people search

less than 5 seconds ago

hc (2) Increase chances of serendipity with a minimum attention

commitment less than 5 seconds ago

hc (3) Give employees personalized filters to track information

relevant to them less than 5 seconds ago

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Create a Dynamic Skills Database

photo: flickr.com/photos/27620885@N02/2655218248/

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It’s not about your resume, it’s about your
contributions…
If you don't have a resume, what do you have?
• How about three extraordinary letters of
recommendation from people the employer knows
or respects?
• Or a sophisticated project they can see or touch?
• Or a reputation that precedes you?
• Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that
they have no choice but to follow up?

Seth Godin,
Why bother having a resume?
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…But this philosophy is still not implemented
in most organizations.
“67% of employees
believe that colleagues
Hutch Carpenter
can help them do their
Dept 4592 - Product Group job better.
605 Ellis St, Suite 100
Mountain View, CA 94043
650-980-5080 x124
39% say they have
hcarpenter@connectbeam.com difficulty locating the
right people.”
typical corporate directory

- Harris Interactive &

Tacit Knowledge Systems
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Isn’t this a lot better?

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Social software is more than an execution tool

With Connectbeam, I was

looking for a social
bookmarking application.

I ended up with a skills

database.

Rich Hoeg @Defrag08

Honeywell & All-Around Smart Guy

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 Key is to surface those who can help

Connectbeam’s list of users related

Connectbeam’s people recommendations to a content search
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 Diversify and Strengthen
Employees’ Social Networks

photo: flickr.com/photos/walkering/973836763/

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 Employees have varying internal connections

Strong
close collaborators

Weak
infrequent interactions

Potential
unknown, but would be good to know

None
wouldn’t make sense as connection

Andrew McAfee,
How to Hit the Enterprise 2.0 Bullseye
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 Company performance is determined by
working the Weak and Potential ties

John, Director
of Operations

Employees already
Cheryl, Director
leverage their Strong
of Marketing
ties.

Moving outside that

Nora, Director
Field Services band is where the
differentiation occurs.
Irene, Product
Manager

Victor, IT Manager

Workers tend to rely on close contacts

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 Let the statistical analysis do the talking
“A one standard deviation
“Betweenness centrality”
increase in employees’…
measures the breadth
and depth of one’s social
Betweenness centrality results
connections.
in $76,000 greater revenue per
year. “Network diversity”
measures the degree to
Network diversity results in your contacts are
$83,000 greater revenue per connected.
year.”
NYU, MIT, BU researchers
Study of the email-based social network for
an exec recruiting firm
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Leaders will increase the overall average of
network strength and diversity

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How to move the Weak and Potential ties
closer to Strong ties?
hc Make employee contributions as findable as possible
less than 5 seconds ago

hc Associate activity and tags to individuals

less than 5 seconds ago

hc Enable easy following of the activities of others

less than 5 seconds ago

hc Fish where the fish are – put employee generated content

where people do their work less than 5 seconds ago

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OK, let’s review…

hc Breaking through “enterprise silos” 2.0 reveals a new

layer of value less than 5 seconds ago

hc Outcome #1: improve information’s reach, increasingly

important for today’s human capital driven organizations
less than 5 seconds ago

hc Outcome #2: enable a dynamic, automatically updated

skills database for employees to find colleagues that can help
less than 5 seconds ago

hc Outcome #3: work the Weak and Potential bands of

employees’ social networks to strengthen and diversify
information sources less than 5 seconds ago
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About Connectbeam

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 Connectbeam is…
Connectbeam, Inc.
The award-winning collaborative
information sharing company

A pioneer in enterprise social

bookmarking and tagging

Focused on making useful information

findable, and meta data actionable

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Social search, activity awareness and
expertise location

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 Tying together enterprise social software

Blogs
Book Forums
marks

Wikis Micro
blogs

Video Pod
casts
Photos

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Contact Information

Hutch Carpenter
hcarpenter@connectbeam.com
415-377-3610 (M)

www.connectbeam.com

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