www.storify.com

“Turn what people post on social media into compelling stories.
You collect the best photos, video, tweets and more to publish them as simple, beautiful stories that can be embedded anywhere.”

To me and my understanding of this social tool its like a twitter, facebook & blog put into one application. As you can see on the home page there is a demo video explaining what it does, its main purpose is to put up stories it collaborates with twitter, youtube, google etc so it isnt a social tool made from scratch its using the adoption of the other tools. I find it very interesting and think it would be a great tool to use within organisations in the enterprise 2.0 world. The benefits and pitfalls come under the same areas of wiki’s, blog’s, other social tools discussed in previous workshops I just thought I would elaborate on this tool, when it comes to making stories on this tool it could be fictional or non-fictional depending on  the situation (business purposes or leisure) and you could always provide a reputable source to make your story authentic similar to a wiki. So Basically this tool can be targeted towards people who use blogging, wiki’s, social media tools on a everyday use and can be used within an enterprise.  So that’s just a brief explanation on Storify, a new and interesting social media tool i found interesting and think would be useful to use as an enterprise 2.0 tool.

Two companies that use social networking as corporate use are Ernst & Young and Starbucks

Facebook links http://www.facebook.com/ernstandyoungcareers & http://www.facebook.com/Starbucks

Twitter links http://twitter.com/ernst_and_young & http://twitter.com/starbucks

“Ernst & Young is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. Worldwide, our 144,000 people are united by our shared values and an unwavering commitment to quality. We make a difference by helping our people, our clients and our wider communities achieve their potential”

Firstly to discuss about Ernst & Young they are using their facebook as a recruiting service as well updating important information, photos of the organisation also people get to ask the company questions pretty much anyone can write on the facebook wall as you can see. As for their twitter its just full of updates telling you to check out new things new job offers similar to their facebook, as you can see they don’t use these social networking tools like we do personally in terms of content and language, photos etc. The facebook isn’t a ‘people’ account its a fan page used a lot for branding.

“Starbucks has an unusually human approach to business. We always figured that putting people before products just made good common sense. Our relationships with farmers yield the highest quality coffees. The connections we make in communities create a loyal following. Our ability to accomplish what we set out to do is based primarily on the people we hire – we call each other “partners.” We are always focused on our people.”

Starbucks uses their facebook for personal branding  & productivity to target the online community they have other sites linked on their facebook like twitter, but this facebook is different to ernst & young  style where as people on there would ask about job applications related to work etc Starbucks is just fan based where people just like to leave their comments so basically it’s starbucks feedback page and could get positive as well as constructive to improve on something, they have a link “Have an idea? http://mystarbucksidea.com/” which is probably where it leads them to. They have an events section which is really useful increasing their advertisement therefore productivity which is personal branding. As for their twitter similar to their facebook, just a page full of updates asking questions or feed back as well as upcoming events are tweeted.

Benefits

• Increased Productivity
• Advertising increased
• Online engagement with customers
• Public Feedback – Positive/Negative/Constructive , all can help the business improve
• Increase Sales

Pitalls

• Spammers
• Hijacking the twitter/facebook
• Inappropriate content posted by the community – including pictures or verbally
• Inappropriate content posted by the company – have to be careful what is said and posted, that’s why social media guidelines are in place

My experience with social networking tools is quite experienced, I’ve always had a facebook for a while now and had a Myspace previously so I understood the concepts of facebook, as for twitter I’ve had one for a while as well but I just never used it up until this subject. I’m quite comfortable with using Facebook only for personal use nothing else, i just have to be careful on what I do on it.

Benefits

• Communicating with friends
• Communicating with family
• Socialising
• Sharing Videos / Photos
• Adjust Privacy settings

Pitfalls

• Getting Hacked
• Spammers
• Inappropriate Content
• Be careful what photos/videos are posted – family are watching or friends
• Be careful about adding employees
• Employees can monitor facebook
• Identity Theft

Basically the use of wikis used within these organisations are using the same concepts as using corporate blogging, i.e. increasing productivity & obtaining a wider online community. Something new about wiki corporate blogging is that you get input from not just employees & customers of the enterprise but other professionals from maybe other enterprise’s.

In a more specific detail Adobes Wikis are made for Software contribution and for Intel Wikis are made for Software & Hardware contribution.

Benefits for using Wikis within Organisations;

• Increasing productivity
• Engaging with the online community
• Gaining more customers/
• Information can be up-to-date
• User-friendly interface – most wikis have a basic interface to use similar to a word application
• Other people can contribute into an existing article

Pitfalls

• False Information Posted – Not verified
• Excessive Articles Posted – Spamming
• Tampering with Posts written by Other people
• Inappropriate Content

My Wiki Experience..

I’ve used Wiki’s before and they are quite useful I’ve always found them useful to use & user-friendly. I’ve noticed when editing or posting something new that it is verified or checked by Wikipedia immediately in case of any of the Pitfalls mentioned before.

Intel & Dell are similar in their blogging ways but to start off with Dell they have sections in their blog site such as dell tech centre,  the official dell corporate blog, dell shares and the list goes on. Dell use their blogging in a creative way and has become a benefit for them, like when there is a problem you can contact staff from Dell and seek help. Overall their blog posts from any section are helping boost their enterprise in an advertisement perspective. Another benefit is that it gets a wider audience through the online community which can lead to a lot of feedback via online for improvements for the enterprise.  A pitfall for this can be negative comments which is related in a way to week 5 activity legal issues including reputation & cyberbullying.

Dell Blog Site

As for Intel they follow the same concept and they even show who you will be talking to which is quite significant because it includes Intel’s Top leaders and Researchers.

“Welcome to Blogs@Intel. This network of Intel technology blogs feature several of Intel’s top leaders, researchers and technologists who share their perspectives and invite discussion on the issues they and our customers are facing today. Blogs@intel offer an “inside look” at Intel’s operations and provides opportunities for you to exchange ideas directly with our employees.

To foster a meaningful and constructive discussion, we follow these guiding principles:

• We will provide unique, individual perspectives on what’s going on at Intel and in the world;
• We will post comments, except for spam and remarks that are off-topic, denigrating or offensive;
• We will reply to comments promptly, when appropriate;
• We will respect proprietary information and confidentiality; and
• We will be respectful when disagreeing with others’ opinions.”

Intel uses blogging and micro blogging but using the same methods as Dell when it comes to blogging seeing they are both IT companies, Intel seem to use twitter for updates on upcoming innovations, useful & helpful things about the company , etc. Benefits for Intel Blogs is that some of them are like online tutorial posts to help out for an issue generally for developer/programmers, they have a vast range of blog sections much bigger than dells so for e.g. net books, processors, online-gaming issues and way more.

These blog posts can have a major benefit towards the company it connects employees as well as customers, this will make Intel’s engagement with the community a major factor for the enterprise. Once again a pitfall could be negative comments, but another one could be confidential information posted by an employee for any reason.

Intel Blog Site

Intel Twitter

IBM’s social media guidelines

IBM is one of the biggest international computer technology & IT consulting organisations in the world. They sell hardware, software as well as implement IT solutions such as hosting, infrastructure, consulting etc.

“IBMers are personally responsible for the content they publish on blogs, wikis or any other form of user-generated media. Be mindful that what you publish will be public for a long time—protect your privacy”

“If you publish content to any website outside of IBM and it has something to do with work you do or subjects associated with IBM, use a disclaimer such as this: The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions. “

Above is two of their social computing guidelines this could be met under a legal risk of Confidential information – loss of and disclosure & Privacy.

So if an employee from IBM were to post information on some sort of social media which was not meant to be public yet this would be a potential risk and that is why a guideline like this would be met to mitigate this, be careful what you post and if you do you are 100% responsible and could get in trouble. A lot of common mistakes organisations do are posting material on social networking sites i.e. twitter, facebook etc when they shouldn’t be that’s why they make up these guidelines to stop behaviour like this.

“Respect your audience. Don’t use ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, or engage in any conduct that would not be acceptable in IBM’s workplace. You should also show proper consideration for others’ privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory—such as politics and religion.”

This rule would come under Reputation & Discrimination a situation where an employee could be provoked by an audience/customer which could lead to discrimination towards the staff member or the audience it could work both ways, also it holds the reputation for IBM as the organisation. This is a relevant guideline because now in social media reputation & discrimination have become a great importance and is dealt seriously in this modern cyber society. Without these guidelines for IBM it could wreck the reputation and decrease productivity for the company and loss of customers etc.

“Don’t pick fights, be the first to correct your own mistakes, and don’t alter previous posts without indicating that you have done so.”

The above guideline comes under the cyberbullying theme , these can work within the company or towards customers, so a situation could be a staff provokes the staff member and IBM employee is the first one to correct his mistakes and does not continue on with the fight therefore a mitigation for the risk. Basically telling IBM to be the firsts one to back away from a fight.

IBM have still basically managed to stay away from any social media risk to occur because they are following their social media guideline to mitigate them like any other company who maintain the same ideal.

I’d like to discuss my thoughts on the benefits & risks on implementation of enterprise 2.0 in-the-flow collaboration tool with a case study as my justification.

Case Study : Acumen Fund

Benefits

Productivity and efficiency

At Acumen instead of emailing and piling up which led to spam and people slowly drifting away from the emails, they created a “Instead of Email” button. They also approached the top emailers of the company to post their messages to a shared public site. This “Instead of Email” button is a implementation of a new enterprise 2.0 tool for an organisation.

Staff engagement

As for staff engagement Acumen originally used detailed meeting notes in a physical form. Implementation of Enterprise 2.0 had led them to use online notes automatically tagged as ‘meetings’  with the standard naming convention & date/time so it is easy to read, find and accessible.

Risks

Security

In terms of security it can be an issue, by posting inappropriate information on the shared workplace such as a wiki, this can be personal employee details or the workplace details that should confidential. In every enterprise there is a guideline/protocol to be met and followed.

Loss of control

This could mean getting hacked and losing control of your account which could lead to more risks such as reputation, security, resources etc. Another problem is getting carried away and as said before there are guidelines to be followed for an enterprise.

Reliability

Sometimes wiki’s for the business can’t be 100% relied on where as some people aren’t computer literate or just technologically savvy  and sometimes it’s just good to have a backup plan not just rely on one thing e.g Acumen used to use notes for there meetings until they used wiki’s but they can always go back to it when something goes wrong for a backup

I tested out some tools but my most favourite was Twitter, being unfamiliar with Twitter i still think I will decide to use it a lot more as it being quite beneficial for this course and to learn more about web 2.0/enterprise 2.0 . My evaluation on twitter is that it was confusing at the start but became to be so simple and slightly addicting, the most interesting part i found was the class tag is that we can keep in touch just as a class and it is pretty much a way to promote our Blogs. Being a common facebook user twitter reminds me much like it but with farless tools in a good way keeping things simple and concise but in the end they are both social networking tools and twitter being a micro blogging tool so i will use that to help me throughout the course and broaden my understanding of enterprise 2.0.

My concept on blogging is that its used for networking, share ideas/opinions, viewing peoples work e.g. this activity, interacting with online communities. Blogging hasn’t really be useful for me until now, i never found it practical.

They seem like a more business based concept just sharing ideas and opinions to a targeted audience amongst another basically an online journal. Blogs or Wiki’s are greatly different to an oridinary website full of information, they are full of opinionated topics which shows a perspective on both sides. So up until now blogging has become quite useful to me because the distinction it has to ordinary website, making it interactive with other people which can be local to across the world, creating an online presence and participating in an actual role for this class.

Looking at Sacha Chuas Blog it has shown me her her progession from the very beginning and how and what she has done. Her approach is to just build her online presence. Her blogs are not just work related but also her social & personal she likes to share some of her drawings, showing other people’s work so she is a very open in her blogs. By reading this it seems like a very motivational blog and a great influence for the future in my own blogs.