Andrea Baker – Enterprise 2.0 Evangelist » Communicating through Social Media

Communicating Through Social Media

Occasionally, I will speak in public, in groups at happy hours, or with customers in the office about Social Media and how to effectively use social software, specifically free and open sourced software when applicable. At the Potomac Forum Government Leadership event at the Reagan Building, I will be semi-formalizing this talk to suggest “Hints for Communicating through Social Media”

During my talk, I will be asking the following questions to those in the audience to think about:

What is your mission?
Who is your target audience?
How do you communicate now?
What social media tools are right for you?

What is the Difference in all this 2.0 Stuff?

Internal vs. External Communication

Excusing my crappy excuse for drawing on a flipchart, you can see from my “illustration” above what the difference with all the buzzwords that are floating around. This is the main focus of my talk that I give when talking to people who are interested in knowing more, have heard the buzz and think they need “Facebook” or “Twitter” as their answer. But it may not be that simple. I previously discussed this back in April on a guest post on ZDNet, “You Were Never 1.0, but Get Ready for Enterprise 2.0“. Fortunately what I wrote then still holds true months later.

My aim is to prepare organizations, be it business or Government to make a knowledgeable transition into effective communication and workflow using Software as a Service or other Web 2.0 applications in an Enterprise manner. While there is much good being done by Social Media/Web evangelists — myself included, those intrigued should not get caught in the glamour and glitz of something new for new sake, but strategically plan around what the problem is that an organization is trying to solve. The “Jeopardy Method”, of giving the answer then ask the question/dilemma seems to be how things are getting done now. When the case should be — the question/dilemma is “Our Organization is Having a Problem Communicating externally, internally, capturing workflow, answering requests for information, etc… and we need to fix that by?” Identifying the problems, in detail before you have a solution in mind will help you choose the right tool for the job.

Sounds a little old school right? It should — using social media is just a new way of doing old business. Now project costs are lower because the software is not dependent of End User Licenses and pricey volume purchases. Now, you can find the best fit to solve the problem and then customize it yourself, or with a company that specializes in customization of known solution like Mantech and Jive’s software. For example, Jive Software develops and provides the software platform that Mantech customizes and supports onsite for their customers. The result, “A-Space”, a social networking and productivity site for the US Intelligence Community.

So I am sorry for the late night post, but I was just told tonight that C-Span will be recording and covering live the conference at the Reagan Building, I am a little nervous and definitely will be coloring my hair tonight. After my presentation, I will publish my slides (which I normally don’t do slides), for review. Addtionally, I will add, I do have a finished White Paper on “Enterprise 2.0 for Government” available by request.

Sphere: Related Content

Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Reddit

Tags: business, Business 2.0, communication, Enterprise 2.0, government, government 2.0, networking, social, social media, tech, twitter, us intelligence community, web 2.0

Enterprise 2.0, business, government 2.0, social software, technology, web2.0 | Andrea Baker | August 25, 2009 7:06 pm

12 Comments

By William Theuer, August 25, 2009 @ 8:54 pm

Dear Andrea,

What is your schedule for appearing in Alaska?

cheers,
William
By Andrea Baker, August 25, 2009 @ 9:02 pm

I will be in Alaska in Dec 9-11, 2009 starting in Juneau and then to Anchorage. I am looking forward to this Northern adventure.
By Craig, September 1, 2009 @ 2:29 pm

You will do fine. I would love to get a copy of the white paper, I don’t think I will be able to catch it on TV. Either way, business for the most part hasn’t changed. It’s all about communication, just technology is expanding how communication can be handled.
By Andrea Baker, September 1, 2009 @ 2:33 pm

Craig, this post was actually last week and I did present as planned on Wednesday and the presentation aired the next day on CSPAN2. If you let me know what Government organization you are associated with, if you are… I can provide you with the white paper. Its in limited distribution right now.
By Jenn M, September 8, 2009 @ 12:06 pm

Hi Andrea!
I was at the Gov 2.0 Symposium at the end of August and greatly enjoyed your presentation. I’m working at the Business Transformation Agency within DoD, and we are in the beginnings of putting together an internal blog. So, your presentation was extremely helpful!I haven’t yet received any information for getting the presentations from the symposium, so I was wondering if you were going to post your slides soon. Also, I would love a copy of your white paper if you feel comfortable sending it to me. I’m just trying to do all the research I can so we are as successful as possible over here.

Many thanks in advance!
Jenn
By Andrea Baker, September 8, 2009 @ 9:14 pm

Jenn,

I would be more than happy to follow up with you and give you my white paper. I will didn’t post my slides because I believed all materials were supposed to be posted to GovLoop as mentioned by Dan Munz who spoke before me.

Upon quickly looking at the wiki on GovLoop, I have not seen it. I will try to confirm where it is tomorrow so I can link to it on my publication page.
By Lance Strzok, September 22, 2009 @ 11:07 am

Andrea,

I’ll take a look at the paper you mentioned. I would be glad to share any insights.
By alicia, December 21, 2009 @ 12:38 am

hi big sister.
’tis I.
Wondering if I can make some of your graphics for you.
love
Alicia