Social Media in the Workplace

Melanie MoranVanderbilt Webspiders

May 23, 2008

What is social media / Web 2.0?• Digital tools and services that

allow content creation with little to no technical knowledge

• Consumer-created content

• Personal profiles

• Shared interests / online communities

• Mashing together peoples’ work

• Driven by RSS

Social networks

• Facebook

• MySpace

• YouTube

• Flickr

• Blogs

• LinkedIn

• Del.icio.us

• Twitter

• Friendster

• Wikis

• Second Life

• And on and on…

“Join the conversation”

• Dozens / hundreds / thousands of conversations taking place every day online about your organization

• Who is talking? Who is listening?

• What are they saying?

• What are you saying in response?

• Examples: Dell, Comcast, American Red Cross

Twitter• Immediate, brief, global

• Social messaging

• Mobile

• Mini, constant blog

• Increasing news use

• Learn more from Common Craft

• Let’s look...

How is social media being used at Vanderbilt?

• Facebook

• Flickr

• RSS feeds

• Blogs

• YouTube

• What are you doing?

Group Discussion

• We need:

• Secure online collaboration options and infrastructure

• Protect proprietary info.

• Comply with HIPPA

• Easily offer version control

• Reduce e-mail attachments

• Possibilities: SharePoint (ITS offers, Microsoft only), Subversion, BaseCamp, Groove

Group Discussion (cont’d)

• Success with blogs on campus - students telling their stories: credible and authentic

• http://peabloggy.wordpress.com

• http://www.owenbloggers.com

• Don’t be afraid of negative comments - use these to improve

• Explore analytics to justify use of these tools

Group Discussion (cont’d)

• Changing public relations / communications paradigm: many-to-many rather than one-to-many

• Third party apps okay? Some using tools such as Feedburner with success; satisfied privacy issues are covered (for now!).

• Need for university privacy policy?