Growing social media projects from the ground upSome observations for information professionalsLee Bryant & Ruth Ward :: Perfect Information, May 2007

About Headshift

• headshiftis a social software consulting and development group who apply emerging tools and ideas to the real-world needs of organisations:

consulting & engagementprototyping and experimentationdevelopment and integration

About Allen & Overy LLP

About Allen & Overy LLP

The world of social software (aka web 2.0)...

... is entering the enterprise

Sui

Wiki platforms

Sui

Blogging tools

Sui

Combined suites

Sui

Newsfeeds / RSS

Sui

Custom build

• Systems integration• API connectors• Intranet-based• Blended solutions• “Situated” software

Where enterprise social tools are heading

• Lightweight, social interface onto corporate info

• Social newsreading and filtering to create collective intelligence within the firm

• Feeds and flows, not content objects or knowledge stores

• Business social networking

• More intimate, personalised information and analysis to support client relationships

Key characteristics of social software

• “Applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them...”

• Fast, iterative delivery - not mega-IT projects

• Networked individualism - not centralisation;self-interest drives uptake and growth

• Leverage network effects for collective benefit

• Combination of ecosystem of tools, data and services, not ‘one tool to rule them all’

A few existing use cases for social tools

• Information & knowledge sharingAd hoc conversations and Q&AsCompetitive intelligenceEmployee to employee communicationSharing knowledge within groupsStoring and finding informationWorking with contractors or partners

• Team collaborationCreating and editing documentsDocumenting and organising workProject collaboration

• Innovation and R&DInnovation networksPrediction marketsRapid prototypingSocial newsreading and bookmarking

• External communicationIssue managementParticipation via extranet / websiteRecruitmentThought leadership

• Internal communicationsInternal issue managementIntranet development/replacementLeadership communicationTraining and personal development

• Marketing and PRCampaign managementEngaging with customers and mediaMonitoring brands and marketsPromoting a product or serviceSocial networking

Are firms ready for this ?

... and are information professionals needed ?

• Social software promotes a culture of DIY consumer self-service and disintermediation

• We are seeing a desire and ability among younger people to manage their own information flows and publish their own opinions

• Where does this leave information and knowledge professionals as the guardians and gatekeepers of business information?

Yes! But the role gets more interesting...

• Information professionals already understand the key issues and behaviours that will make social tools relevant to the business

• Other key knowledge networking roles (e.g. Library, PSLs in law firms, analysts in financial services) will also be more important in feeding the firm with information

• We are moving from individual request handling to managing feeds and flows within the business

Allen & Overy LLP is aninternational legal practicewith offices in 19 countrieson three continents, 4,800

staff and 450 partners. The firm wasfounded in 1930 and today advisesgovernments, banks, major corporatesand institutions operating around theworld. But notwithstanding itstremendous growth in recent years, Allen& Overy still retains the feel of a smaller,more intimate partnership, with a strongcollegiate culture and reputation forinnovation – as recognised in the FinancialTimes’ ‘Innovative Lawyers’ report.

The allure of social media for Allen& Overy was superficially clear. Butinitially we were not too sure what weneeded or, indeed, whether somethingso cutting edge would really fit-inamong our lawyers. This articletherefore documents the journey wetook from those tentative first stepswhen we first floated the idea, to theglobal roll-out that is going on today.

Social media and professional servicesDavid Jabbari, Allen & Overy’s chiefknowledge officer (CKO), set out thestrategic context for knowledgemanagement (KM) at Allen & Overy inhis recent ‘Know it all’ case study inInside Knowledge in May 2006. Allen &Overy, like other professional-servicefirms, realises that it is a knowledge-centric organisation in which its greatestknowledge assets are its people.However, the traditional legal KM modelhas focused more on documents –acquiring them and storing them – ratherthan on people, putting them togetherand leveraging their know-how. It is thisshortcoming that Allen & Overy’s KMstrategy was devised to address.

However, our lawyers – our primaryknowledge assets – are not necessarilythe people you would naturally choosefor an experiment in informalcollaboration and knowledge sharing.Indeed, lawyers everywhere are oftenregarded as conservative and, sometimes,a little technophobic. We thereforeprepared the ground carefully.

To begin with, we sought outsideexpertise to see how others hadapproached, implemented and benefitedfrom social software technology. Inparticular, we profited greatly from the knowledge of Euan Semple, whohad enjoyed great success at the BBC,establishing informal online groups and networks (see IK, March 2006).

However, we did not want to simplyroll out the same model that Semplehad deployed at the BBC. That wouldhave been counter-productive – lawyers

and programme makers are verydifferent people with very differentattitudes and needs.

We therefore returned to Allen &Overy from our trip to the BBC’sWhite City headquarters not with a blueprint that we could simply re-use but, instead, a clear view ofwhat might work and what would not within our community of relativelyconservative legal experts.

We realised that we needed to focusour initial projects on groups where

Case study: Allen & Overy www.ikmagazine.com26

Wiki’s lawAllen & Overy found implementing so-called ‘social software’ arelatively straightforward process – but one that has proved popularand highly profitable.

By Ruth Ward

Case study –Allen & Overy

ik v9i10.qxp 21/07/2006 18:39 Page 26

Our experience of social tools in a law firm

• Our project began as a 3 month pilot for 3 groups: 20 months later we have approx 30 active groups

• Blended solution using two products + custom code + integration with internal systems (e.g. SSO)

• Seen within the firm as a great success that will inform the next generation of knowledge and information sharing systems

Group blogging as the centre of gravity

The importance of trusted communities

Newsfeed aggregation

Wiki spaces: Library Services

Wiki spaces: Enquiry handling

Social bookmarking & tagging

How we started

• Explore:- group cultures- tasks, goals & needs- information landscapes- interaction styles• Try to build a system around

real concrete needs• Importance of real workflow

examples for new users

Addressing common scenarios

Current success measures

• Increasing number of posts over first year

• High readership on receipt of alerts• Diversity of readers and contributors

• Meeting initially defined business objectives:• Self help and shared ownership – less admin

• More member awareness and action• More pro-active communication

• Success is surprisingly visible: 30% of the organisation are members of one or more groups(Overall we measure value not usage)

Our top 10 tips

1. Start small and work with just a few groups2. Focus on groups who are enthusiastic and committed3. Identify and involve the main site owner and other champions as soon as

possible to develop a sense of shared ownership4. Manage expectations of site owner(s) in terms of initial site support5. Identify the group's business objectives for the site at the outset6. Review with the group how they currently try and meet those objectives

and what software they use to do so7. Ensure the group understands the business and cultural implications8. Select software to meet business needs, not the other way round9. Don’t compromise ease of use - key selling point for users and editors10.Monitor the sites and give ongoing support and feedback

Questions ?

lee@headshift.comruth.ward@allenovery.com

http://www.headshift.com

Photos courtesy of Flickr using Creative Commons license

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dplanet/94442623/http://www.flickr.com/photos/arbron/77094898/http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/105123875/http://www.flickr.com/photos/kacey/252912749/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriapeckham/164175205/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/markrjones/47761183/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgt_spanky/35811144/ + screenshot from http://labs.digg.com/swarm