Business Unit or Product Name

© 2010 IBM Corporation

IBM Research

MicrobloggingInsideandOutsidetheWorkplace

KateEhrlich,NSadatShami

IBMResearchandCenterforSocialSo:ware

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace2 © 2010 IBM Corporation

“11%ofAmericanadultsuseTwi6erorupdatetheirstatusonline.”

‐December2008

“Twi6ersees50milliontweetsperday.That’s600tweetspersecond.”

‐February2010

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace3 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Outline

ResearchQuesGons

RelatedWork

Method

Results

Discussion

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace4 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Microblogginginsideandoutsidetheworkplace

Howismicrobloggingusefulinaworkcontext?

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace5 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Microblogginginsideandoutsidetheworkplace

Whatdiffersbetweenmicroblogsdirectedataninternal,privateaudienceandatanexternalpublicaudience?

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace6 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Microblogginginsideandoutsidetheworkplace

Whyarepeopleconsumingmicroblogs?

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace7 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Outline

ResearchQuesGons

RelatedWork

Method

Results

Discussion

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace8 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Researchonmicrobloggingtopics

OutsidetheworkplaceKeepinguptodatewithfriends

SharinginformaGon

DirectedcommunicaGon

(Javaetal.2007;HoneycuWandHerring2009;Huberman,RomeroandWu2009;Naaman,BoaseandLai2010;boydetal2010)

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace9 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Researchonmicrobloggingtopics

WithintheworkplaceExternaluse(Zhaoand

Rosson2009)

• Buildawareness

• Establishcommonground

Internaluse(Zhangetal.2010)

• ImpedimentstoadopGon

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace10 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Boundariesbetweenpublicandprivateuse

Mixingpersonalandprofessionalfriendshipscanbeawkwardandcomplicated(SkeelsandGrudin2009)

Needtoensurebalancebetweenpublicandprivateuse(EfimovaandGrudin2007)

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace11 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Outline

ResearchQuesGons

RelatedWork

Method

Results

Discussion

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace12 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Method

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace13 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Method

ParGcipants34usersfrom15countriesand8businessunits

Usedinternaltool(BlueTwit)andexternal(TwiWer)oversameGmeperiod

Frequentusers(>20postsovera4monthperiod)

339282468Twi=er

3439188BlueTwit

FollowersFollowingAverageuse(days)

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace14 © 2010 IBM Corporation

DataCollecEon

DatasetDatacollectedforBlueTwitandTwiWerover4monthperiod

• 19,067postsinthetwotools

Extracted4weeks(1wk/month)toanalyze• Corpusof5,387posts

• 3,152(58.5%)fromTwiWerand2,235(41.5%)fromBlueTwit

InterviewsPhoneinterviewswith25ofthe34people

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace15 © 2010 IBM Corporation

CodingScheme

“RT @HIURJK - Anyone (that means you Bill) have any suggestions onhow to increase the value of a Website using Social Media?”“RT @TDGE Anyone up for dinner ? << Do you have a restaurant in mind@TDGE?”

Directed+quesGon

“@POIUY Top 10 Programming Fonts: http://bit.ly/14fb2F”Directed

“Anyone know if there's an easy way to view just unread mails in Notes?”AskQuesGon

“RT @QWDF: Stumbled across a brilliantly bad album of TV theme coverson #spotify. http://bit.ly/rATQR”

Retweet

“Chart API in JavaFX http://tinyurl.com/pe8qbo #JAVAFX”“I love it when other people waste my time. I really do.”

ProvideInformaGon

“Good Morning World. It’s going to be even better after a cup of coffee :-”Status

ExampleCategory

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace16 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Outline

ResearchQuesGons

RelatedWork

Method

Results

Discussion

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace17 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Categoriesofposts

Mostfrequentuse• ProvideinformaGon• Directedposts

Internaluse• AskquesGons• Directedposts• Styleiswork‐oriented

Externaluse• ProvideinformaGon• Styleismore“social”

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace18 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Clearsenseofwhatisappropriateforaninternal‐onlyaudience

“if all that <the tweets that are posted internally> went outside Iwould feel that you would be somewhat exposed because insidepeople are more willing to share more readily their directexperience whereas outside they are probably not likely to sayhere’s something that went really wrong... although would not beseen as a bad thing...”

“I’ll refer to technologies that no-one outside may even knowabout or normal processes that aren’t even relevant to otherpeople.”

Publicvsprivate

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace19 © 2010 IBM Corporation

ReputaEonManagement

Internal:Importanceofgivingback“Value as an employee is to be visible inside the

company. You have to be visible to show people. Ihelp my community with new solutions. To give andget.”

External:PublicityandpromoGon“I’m getting a degree of advertising out there in

terms of the external evangelizing I’m doing so that'sbroadening my audience and is generating otherfollowers and generating requests for doingpresentations to conferences.”

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace20 © 2010 IBM Corporation

FosteringconnecEons

DevelopingbeWerawarenessofprofessionalconnecGonsinadvanceofafutureplannedorunplannedmeeGng

“I feel like I know these people. When it does come atime when I meet them or I might need to engage withthem on something there has been an element ofrapport established… we don't actually know eachother but we do, from the interactions we’ve had inthat space.”

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace21 © 2010 IBM Corporation

MicroblogsprovideearlyaccesstohumanselectedinformaGon“Twitter is for early breaking news. I get to know

what's happening. When there is something new fromGoogle, I get to know quickly.”

“With Twitter I know it’s a human that has selectedthe information that is saying that you should readthis article. RSS feed is robotic selection for topicswhile twitter is human selection of what I should see.And it’s the quality of my network”

ConsumpEonofmicroblogs

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace22 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Outline

ResearchQuesGons

RelatedWork

Method

Results

Discussion

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace23 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Discussion

Howismicrobloggingusefulinaworkcontext? Formofcrowd‐sourcing–askingquesGonsandprovidinganswersAnGcipatoryconnecGons

Whatdiffersbetweenpublicandprivate?ConfidenGality StyleofwriGngAwarenessofaudienceknowledgeandinterests Someerosionofboundaries–despitedifferenceslotsoverlap

Whyarepeopleconsumingmicroblogs?MoGvaGonforposGng‐BuildingreputaGon,awarenessMoGvaGonforreading‐Early,qualitynews

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace24 © 2010 IBM Corporation

PictureCredits Slide3:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/ladymixy‐uk/3649349353/ Slide4:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/respres/3231178720/ Slide5:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsphotos/117928868/ Slide5:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/anirudhkoul/2632880868/ Slide6:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/ericskiff/416600882/ Slide6:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/ydhsu/3183824689/ Slide7:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/maWhamm/3383916444/ Slide8:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/tsevis/3486977626/ Slide9:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/23065375@N05/2247354856/ Slide10:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/suzieq/211825522/ Slide11:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/tveskov/3387394098/ Slide16:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/brood_wich/3284782691/ Slide18:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/ethnocentrics/213326146/ Slide19:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_speedracer/4090315860/ Slide20:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/dlnwelch/3828994546/ Slide21:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/30389326@N05/3325003787/ Slide22:hWp://www.flickr.com/photos/25036088@N06/3198496131/

Microblogging inside and outside the workplace25 © 2010 IBM Corporation

ThankYou!

KateEhrlich(katee@us.ibm.com),NSadatShami(sadat@us.ibm.com)

IBMResearchandCenterforSocialSo:ware