Social Networking for Virtual Teams

Have you worked as a part of Virtual Team? I was fortunate to work both on professional and academic front. While working with my Virtual team members our communication was limited to Phone calls, Mail, Voice and Video Conference and Company forums.
Looking at the speed with which social networking is gaining popularity and organizations using it to build on there business strengths I was forced to believe that social networking can be a great tool to enhance the dynamics of Virtual team by providing a platform to share ideas, build relationship, cultivate trust and mutual understanding and belief. Social networking can be a great place where team members:
1. Can form similar interest groups
2. Share ideas
3. Indulge in informal conversation and exchange information.
4. Get to know more about each other’s culture and living style.
5. Generate innovative plans to build long lasting team relationships.





Given the benefits can social networking hamper virtual teams? Yes, it is possible that social networking tools can damage more than they can benefit because:
1. People have natural tendency to drift from cause of incorporating social networking as a part of virtual team building activity.
2. Not every one in the team can be welcoming to the idea of social networking tools.
3. Selection of wrong networking site, for instance, in order to know more about professional experience of team members LinkedIn or Ryze is better than face book or MySpace.
4. Lack of team norms and policies for usage of Social networking tools
In order to make sure that social networking is used only as a tool to aid in team building following should be done:
1. Use Social Networking for what they are best doing: Social networking is best for participants to share ideas, connect to people with similar interests and form groups. Virtual Team members can invite other team members to join groups of similar interests and vision enabling them to break the ice and get to build that trusting relationship.
2. Invest time and select best suited networking site: as with every new tool, take some time to experiment with the social networking site you select for your group. Spend time learning about it, its features and how can it be best used. Also while selecting the networking site we should pay close attention to the team demographics for instance older team members may not be open to the idea of introducing the concept of social networking to build team trust and relationship. Hence it is always good to have a team virtual meeting to discuss the benefits and plan to best utilize social networking tool to the teams dynamics.
3. Set clear policies and boundaries: similarly as company has policies and procedures for the usage of internet, email and group forums, even Virtual teams should establish rules about the use of social networking sites especially when they are networking on Public sites. Norms and policies should be set for when and how to use social networking tools.
Hence with little planning and careful structuring social networking sites can be viewed as a great place to build trusting, deep, long lasting and meaningful team relationships.

“Business Networking: method to create business and career opportunities through social networks.”







The first thing I noticed about this video is that the company is using YouTube as one of the medium to spread the news of CE 2.0, a new tool to collaborate social and business networking. A tool that would facilitate and utilize the merits and opportunities of social networking for business need. Given that the question that pops up in my mind is “ what is business networking what has social networking to with it? “ The answer to first part can not be said in better way than this video:





To answer the second part of the question I would like to use the example of LinkedIn and Ryze, online business networking sites. These websites that allows you to connect to:
1. Million of people who share similar professional interests
2. Business professionals for expertise and guidance
3. Share, build and establish long lasting professional relationships with real people.

The advantages of social networking can be extended to business networking as well. Using blogs, networking sites etc for developing and maintaining business relations is not only cheap but fast and easier than traditional method of networking. Online business networking allows you to search for people with similar professional back ground or those who can guide and recommend you in reference to career advice you are looking for. Sites like LinkedIn provide multiple facilities like sharing your resume, look for business and career opportunities depending on your selection criteria and gets you connected to not more than 4 people (Follow 4 degree Rule) to make sure that you network and link with only the most closest connection. Online business networking also enables you to remember contacts and there professional background by providing visual link to it. And one of the biggest advantages of online business networking is that it facilitates to build professional and business relations across geography.

With this comes the question of security of sensitive data protection. User should make sure that the kind of resource (website, blogs, Messenger) that they use for this purpose is trustworthy and dependable. At the same time it’s important that networking sites put in place security measures. For instance, in LinkedIn and Ryze no one can view your contact details until you specifically authorize it, No one can download your resume details, sensitive information on resume and other sections are not displayed to visitors and follow strict privacy standard and rules of EU and US.
Given this we can not undervalue the power of social networking resources (blogs, sites , chat ,messenger) for business networking. They provide great way to stay connected when ever you want, from where ever you want instantaneously.

Welcome to SECOND LIFE

Tired of chatting behind your computer screen, writing blogs, waiting for responses? Welcome to Second life-a 3 D world where you can create an online avatar of yourself and connect, communicate and socialize. The below video gives a great introduction to this online virtual world.





The question that interests me is “can second life be of any advantage to Business? In order to answer this question to the best of ability I tried out Second life. Logged in as “Divine Obolensky”-my virtual avatar. It took me a while to get the hang of it but eventually I was on my way towards “Sneakers Shop”. I browsed through the store, saw couple of shoes and got an offer as well (if I browse for another 20 minutes I get a free black sneaker).great!! It boosted my energy level and I continued my journey. This time I went to Sun Microsystems store where I was able to check in new products, play with them, talk to there employee and as well give feedback. Next was PA consulting and I decided to know more about job opportunities and their business processes. After spending almost 3 hours I logged off.
My experience was more realistic than other online networking sites. I was communicating directly with people and learning and exchanging talks with them. Second life provides a great source for marketing and business advertising. For instance, technology companies like IBM and Sun Microsystems have launched themselves in second life providing information about their products, organizing leadership seminar, inviting participants to take part in virtual question and answer series. Companies, like Starwood hotel, American apparel are letting participants to test their product and provide feedback and market and advertise about their services. Others are using Second life as a means of exchanging ideas, providing information about job opportunities and testing new product ideas.




The question to ask than is how is second life different than other social networking sites? Well Second life can be viewed as an extension to these sites. Second life is bridging the gap that exists between business and user. Nothing can be more rewarding than a real life experience. Most of the real world business is performed by networking and so is what second life providing, real world –like opportunities to grow your network, list of friends and contacts. Almost every business entity is realizing the importance of second life experience and how it can be exploited to gain business advantages.







However issues related to other social networking site , time consuming and honestly , still remains areas of concern. In my opinion intelligent browsing and sharp decision making can help users to limit these two major pit falls and will enable them to efficiently and effectively utilize the benefits of Second (Virtual) Life.

LEVERAGE USER GENERATED WEB CONTENT

“Google uses Crowd sourcing to create maps in India” interesting as it sounds the fact is Google provides local residents with GPS tool kits so that they can draw the map of their area more accurately and transfer data to Google Databases where it is transferred on to a Map. Also before actually putting the map online Google verifies the data against number of other participant’s data before making it part of the map. Moral of the story – To leverage User generated Content you still need to polish it professionally.


Internet has given voice to Users. Consumers can review products, discuss costs benefits, exchange information and publish innovative ideas. This change is influencing their decision making capability i.e. purchasing decisions. In last couple of weeks I have read lot about Users and how there online involvement is benefiting or can benefit organizations. There is an increase prevalence of user created data at places like Blogs, YouTube and Wiki and this data is slowly making its way to corporate world. But the question is, is this raw data-with out professional touch- useful to corporate world? Can this data in its actual format be applied by businesses? The answer is NO.






Nick Haley-freshmen at University of Leeds, England was so impressed by Apple’s iTouch that he created his own ad and published it on YouTube. Apple’s marketing Executives noticed it and Nick was in the official Team of Apple’s Ad agency. YouTube gave Nick the platform to demonstrate his talent by publishing his ad and apple gave Nick the opportunity to fine tune his talent which is turn is benefiting both Nick and Apple.





User created content needs to be refined so that it can be aligned with the desired outputs. Businesses should use user generated web contents to complement their traditional sources of information and hence its important that the information in form of video, blogs, article etc is verified, tuned to needs, dressed professionally.


Equally important is to make sure that information coming from users is trustworthy. How much can corporate trusts on videos, reviews, articles, blogs that exist online? I was looking for reviews for a digital camera I wanted to buy for myself. Though I read many feedbacks online, my final decision was greatly influenced by review done by Professional reviewers. This element of trust and honest should be highly desirable when it comes to unedited sources of information. It becomes morally the duty of company to make sure that data or information they are intending to use is reliable and correct.


The trick lies in how organizations can come up with ways to capture and utilize user generated content in a meaningful manner.


http://www.pluck.com/social-media/why-social-media.html

http://www.eff.org/issues/ip-and-free-speech/fair-use-principles-usergen


http://mashable.com/2007/10/28/the-user-generated-content-reality/

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/08/google_uses_cro.html

“Business by the people, for the people and of the people”

Recently I noticed an interesting ad on one of the Indian news website “if you have a simple green initiative become our green citizen journalist”.Straight, simple, easy and relatively low priced technique to get to the NEWS. Linux an open source operating system has developed through online community. Programmers from all over the world could download the OS and than work on it to enhance it and upload it later for others to work on it. This is how Linux has evolved since its inception. Google uses crowd information to create maps in India.



“Outsourcing” – remember? Sending labor intensive and technical work to low cost Asian countries. Extension to this is “CROWDSOURCING” –age of crowd. It’s a new era of social networking where companies, organizations that use IT for their business are using free, low paid amateurs to code, design, give idea and even come up with solutions to their corporate problems. When I see it I think this is very much related to Conversational Marketing. Getting people involved, getting them to talk and share and put forth their point of view and than making intelligent decisions. Technology is making companies to take advantage of this networked world. A Dutch site RedesignMe is using Crowd sourcing to refine its products. It makes me believe that this phenomenon is breaking the barriers of price and letting every one from amateurs to experts to professional, from every nook and corner of the world to have a market of their own. It’s a great place for beginners. A great way to make billions of mind to work together, crossing the boundaries, towards a single goal. A great innovative idea from a mind to create CREATORS out of CONSUMERS.

This also brings up the question that will ever CROWDSOURCING over shadow Outsourcing? May be- it depends. Every one has millions of innovative ideas that keep boiling up, but soon vanish. Who knows one of these ideas from one of those minds can create billion and billion of bucks for a company who is ready to listen and encourage. What needs attention here is that go and no-go decisions are ultimately made by professionals in the field and not amateurs. Won’t CROWDSOURCING make labor still cheaper and take away jobs and so on…. Well I don’t think so? What about Wikipedia and blogs? Aren’t they also source of information be it technical or non-technical? You can still get information, code, and technical information for free from these sources that are maintained by hobbyist and individuals who do not really care about MONEY factor and most of all. So is it a going to be a next big thing in networked world? I believe it will stay given the fact that it’s a new model of work and is growing and most of all it’s a medium for individuals who need source to explore, experiment, create and innovate new things.

“Socializing Virus”= committed, loyal, powered customers

Warning:An epidemic outbreak of Socializing Virus

Source: Internet, online Communities, Blogs, WWW groups, forums, Chat Rooms

Symptoms: increased information sharing, brand good will, customer knowledge and loyalty.

Outcome: Sustainable Business

The final outcome of this “Socializing Virus” is what every business entity is trying to achieve. Recently my brother purchased a new house in India and got it from his most desired Construction Company. Interesting fact to note here is my brother searched about the housing facilities online, all his research, feedback, background check and other necessary formalities was done online through social communities (Orkut and Yahoo groups) and Blogs. Hasn’t internet changed our lives, the way we think and act? People have started talking and discussing brands, products, services.

Sources (Mentioned Above) have changed us from Passive listeners to Active Participants. Traditionally it was one way information flow. When I got my first cell phone I was confused about which service provider to enroll with. Only source of information I had was television ads which were bombarded without knowing what actually people with my life style were looking for. But today I can go online, get opinion and feedback from active users and than make a decision. Also, when a mobile service provider was introducing a corporate plan for my company we were given chance to put forth our opinion, discuss options, share information, and ask questions and than respond accordingly. This not only got us reasonable, affordable and most featured plan for the given cost. In return, it gave them customers, like me, who were satisfied, happy and loyal to the provider.

A research done by “Accustream imedia research” shows that there were 22 billion views in 2007 for user generated content and is expected to rise to 34 billion in 2008. Companies are using this power to their advantage. Building relationship –that is, great PR for these companies. Companies are creating blogs inviting users to participate and interact. This in turn draws individuals to think, analyze, and put forth their ideas, views and beliefs helping businesses to understand and learn about its potential market. A research done by SNCR indicates that by 2012 spending on Conversational Marketing will outpace traditionally marketing.

Now look at these figures for social networking sites:

Face Book (2007)

1. 60 Million Active Users
2. 6^th Most trafficked site
3. International Growth: USA, Canada, Australia, turkey, Sweden, France, Hong Kong

MySpace (2007)

1. 110 Million Active Users
2. Country’s Trafficked Site on internet
3. International Growth: U.S., UK, Japan, Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy,Spain, Mexico, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, , Latin America, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

Isn’t it a significant change? It is important for businesses not to ignore this change and take full advantage of it.

Though we can not neglect the power of “Socializing Virus” we need to acknowledge the fact that this virus needs a meaningful environment to grow and flourish. These blogs and discussion forums, created by either companies themselves or their customers, needs to be interesting and significant to us. As in the case of Microsoft (reading from Text) this phenomenon is pulling out inside people to participate and respond. It’s important to have that level of understanding, trust and coordination among us (Customers) and these insiders. Its only when both these USERS(Employees and Customers) harmonize and understand each others world that conversation marketing , in my view, will reap long term and growing kinship.

References:

http://seems2shel.typepad.com/itseemstome/2004/10/conversational_.html

http://www.conversationmarketing.com/

http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2007/09/5_ways_internet_marketing_is_l.htm

http://crm.ittoolbox.com/documents/peer-publishing/conversational-marketing-4328

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/01/09/social-network-stats-facebook-myspace-reunion-jan-2008/

Informal Networks

I was thrilled, excited and full of energy after being assigned to my dream project. Knowledge transfer sessions went well and just when I thought I was ready to go I was stuck with my first assignment.48 hours in front of the system and no solution. Third day with a cup of tea in my hand I was sitting in the office park when I met my friend , I haven’t seen her in last 4 months in spite of being in the same office location. Small handshake, little chit chat and she suggested me to join JAVAEXPERT group existing in the company Intranet. In less than 20 minutes I was back to my assignment. That’s the power of INFORMAL NETWORKS.

A lot has been written and spoken about informal networks. It’s a powerful concept that is shaping how organizations work and is influencing the effectiveness and efficiency of employees. Informal networks are not governed by organizational rules and philosophy and hence solely dependent on the efforts of individuals who are a part of it. They are a great source of exchange of information and ideas and some times results in great innovative solutions. They are great place to ignite thought process among individuals, shape their opinions and influence them.

But the question is “what makes them work?” In my previous company we had Informal groups like JAVAEXPERT, LearnStruts, Microsoft, Certifications, etc .these comprised of highly skilled professional with experience and knowledge in respective area. As I understood the people with in these groups have to be friendly, extrovert, good communicators, respectful and tolerant. There are no rules, and hence it is very likely that such networks get diverted from the very purpose of why they were created. It becomes more important that group members never loss focus and encourage the same within the network to result in more positive outcomes.

For all the benefits that informal network brings with them it’s important to focus on the following:

1. How to form the network?
2. Who should be the part of network? Should it be people who have the knowledge and experience, or it should also allow individuals who are simply interested in the information?
3. How to grow the network?
4. Is it important to train new joiners?
5. Finally, communication, encourage proactive communication.

“On my honor, all posts on this blog are my own”.