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
• MySpace
• YouTube
• Flickr
• Blogs
• Del.icio.us
• 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?
• 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?