BizCom in the News

Study Shows Value of Internal Social Networks

A Kellogg School study found positive effects of an internal social networking system at a major credit card company.

As more companies implement enterprise social media tools, Paul Leonardi, a professor of communication at Northwestern University, wanted to evaluate their usefulness. The credit card company was installing "A-Life," and Leonardi compared two groups, marketing and operations, to see the impact. The marketing group was given access to the system, while the operations group was not. Before the six-month period, employees were asked who within the organization knew what—an important question for knowledge management and for getting work done.

After using the site rather than email, the marketing group reported a 31% improvement to find information and a 71% improvement in finding people who knew those with needed information.

Perhaps most interesting is that younger employees were the most skeptical of the system, as a Kellogg article explains:

"...he found that use differed by age: younger employees across the company were generally more skeptical of the tool. 'So many young people use social media tools'—like Facebook and Twitter—' their lives daily,' and those tools are really for social, non-work-related communication, says Leonardi. This, he believes, made it harder for younger employees to embrace social technology in the workplace.  'They would say, "Oh, I don’t want to be posting things my boss would see." … On the other hand, the senior employees didn’t have that same concern. For them, the technology was another mode for communicating about work-related matters.'"

Image source.

Discussion Starters:

• What, if any, social networking tools have you used at work? What do you see as the benefits and potential pitfalls?
• Are you surprised at the results about younger employees? Why or why not?
  

J.C. Penney Removes "Hitler Teapot" from Billboard

Does this teapot look like Hitler to you? It does to some people, and J.C. Penney responded by removing the image from a billboard in California.

J.C. Penney responded to several tweets, such as this one:

Despite the criticism—or perhaps because of it—the teapots sold out online but can be had for a mere $199.99 on Ebay. Or you can place a back order for just $40.

The teapot was designed by Michael Graves. Here are more of his J.C. Penney products. Do you see any other political figures, criminal master-minds, celebrities, or religious figures?

Discussion Starters:

• When should a company ignore social media reactions? Is this one of those situations?
• What could be the consequences of J.C. Penney's leaving the billboard as is? Do you think it would be worth the risk?

Does Texting Hurt Grammar?

Finally, an infographic that incorporates cats. A study by Onlinecollege.org found that the more students text, the more their grammar may be affected. But some of the results are dubious.

The good news is that 86% of middle-schoolers believe that good writing skills are important in life, and only 11% think that texting negatively impacts their writing.

But the survey sponsors seem concerned with the 50% who say that they don't use proper grammar or punctuation when writing texts or IMs. Also, the more teens receive "techspeak," the more they use it.

So what? I'm not sure we can reasonably conclude, as the sponsors have, that texting hurts grammar.

Discussion Starters:

• Review the full infographic. Do you draw the same conclusions as the study sponsors do?
• Look at the graphics representing 50, 11, and 86%. What issues do you notice? 
• How, if at all, do you think texting and IM have affected your use of proper grammar and punctuation?

"Socially Devoted" Brands on Twitter

Which brands are most responsive to customers on Twitter? Socialbakers released its view of the top five companies.

Although Nike answered a higher percentage of questions, JetBlue clearly is leading in response time, with an impressive 13 minutes. With so many more followers, it may not be possible for the company to beat Nike's rate.

Socialbakers also looked at the most engaged industries on Twitter, again using percentage of questions answered as the metric.

Although an imperfect measure, response rate is better than looking at the number of followers, which had been the prevailing metric of engagement for some time. At least with this data, human intervention is considered.

Discussion Starters:

• What, if anything, surprises you about the companies' and industries' level of "social devotion"? 
• I say that response rate is an imperfect measure. Why do you think this is the case?
• What other metrics could be used to determine companies' success on Twitter?

This Tweet Brought to You by Dos Equis

To promote its "Legend of You" app, Dos Equis hired a comedian to tweet.

When Michael Ian Black ("The State" and "Ed") tweeted that the new app turned him into "a Most Interesting Person," his 1.9 million followers knew it was a paid advertisement. Black's other tweets are funny (depending on your sense of humor). 

The backlash was harsh, with one tweeter saying, "I wish you had died in 9/11" and another criticizing Black for using language that an unpaid intern probably wrote. Black responded to some tweets, such as this one:

You have to admire Black's honesty, but I wonder how his employer feels about it.

Discussion Starters:

• What advice would you give to companies considering paying for tweets? Should they not do this at all, or can safeguards be put in place? 
• If you were the marketing manager for Dos Equis, would you hire Black again to promote your products? He did get a good discussion going...