Enterprise Social

Media

David Zaki

An IBM Case-Study

Agenda

1.  Pre-cautions

2.  IBM’s Social Media Strategy

3.  Insights into IBM’s Social Media

4.  The Payoff and Smarter Planet

5.  On the ROI of social media

Pre-cautions

1.  This case-study is a success story.

2.  I don’t know how many times they faced problems before reaching this state.

3.  Sorry, but don’t expect an exciting story behind how IBM became that successful

BUT…

There must be a reason for choosing this case-study other than the final exam J

IBM’s Social Media

Strategy

“We don’t have a corporate blog

or Twitter ID because we want the

‘IBMers’ to be the corporate blog

and Twitter ID” ~ Adam Christensen,

Social Media Communications Manager

at IBM corporation

IBM’s Social Media

Strategy

Strategy: Decentralized social

media approach.

Rules: “Employees are responsible

for what they create and prohibit

release of proprietary information”

Social Media Status

•  No Corporate blog or twitter ID

•  17,000 internal blogs

•  100,000 employees using internal blogs

•  53,000 members on SocialBlue (like

Facebook for employees)

•  A few thousand “IBMers” on Twitter

Social Media Status

•  Thousands of external bloggers,

•  Almost 200,000 on LinkedIn

•  As many as 500,000 participants in

company crowd-sourcing “jams”

•  50,000 in alum networks on Facebook

and LinkedIn

People at IBM understood what social

media is all about…

“Power to the PEOPLE”

But the story did not end…

Smarter Planet

•  In 2003 IBM conducted it’s first “jam”

•  JAM: gathering IBM’s employees, families

and friends for 3 straight days in an

online forum to discuss IBM’s next

investment

•  From 50 research projects, people had

to vote for 10.

•  Then they voted for “Smarter Planet”

Smarter Planet

•  IBM invested $ 100 million in the

“Smarter Planet” project.

•  All from the votes of “PEOPLE”

•  Smarter Planet: is a research project

that looks in problems like smarter

public transportation, smarter health

care systems, how to solve the rush hour

problem.

The Payoff

•  $ 12.3 Billion in earnings

•  $ 100 Billion in revenue

•  44.1 % gross profit margin

ROI of Social Media

•  Until now there is no direct ROI for Social

Media.

•  It’s a change in the world we are living in.

•  You either accept the change or lose the

game.

•  No hard figures but necessary for surviving

and thriving in a new reality.

•  IBM changed it’s core values and

investments based on the new social world.

Take Away..

•  Understand the change.

•  Accept the change.

•  Act accordingly.

•  Social Media is about PEOPLE.

•  Don’t put rules if you want to play Social Media.

•  No direct ROI but necessary for surviving.

Questions…

Thank you…