Let's Get the Conversation Started! A practictioners guide to social media in procurement

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Jason Bradshaw

Let’s get the conversation started!

a practitioner’s guide to social media in procurement

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Copyright (C) 2010 11 October 2010, Jason Stuart Bradshaw, Sydney, Australia, all rights reserved.

Cited articles are shared for educational, non-commercial purposes, and copyright ownership and rights is retained by the original owner.

Any part of this document that is not cited material may be reproduced without further authorisation if the author, Jason Bradshaw and www.jasonbradshaw.com.au is acknowledged.

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DisclaimerThe contents of this document is the personal views of it’s author, Jason Bradshaw. No part of this document should be interpreted as the work practices or policies of any organization that the author is employed by or affiliated with, unless expressly stated within this document.

All advice provided in this document is provided in good faith and readers are encouraged to seek independent advice prior to implementing any recommendations.

The author accepts no liability and the reader indemnifies the author for any losses as a result of the implementation of any recommendation within this document in whole or part thereof.


Dedication

I dedicate this publication to my father, the late David Bradshaw and to my mother, Nicola Bradshaw.

Throughout my life they have been a constant source of encouragement and support to follow my dreams and to be the best that I can be.



About Jason Bradshaw

The PassionJason realised his passions for customer service excellence and employee engagement in his early teens when starting his first business retailing information, communication and technology products and services. Over the following 15 years, he has applied these passions to the banking, financial, retail, technology and government sectors actualising significant revenue growth, increases in client satisfaction and employee engagement.

Jason believes in challenging the status quo, inspiring employees, transforming teams and delivering results. His process reengineering, communication, change management and leadership skills are all enablers to delivering today and in the future.

Community and CharityThroughout his career, Jason has sought to do charitable work to assist others from all walks of life; he believes this to be an integral part of his working career and has found it extremely fulfilling.

RecognitionJason has been nominated for the National Leadership Awards and links his success and business plan achievements to his passion for delivering to the most important assets to a business, employees and customers.


“It’s not a department that owns social media, it’s the consumer.”

Heather Oidani Senior Director of US Communications

McDonalds


What is Social Media?

Social media is a means to get the conversation started. Through utilising web 2.0 technologies and mobile platforms individuals and organisations have unprecedented opportunity to connect and engage with their communities.

When defining social media it seems right to look at how Wikipedia defines the topic, after all Wikipedia is a great example of a social media platform that generates conversations around ideas.

Wikipedia (2010) defines ‘social media’ as media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Further Wikipedia (2010) explains that ‘social media’ uses web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogues.

When thinking of social media people generally think of Facebook, Twitter or MySpace but it is more than that. The Social Media Prism (check out the resources section later in this document) provides an excellent overview of the universe of social media.

It is possible to group social media into three main groups of networks, conversations and content.

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Networks are those sites that allow for members to create networks of ‘friends’. Facebook is the most widely known networking site with over 500 million users. Other sites that help users create networking opportunities include Myspace, with over 100 million members, Linked IN with over 80 million members, a network of career connections and the list goes on.

Conversations are those sites that promote conversations between its members . Perhaps the most commonly known service in this category is Twitter. According to Mashable, a leading technology information source. Twitter co-founder Evan Williams indicated that over 1.8 million new members join Twitter every week and Williams’ went on to say the social networking site will reach a billion users. Without even considering the other sites that generate conversations, Twitter in and of itself generates a mind boggling level of conversations.

Content Social Media refers to those sites that provide opportunities for its members to share content including blog sites, wikis, video and slideshare sites. YouTube is a great example of a content social media platform, allowing members to share videos with their networks and the globe at large. According to YouTube’s corporate website, 24 hours of video are uploaded and more than 2 billion videos are viewed every minute of every day! There are also sites such as SlideShare which lets you share presentations and other files.

The common element between social media is anybody with access to the internet can access social media and get the conversation started. This has had a significant impact on the amount of information available, control of information and the speed at which a message can spread.


If you’re not part of the conversation, what are you missing?


“The internet has been the most fundamental change during my lifetime and for hundreds of years. Someone the other day said... ‘It’s thebiggest thing since writing’”

Rupert Murdoch


Social Media by the numbers. At the time of going to publication one of the most recent reports into Social Media in Australia was the Sensis eBusiness Report which is available for download from their website. The figures quoted in this section are drawn from their research, unless quoted otherwise.

The Sensis research indicates 88% of Australian households have the internet and 56% of Australian’s reported using social media in the last twelve months, with a growing 28% of using social media multiple times a day.

A common perception is that these numbers are reflective of a connected generation X & Y however research indicates that in the last twelve months their has been a 26% increase in the use of social media by people aged 40 or more. The numbers show rapid adoption rates in all age brackets above 40, social media is not just for the now generation.

However, social media is at its best when real time conversations can occur. In Australia, an estimated 44% of Australian’s access the internet from their mobile phone. If you were thinking that blocking social media websites on your work computers was stopping social media conversations, think again, a staggering 42% of mobile users access the internet on their mobile while at work, and over 50% of those mobile internet users, use is to access social media.

Various reports indicate that 9.9 million of Australia’s 22 million population use social media and social media usage worldwide grew 82% in the last 12 months. Are you part of the conversation?

%


As a percentage of population more Australians have access to the internet and use social media than in the United States of America.

Don't have internet access

Have internet access and don't use social media

Use social media once per day

Use social media multiple times per day

People who:

Australia

United States of Am

erica


“Innovation comes only from readily and seamlessly sharing information rather

than hoarding it.”

Tom Peters


Social Media in Procurement. With the use of social media globally, it is time for procurement professionals to join the conversation. In the United States and Europe leading procurement organisations have already joined the conversation.

The US Federal Office of General Services Administration launched the BetterBuy project to connect more people, to be more transparent, collaborative and participatory so that the Government buys better and achieves better results for US Citizens. While this initiative was led by the Federal Office each of the US States were able to opt-in to the conversation and through the use of wiki’s, blogs, and other social media tools were able to share information in real time.

According to an address by Mary Davie of the Office of General Service Administration this real time connectivity through social media allowed for procurement organisations across the US to leverage the skills off each other. For example if an office had a problem they would post it on their social media tools and the collective would come together in real time, sharing experiences and ideas on how to solve the problem. Mary Davie went on to say at the Gov 2.0 Conference in Washington that the social media platforms provided the speed and connectivity required to deliver in the new economy.

Across to the District of Columbia, Vivek Kundra the Chief Technology Officer, reports that their procurement teams used social media tools including YouTube, wikis and others to gain real time market knowledge of key suppliers and to streamline the process of sharing information, while reducing costs.

Kundra explains that the District needed to quickly gather market intelligence on a particular supply category so it could develop a sourcing strategy. The procurement team


developed a wiki and promoted it through other social media . The District had such a positive experience with the initial phase they continued to use this platform throughout the procurement process and from the offices perspective was a success.

Social media in procurement is being adopted around the world; the European Union and many corporations use social media to engage with their customers and source real time information. This real time connectivity is enabling procurement organisations to deliver better value to their customers.

“The biggest problem in social networking is helping you easily interact with your friends and share information in lots of different contexts.”

Mark ZuckerbergCEO facebook


Joining the conversation.

So you have read the numbers, you have seen that other leading procurement organisations are using social media to their benefit and now you are considering getting involved.

The first step is to establish a social media framework for your procurement organisations, not to limit the conversation but to ensure that your business and staff understand how you plan to leverage social media.

There is essentially three questions to ask when establishing this framework, what information will you share, what information will you monitor and how will we engage in the conversation. Once you have the answers to these questions the platforms you use will need to be considered.

From personal experience I recommend that you quickly establish a Twitter account, YouTube account and other accounts on major platforms and subscribe to or follow your strategic suppliers in your major spend and/or high risk categories. This will assist your teams to have real time information on developments with your major suppliers.

Social media is changing the way the people interact with each other, how people make decisions and the speed at which information is distributed. Distributed networks of people share information at a speed that traditional media only wishes it could achieve, this is changing the expectations of our customers.

As an example through social media monitoring I learnt of a significant security issue with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer product and that various companies and governments were


temporarily suspending use of the product, 3 hours ahead of the local major news paper publishing their first article on the topic. Real time conversations can lead to immediate and beneficial actions.

After you have started to gain first hand experience observing how other organisations use social media you can then move to the second question of what information you want to share.

You will need to consider the risk of sharing information and probity for example. You may initially decide simply to promote information that is already published in papers or websites through social media and develop your appetite for sharing over time.

A key factor to consider in your social media framework is how you will start the conversation. If you are able to not only engage in conversations but also start them, you will achieve a deeper level of connectivity with your social media followers. Initiating discussions will assist your business to leverage social networks to gather information to unlock solutions to any challenge you may be facing.

Finally you need to consider the most important question of how will you engage in the conversation. The lifeblood of social media is conversations, you get the most value by engaging in those conversations, so it is important that you identify how you will participate in those conversations. Ignoring this essential element of social media may leave your organisation in the dark.

To assist you in developing a social media framework refer to the resources page of this publication for links to additional information.


ResourcesThe following resources may be of assistance in your social media journey.

The Conversation Prism http://www.theconversationprism.com/

The Sensis eBusiness Report http://www.about.sensis.com.au/small-business/sensis-ebusiness-report/

The Smart Blog - a blog about social media - http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/

Supply & Demand Chain blog http://www.sdcexec.com

Gov 2.0 US Conference http://www.gov2summit.com/gov2010/

Mashable - leading social media information source - http://mashable.com/

Social Media Governance http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php



Sources Throughout this document the following sources have been cited.

Wikipedia. (2010). Wikipedia. Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

YouTube. (2010). YouTube Fact Sheet. Retrieved from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/t/fact_sheet

Mashable. (2010.). Evan Williams: “Twitter Will Get to a Billion Members”. Retrieved 2010, from Mashable: http://mashable.com/2010/10/12/biz-stone-evan-williams-twitter/

Sensis (2010), The Sensis eBusiness Report http://www.about.sensis.com.au/small-business/sensis-ebusiness-report/

Gov 2.0 (2010) http://www.gov2summit.com/gov2010/

All cited material is cited for educaitonal, non-commercial purposes, and ownership remains with the respective owners.


Contacting Jason Bradshaw

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Linked IN http://au.linkedin.com/in/jaosnsbradshaw

Special thanks to James Fiander who provided design and editorial support.www.jamesfiander.com [email protected]


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Let's Get the Conversation Started! A practictioners guide to social media in procurement