Continued from page 2
Isn’t there a conflict between these two aspects of social media? Between IBM’s warm fuzzy internal environment and the tough-edged, results-oriented external analytical approach? IBM can mix the two, she says, through being “nimble”.
Companies can keep their internal social media on “walled garden” services like Tibco Tibbr or IBM’s own Lotus Connections, or link out to the Internet, she says: “We believe that something social is open and boundaryless and transparent. We should pull in data from everywhere, but we can still do a private community on Connections.”
Microblogs and Wikis can be internal – and for some companies like healthcare providers, maybe they should be. “But you can go external and pull your Facebook friends and fans into Connections, or if you have an Exchange client you can bring your contacts into Connections. We are very open.”
Her own WordPress blog, of course, is available out there, and also on the IBM intranet, and she’s well aware of the limits to what one might put on a site like that. “I can’t tweet about our financial results in a quiet period, but other than that I can put on my page what I deem is appropriate.”
At this point she says, “It’s about being nimble. It is really about using the data that comes from social analytics and using it to make better decisions.”
With that, she sums up what she’s been saying in three words:
It’s only when she lets the last one drop that I realise these are the tiredest three buzzwords in the whole of social media. They are promised in a thousand dull keynotes, by people with a half-awareness of what they might be.
What Carter has done is to flesh them out with real examples from IBM. For the space of our conversation, she makes me believe IBM is right there, delivering them.
I’m not sure if I’m excited, or terrified.
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What an appalling article - such negative overtones. If you have such strong objections to IBM's take on social media, why not actually voice them in the interview and report Sandy's responses?
On a more basic note - your writing style is quite demeaning.
Thanks Jeff
I'm sorry you were appalled by the article.
I think I was raising more general issues than IBM's take on social media. The whole sector is simultaneously about transparency and manipulation, and there is a conflict there.
Sandy is the most eloquent spokesperson I have met on the subject, and IBM may have the most developed social media practice of any of the big players, both inward and outward facing, so our meeting brought the issue into focus for me.
We did in fact get onto that aspect of social media, but I was still processing my thoughts and wasn't able to put the question that well. I hope to take the issue further in future interviews.
Peter judge