Applying Personal Social Media Techniques to Corporate EMC
June 25, 2008 at 11:08 am | In Personal Branding, Success Methodologies, social media | 18 CommentsTags: EMC
Since this blog is specifically tied to the concept of personal branding, I fail to explain what my day job is. A lot of people think all I do is this blog, the magazine, the TV show, the awards, the articles and the upcoming book. I actually spent a lot of time figuring out, experimenting and executing social media programs at EMC Corporation, where I’m a social media specialist. When I was first hired in November of 2007, I was one of the first Fortune 500 employees tasks with bringing social media to the enterprise. I obtained my job because of my work outside of EMC and have never been more happy. A lot of my learnings have been applied to EMC, specifically the PR and HR areas. Today, I want to showcase my work at EMC, explain why it’s significant and then compare/contrast it to my work with personal branding.
In the beginning
When I first started out, one of my main objectives was to help build social media proficiency within the company and then to evolve the PR practice. We issued 3 social media releases (SMR) for major product and thought leadership announcements, through wire services. A very special shout out to Brian Solis, Todd Defren and Chris Heur, who evangelized and inspired SMR’s. Each release had a podcast, a few product pictures and sharing utilities.
At the same time, we were building an internal social network, under the leadership of Len Devanna(Director) and Chuck Hollis(VP), and with help from Jamie Johnson, Chris Britt and a few others. Chuck catalogs the journey in his other blog here. The purpose of the network was to connect employees based on professional and personal interests in a single forum, while allowing anyone to create a blog, wiki or conversation (thread). Special thanks to Kevin Kempskie, Steve Todd, Gina Minks, Hadley Weinzierl, Michael Gallant, Bill Petro, Dave Donohue, Heather Milne, Barry Burke, Mark Twomey and Polly Pearson for all their hard work spreading social media throughout EMC.
EMC’s social media releases (Wire)
- CLARiiON AX4 – PR Newswire
- Symmetrix DMX4 – PR Newswire
- Digital Universe 2008 – MarketWire
EMC World 2008 and beyond
Anyone who truly understands this space knows that in order to succeed it’s a team effort. It’s now 2008 and a lot has changed with respect to social media at my company. The most exciting part is that everyone is working as a team and we can get more done in less time. Every year, thousands of EMC employees gather at EMC World, which is our largest event by far. This year, I was tasked, with forming a social media program around the event for over 9,000 people. With the combined energy and enthusiasm, we were able to launch EMC into the social media galaxy.
Joe Tucci (CEO/Chairman of EMC) presenting our social media newsroom
Special thanks to the web team for pulling this off. This was probably one of the highlights of my career.
Social media breakdown
- Social media newsroom: A compilation of content for the media and attendees, including a YouTube, Twitter and Flickr widget, as well as product information and relevant links.
- Social media release: Instead of using a wire service, our web team developed an SMR wrap-up of the entire event, with podcasts, pictures, and the ability to share the release using del.icio.us and digg.
- Twitter: We currently have two accounts, both of which I’ve been supervising lately. The first is a 1-way press release distribution account (@EMCCorp) and the second was specifically designed for EMC World (@EMCWorld), as a tool to direct people to content or places on-site.
- YouTube – Included keynote presentations, such as Joe Tucci’s keynote, as well as daily wrap-up’s each day and man-on-the-street customer interviews on-site.
- Facebook – We set up a Facebook event page, where people could register and it linked directly to our EMC World website.
- Flickr - This was used for the media specifically, so they could pull pictures and bio’s of executives, as well as view pictures LIVE from the event and product pictures.
- Communities – These were for all registered participants and gave them the ability to talk amongst each other before, during and after the event.
Aside from this accomplishment, we have converted many in-house bloggers to external EMC “blog champions.” There is a lot to look forward in the future, as we expand into the B2C realm. Other companies have used social media, such as Zappos, Cisco, Microsoft, Home Depot and Ernst & Young. I can only see more companies adopting this in the future, but do feel right now is the best time. I say this because it costs very little to get involved and marketing budgets have been cut, due to the economy.
Tying it back to personal branding
When it comes to corporate social media programs, it’s not just about “the grand vision” or the “tools used.” It’s about the people that execute it. The conversations employees have with customers and partners through these tools is what’s important because their personal brand is on the line, as well as the company’s. The more voices you have participating in conversations where they can lend expertise or interact to get feedback the better. At this stage, companies need to accept the important of social media, as a channel to communicate, get feedback, learn and build brand. Your employees can’t sit back anymore or they will be left out. This is similar to being the person in the corner at a party and no one wants that.
Compared to corporate branding with social media, personal branding is much easier. The more people that get involved, the harder it is to control the message and the medium. A single individual can “publish-on-demand”, yet a group of individuals might have to check with each other pre-post. It’s easy for an A-list blogger to spread a message than a less-known blogger, unless you have many corporate bloggers as spokespeople working together to spread it. The same strategies can be used in both corporate and personal branding.
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“Your employees can’t sit back anymore or they will be left out. This is similar to being the person in the corner at a party and no one wants that.”
Enjoyed your thoughts and am excited to see a successful case study/your work.
Comment by Tanya Nichols — June 25, 2008 #
I think you forgot one of EMC most prolific and relevant blogers, Gina Minks.
Comment by Joe Hoey — June 25, 2008 #
Gina Minks has been a tireless evangelist and champion for social media at EMC. The great list of contributors above is definitely incomplete without this luminary. After all, she has the most popular blog on EMC|One!
Comment by Toby Morral — June 25, 2008 #
Update: Gina Minks is added by popular demand
Comment by Dan Schawbel — June 25, 2008 #
Particularly enjoyed this post Daniel. I definitely know who to come to for advice when I finagle my way into a job as a social media employee for a company…
Comment by Ryan Stephens — June 25, 2008 #
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Glad to see you added Gina’s name. She has become so intertwined with the thought of social media within Eduacation Services, that we call her Web2.0prah
Comment by Chris Dube — June 25, 2008 #
Thanks for adding me Dan. I had an epiphany over one of your comments:
“Your employees can’t sit back anymore or they will be left out. This is similar to being the person in the corner at a party and no one wants that.”
That’s not exactly true – not everyone at the party wants to be engaged. Some people are perfectly happy to be at the party, sitting in the corner, just “being” and “observing”. This is certainly true of adults on the autism spectrum (many of whom may be working along side us at EMC). While those of us who are more social may feel bad they are in the corner, if we try to force them to participate they will be miserable.
I think it’s the same for all of these web 2.0 activities – we know there is a 90 – 9 – 1 rule. Maybe we should not try to force the 90% of lurkers out of their corner – maybe they are happy just to be at the party, taking it all in.
Comment by gina — June 25, 2008 #
Dan,
I’ve always wondered what you do at EMC, so thanks for the glimpse into your workworld. It’s encouraging to see leading companies realizing that Personal Branding isn’t a threat to the corporate brand, but a valuable extension to one. The organization that empowers the employee as an individual in all the spaces they work within is becoming more and more valued by people especially within our generation, so it’s good to see places like EMC leading the way.
Comment by Tiffany Monhollon — June 25, 2008 #
Here here! I wish they didn’t coin the term “lurker,” too many negative images come to mind (for example the cover of the Jethro Tull album Aqualung.) Blogflower maybe?
Comment by Chris Dube — June 25, 2008 #
Dan,
Thanks for the efforts and education you’ve brought to EMC – it’s appreciated and has been impactful.
Steve
Comment by Steve Todd — June 26, 2008 #
[...] Applying Personal Social Media Techniques to Corporate EMC EMC Social Media Specialist (and personal branding authority), Dan Schawbel takes readers through an overview of the extensive social media programs he has been involved with at EMC during that past year. addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fperkettprsuasion.com%2F2008%2F06%2F27%2Fpersuasive-picks-for-the-week-of-062308%2F’; addthis_title = ‘Persuasive+Picks+for+the+week+of+06%2F23%2F08′; addthis_pub = ”; Tags: Dan Schawbel, EMC, Facebook, Jared Fogel, Jennifer Leggio, Laura Fitton, Louis Gray, Michelle Lentz, microblogging, Mike Henry, Social Media, Twellow, Twitter [...]
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Echoing Steves comments. You’ve been instrumental in helping drive awareness and raise the bar for SM @ EMC.
LD
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