How Social Media is Transforming Work
By John Havens on September 4, 2012 in Thought Leadership
What’s the true ROI of social media for the enterprise?
How is social media being used most effectively for external marketing?
How is social media being used most effectively for employee communications?
How is social media changing the way we communicate in the office?
These questions and a number of others focused on social media and the enterprise will be the topic of a panel I will be moderating at Salesforce’s upcoming Dreamforce conference on Thursday, September 20th. Noon – 1:00 P.M. at Dreamforce.
Covering many of the themes we’ve been exploring with The Future of Work series here on the Salesforce Rypple blog, we’ve got a serious lineup of panelists who will help provide attendees a unique perspective on how existing and emerging social technologies will transform the workplace. Their full bios are below, but here’s our prestigious lineup for the panel:
• J.P. Rangaswami, Chief Scientist for Salesforce
• Heather Hiles, Founder/CEO of Pathbrite
• Shel Holtz, Principal of Holtz Communication + Technology
• (Yours Truly) John C. Havens, (moderator) Principal for Transitional Media
While nobody would deny that social media has created a permanent position within the marketing and PR divisions of the majority of every major global organization, many pundits still bemoan its lack of ROI. But what does this really mean? I want to dig into this question with the panel, as some decry social media for its lack of ability to uniformly (for instance) drive consumers to purchase.
However, the evolution of social media analytics with companies like Salesforce Radian6 and Crimson Hexagon has shown that brands can gain massive benefit from parsing and analyzing the online and social messages from consumers about their products and services. So where’s the true ROI?
We’ll also cover the idea of social media for employee engagement – are people really using these tools to increase productivity? Are we finally over the era where bosses forbid employees to look at Facebook and Twitter at work? And if people are utilizing tools like Chatter effectively, what tips can the panel provide to attendees so their organizations can benefit from best practices?
Trends at the workplace will also be covered in the sense of how HR is using LinkedIn, or how employees can support each other’s development and projects via platforms like Rypple. In other words, how have social media tools benefitted the enterprise and how will they continue to do so in the future?
Lastly, we’ll chat about evolving trends in cloud computing, identity, and privacy that will affect the workplace and provide advice on how attendees can prepare for the future most effectively. I’ll be interviewing all the panelists at the event, and I’ll post those videos and a summation of the panel in a future post.
Hope you’ll tune in, and please stop by the panel and say hello if you’re in San Francisco for Dreamforce.
Panelist Bios
John C. Havens (moderator) is the Founder of Transitional Media, a consulting firm focusing on creating emerging media and thought leadership strategy campaigns. He is also a contributing writer for Mashable and author of the book, Tactical Transparency: How Leaders Can Leverage Social Media to Maximize Value and Build their Brand. (Wiley, 2008) Previously, John was EVP, Social Media for Porter Novelli, where he provided senior strategic counsel for multiple global brands. Before joining Porter Novelli, John was VP, Business Development for BlogTalkRadio where he brought in/worked with WalMart, Ford, Pepsico, Allstate and Century21. John led two of New York’s largest “unconferences” with over 2,000 attendees and 200 speakers. He was the first Guide to Podcasting at About.com, and a former professional actor in NYC for over 15 years. He is a recognized thought leader in augmented reality, emerging and social media having spoken at SXSW, Web 2.0, WSJ Digital Events, the Business Development Institute, NYU, Stanford, NYU, Columbia and internationally in Stockholm, Munich, Madrid, Brussels, and Amsterdam. He has written for/been quoted by Mashable, Fast Company, PR Week, Advertising Age, INC Magazine, The Huffington Post, LeMonde, and iMedia. You can follow John @johnchavens.
JP Rangaswami is Chief Scientist for Salesforce. With a background in economics and journalism, JP Rangaswami has been a technology innovator and chief information officer for many leading financial firms. As an advocate for open source and disruptive technologies, Rangaswami has been a leading force in the success of multiple startups, including School of Everything, Salesforce.com and Ribbit. He blogs (unmissably) at Confused of Calcutta.
Heather Hiles is the Founder and CEO of Pathbrite a career portfolio platform. She recently closed a Series A round of financing for her startup which is located in San Francisco, CA. Heather has committed her life to closing the education and employment achievement gaps for youth and adults. Her leadership experience spans over 20 years, during which she has founded and led several private and public sector organizations. Her roster of leadership roles includes: Commissioner, San Francisco Unified School District, Executive Director of Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2), CEO of Hiles Group (a philanthropy consultancy firm), Co-Founder of EARN (Individual Development Accounts program), CEO – SFWorks (NGO to place women from welfare into careers) and COO – Break the Cycle (K-3rd grade tutorial program). Heather received her B.A. from UC Berkeley and her MBA from Yale University.
Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology, consulting with organizations on the intersection of digital technology and organizational communication. Shel has worked with companies including PepsiCo, The Mayo Clinic, Aetna, The Internal Revenue Service, The Walt Disney Company, Fleishman Hillard, Pratt & Whitney, The International Monetary Fund and Johns Hopkins Medicine. Shel has written or co-written six communication-focused books along with numerous magazine and journal articles. He is a founding fellow of the Society for New Communications Research and serves as a member of the advisory board for The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. He also is accredited by the International Association of Business Communicators, which named him an IABC Fellow in 2005. Shel is co-host of the pioneering podcast, “For Immediate Release,” which began reporting on social media as a communications channel in January 2005. He blogs at http://holtz.com/blog. Before starting his own practice in 1996, Shel worked in communication management roles at Mattel and Allergan. He also worked in the communications practices at William M. Mercer, Inc. and Alexander & Alexander Consulting Group. He began his career as a newspaper reporter in 1974.
