11/19/2007 11:51:17 AM

Thanks to everyone who attended the PACE Fall Management Forum! There were some great ideas generated during the breakout session, and as promised, here they are:

Question #1: What are your three best ideas for engaging employees, customers, and management teams using social media?

Answers:
- Identifying the sub-cultures of who would use our social media site.
- Pick appropriate profile before engaging in social media.
- Identify what’s in it for me (WIIFM) for audience. Take survey (via blog or emails) to identify WIIFM. Identify what candidate wants to communicate and how they want to do it. Figure out what message you want to communicate.
- Enhance website to make it more user friendly.
- Provide a place for problem solving and act as a tool for employees to gain knowledge.
- Act as a knowledge base for customers to learn about our product or our services.
- Provide another venue for customers to have a voice. This would also allow us a chance to gather information from our customers.
- Engage employees through blogs, forums, email based forums, etc in order to improve morale.
- Link our website to the social media site in order to make it easier to find.
- Create several functions including an external website, a forum, and an intranet.
- Spotlight or recognize employees and customers.
- Create a place where moments can be posted.
- Provide a user-friendly space for customers, staff and others to make candid anonymous comments and ask questions.
- Create an intranet for employees to post questions and for the sharing of information.
- Allow customers a place to contribute feedback and post testimonials.
- Look for trends and patterns.
- Anonymous employee blog. Re: what we should stop, start, and continue to do.
- Website with more links.
- Community sharing: Dress for success, resume writing, training
- Quick poll candidate remarks
- Time to engage audiences
- Want forum, but should it be staff only? Anonymous? Reviewed before being posted? What is the best social media for the customer?

Question #2: What are the two biggest barriers to implementing these ideas:

Answers:
- Leadership wants one-way communication.
- Potential litigation and EEOC issues
- Convincing hiring managers to utilize social media
- Opening yourself to negative feedback
- Define value to create budget for social media
- Cost in terms of time, technology, and people. Would need to start small.
- Legal issues: would need to engage knowledgeable legal counsel to actively participate.
- Concern about negative feedback and impact.
- Concerns about transparency and competitive intelligence
- Time
- Providing a real venue for change and being able to see the results
- Fear of negative comments
- Fear of the unknown implications and not knowing how to do social media
- Negative feedback
- Time and involvement in maintaining site
- Management need to see the value in this before investing
- Legal department
- Upper management
- Denial – Those who think that we don’t need this
- Money and how this fits within our budget
- Risk of being exposed to criticism

Question #3: What is the best way to overcome these barriers?

Answers:
- Education
- Budget resources
- Management commitment
- Education; seminars like this
- #’s
- Education
- Exposing management to social media and the need to use it
- Creating value in social media
- ROI

Thanks again to everyone for sharing these great ideas! We'd love to have you keep this conversation going. Use this forum to bounce ideas about social media off your peers. Share, network, and see where it can lead you!

Questions? Contact Heather Reynolds at heather@vhpr.com.

Heather Reynolds