Why "Get Social. Do Business" Makes Sense

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The key topic of this year’s Lotusphere was “Get Social. Do Business”. The buzz phrase is Social Business. Outside of Lotusphere I wonder whether decision makers will understand what it means. Did I realise yesterday that the social business toolkit was relevant to me? Does the name tell me why I should use it? No. But Social Business – that makes sense. It’s been a major aspect in my professional development over the last two years – yes, I was late to the party. But let me tell you why Social Business makes sense to me and why it is important to you (whoever you are).

 First of all, I started blogging. Blogging alone doesn’t drive business and that wasn’t the reason I started blogging. It was about giving to the community and, as Kevin Spacey told us Jack Lemmon put it, “sending the elevator back down”. The yellowbleeders amongst you will recognise that this is the Domino Blog template. That’s social business. The template comes from Domino developers getting social, from Steve Castledine providing the template on OpenNTF. That was before IBM got heavily involved in OpenNTF, but eventually they got it, and OpenNTF has gone from strength to strength as a result.

Next, I got on Twitter. Not because of my social network, but for a social BUSINESS network. I would probably not have got onto Twitter if it had not been for the Notes 8 sidebar. Through being built on Eclipse developers in the social network provided plugins, including Twitter. Yes, there are issues with the Eclipse framework, but the benefits outweigh them. Business partners can’t raise PMRs directly, but through Twitter I’ve had PMRs raised. But not only PMRs, but also SPRs. That wouldn’t have happened without Twitter. But also it wouldn’t have happened if IBMers didn’t get social to do business.

Another Twitter example happened just recently. Someone I wasn’t following tweeted wanting information about XPages and Dojo. David Leedy pointed him in my direction. A couple of tweets later and I had pointed him to an article on this blog. Social allowed him to get the answer and do business, saving him time, giving us both new connections, and all impacted me less than 2 minutes. Yes, there are some queries you don’t have a ready answer for and don’t have time to answer, but it can be quick and very effective. So senior managers who are concerned that it is distracting – yes, it can be, but so can the internet, so can a piece of paper if someone wants to doodle.

Now, yes I use Twitter for personal as well (that’s Reading FC and netball, if you’re wondering), but I reckon more than 50% of my tweets are work-related. For me, Facebook is more social than business. But Twitter is social AND business. It’s social business.

But my social business didn’t stop there. About 15 months ago in my annual appraisal I had the usual question of where do you see youself in five years’ time. The usual question, that people sometimes just ignore. What’s the point? Well, I felt I’d focussed on my technical learning, so I said I wanted to be speaking at Lotusphere, probably in three years’ time, so 2012. I’d started blogging, I knew the next step would be speaking at a LUG, but it would be hard work and take time to get a good enough reputation for IBM to take a chance on me for Lotusphere. Tim Malone also got social business and backed my efforts. Within two weeks he had used his social network to put me in touch with

 Tim Clark, who met with me to map out a roadmap to speaking at Lotusphere. Another example of what Kevin Spacey called “sending the elevator back down”, mentoring so you can pass the baton on. Tim Clark sent the elevator back down to me and without him I wouldn’t be where I am today.

But social business isn’t just the written word or social networks. The spoken word allows social business. That includes Tim Clark and Stephan Wissel’s initial work on The XCast, which gave me my first break. That includes Stuart McIntyre and Darren Duke on This Week in Lotus, who have invited me to take part twice now. That includes Bruce Elgort and Julian Robichaux on Taking Notes, Chris Miller’s with the Consultant in Your Pocket podcast and others too. They pass on useful information whether it’s announcements or tips, all of which help people in Lotus work better, work smarter.

 So that’s remote social business, but face-to-face social business is still relevant. Last year saw the first remote Lotus conference. Although there were technical issues, I’m sure it won’t be the last. But I’m sure face-to-face will still continue for many years, with Lotus User Groups. They allow people to get social and do business, as we at Intec have seen. LUGs also give fledgeling speakers a chance to gain confidence, raise their profile and take steps towards Lotusphere. Over the last year the LUGs I’ve been lucky enough to be accepted for are BLUG, NLLUG and ILUG. And so tomorrow, a year ahead of schedule, I will be speaking at Lotusphere for the first time with XPages: Enter The Dojo at 3:30 in Swan 7-10. So if you’re here at Lotusphere and interested in XPages come along. And if you see me around, get social and say hello. And if you’re not at Lotusphere, I’m at various LUGs and also on Twitter. So get social and remember that social can do business.

4 thoughts on “Why "Get Social. Do Business" Makes Sense”

  1. Paul – a compelling piece, written with feeling. Clearly shows how Social Business has enabled you to progress. As a community we now have the responsibility to expand this message to a wider business audience and start to change corporate culture. Best of luck to you and Dave for the session later today.

  2. Matthieu Louvrier-Saint-Mary

    Great post Paul, Im so agree with you about the Twitter Social Business dimension. Realy good example.

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