15 Kudos to Big Blue: IBM Offers Great Guidance in Social Media and Employee Engagement

15 Great Nuggets and More from IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines.

I believe that social media is not only here to stay but a vital link in communication and relationships inside and outside organizations. It can be a powerful tool to foster employee engagement, and yes, you can spent too much time and not add value during your time engaged with these tools.

Overall we need to engage and encourage employees to engage rather than close down the organization with a paranoia of firewalls and social media Luddite-like fear.

My thanks to Jeannette Paladino for making me aware of How IBM Promotes Employee Engagement with Social Media.  I recommend you read her article and ensure that you read and study IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines.

If Big Blue can show that it is green and growing with social media for employee engagement what is holding back you and your organization?

Here are 15 great nuggets from this  fabulous and freeing social media corporate document:

1. IBM is increasingly exploring how online discourse through social computing can empower IBMers as global professionals, innovators and citizens. These individual interactions represent a new model: not mass communications, but masses of communicators.
2. It is very much in IBM’s interest—and, we believe, in each IBMer’s own—to be aware of and participate in this sphere of information, interaction and idea exchange
3. The rapidly growing phenomenon of user-generated web content—blogging, social web-applications and networking—are emerging important arenas for that kind of engagement and learning.
4. It becomes increasingly important for IBM and IBMers to share with the world the exciting things we’re learning and doing, and to learn from others.
5. Know and follow IBM’s Business Conduct Guidelines.
6. IBM supports open dialogue and the exchange of ideas. IBM regards blogs and other forms of online discourse as primarily a form of communication and relationship among individuals.
7. One of IBMers’ core values is “trust and personal responsibility in all relationships.” As a company, IBM trusts—and expects—IBMers to exercise personal responsibility whenever they participate in social media.
8. Online social media enables individuals to share their insights, express their opinions and share information within the context of a globally distributed conversation. Each tool and medium has proper and improper uses. While IBM encourages all of its employees to join a global conversation, it is important for IBMers who choose to do so to understand what is recommended, expected and required when they discuss IBM-related topics, whether at work or on their own time.
9. Be who you are. Some bloggers work anonymously, using pseudonyms or false screen names. IBM discourages that in blogs, wikis or other forms of online participation that relate to IBM
10. Be thoughtful about how you present yourself in online social networks. The lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred in online social networks.
11. IBM’s business performance. You must not comment on confidential IBM financial information such as IBM’s future business performance, business plans, or prospects anywhere in world.
12. Add value. If it helps you, your coworkers, our clients or our partners to do their jobs and solve problems; if it helps to improve knowledge or skills; if it contributes directly or indirectly to the improvement of IBM’s products, processes and policies; if it builds a sense of community; or if it helps to promote IBM’s Values, then it is adding value.
13. Be the first to respond to your own mistakes. If you make an error, be up front about your mistake and correct it quickly. In a blog, if you choose to modify an earlier post, make it clear that you have done so.
14. Use your best judgment. Remember that there are always consequences to what you publish. If you’re about to publish something that makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable, review the suggestions above and think about why that is.
15. Don’t forget your day job. You should make sure that your online activities do not interfere with your job or commitments to customers.

Once again, go read and study the entire document at IBM Social Computing Guidelines.

Kudos to IBM for showing guidance and growth rather than fear and force in the face of social media and employee engagement.