Everyday Influence

Shell and the Great Energy Challenge Go Social: A Case in the Making

What inspired me most about the opportunity to join Shell in 2011 was nothing short of scale and impact.

There are few industries and companies that can claim true relevance to every person on the planet. Energy is such an industry that serves a vital purpose in sustaining daily life and enabling progress around the globe. Shell sees its role to deliver more energy in ways that are economically attractive, and socially and environmentally responsible.

As the world grows in population from 7 billion people to 9 billion by 2050, societies will become healthier and more prosperous. This growth will increase stress and scarcity on water, food and energy, our most vital, global resources.

The complexity associated with the energy challenge play out on social, environmental and geo-political levels. In order to make progress, active engagement with people of all ages, societies and cultures is required.

Scale and Impact

Given the scope of the energy challenge, the question I asked was "how do you make a company like Shell relevant and relatable to every person on the planet?" This is a big question and challenge to solve for.

The good news is that the means to support the challenge exist, in part, with the smart use of social media and mobile (technologies) applied with strategic partnerships, compelling content and purposeful engagement. There is no better way to engage a broad spectrum of audiences at scale (from one to one billion) than through social media and mobile.

I’d like to offer insights into a few key areas that helped to guide our efforts in addressing the challenge:

Purposeful Engagement

Working through answers to simple questions is important. You don't have to be a social media expert to develop smart and high impact strategies, as long as you work through the right questions. I have been drawn to a very simple question-based framework to guide our social media content and engagement efforts at Shell:

What do you want people to know, feel and do as a result of interacting with your company and/or content?

Facebook advocates working through the following question, which I also like:

Why would someone care and why would they share your content?

Answering these questions has proven important as we define our audiences, understand what they care about and develop content that relates to their interests, concerns and/or needs.

It forces us to think about and appeal to the emotional and behavioral drivers that inspire people to engage and take action on a daily basis. Every person has a different entry point into the relationship with Shell.
Our challenge is to provide an environment that allows for each person to benefit and contribute in a meaningful way.

Conventional Partnerships

It is important to have a strong balance of strategic partnerships and relationships in place with companies like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google and with agencies (PR, media, creative) and technology partners like Adobe and/or Buddy Media (now Sales Force Marketing Cloud).

Developing a collaborative structure that brings together motivated teams from each partner with well defined roles and responsibilities to contribute to the success of your larger business strategy and objectives is crucial. Each partner brings with them an important lens on audience and engagement opportunities supported by great data, insight and expertise that when pulled together into a uniform view, have enormous impact.

Unconventional Partnerships

It’s also important to seek unconventional partners. Those who have common interests in the problems you are looking to solve and a willingness to collaborate to offer powerful solutions to address. In many ways, the unconventional partnerships are the ones that will distinguish your efforts in game-changing ways.

As I have previously written, Shell is a founding partner of an initiative called mPowering Action that seeks to engage 100 million youth across 120 countries over the next five years.

This innovative program is orchestrated by Tribal Brands and is delivered through a public/private partnership model with the United Nations, NGOs, businesses (like Shell) and top global athletes and artists in the entertainment industry.

Today, people under 25 make up 43 percent of the world’s population – in some countries, that number is as high as 70 percent. This amounts to nearly 4 billion young people living on the brink of the greatest technological advances and human progress while also surrounded by intractable public health epidemics, record jobless rates, outdated education systems and historic pressures on the planet’s resources.

This generation of millennials are social media savvy and eager to help create real-world change, and for the first time in history, technology has the ability to facilitate change in the palm of their hands.

mPowering Action is a powerful initiative because it brings together organizations that do not typically work (or work well) together with a common interest to provide a voice and bring real world solutions to the challenges representative of 43% of the population on the planet. No one organization can deliver on this vision alone. It requires participation from the value-chain.

Developing unconventional partnerships such as this showcase your company's purpose and commitment to deliver on the very human issues that motivate and inspire people to take action...which just might lend to brand preference for your company.

In a future post I will offer additional insights on:

• The importance of behavior-based vs. transaction-based engagement to establish loyalty and advocacy
• Mobile. More than “just” the phone

Related articles

 

Back to the Future: Social Media at Shell

A Social Movement for Seven Billion People

Research Findings Highlight the Evolution of Social Business

mPowering a Change Generation

 

 

 

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Theory of Relate(ivity) - Part One

At the end of the day, it’s relationships that matter most.  Right?

Be it in business, in one’s personal life, politics, or otherwise - the best relationships (when managed well) keep you grounded and honest.  They offer learning experiences.  They are influential and provide support in unusual ways that overtime can sustain even the toughest of challenges.

Casual, social, formal or personal – the connections that people make start with how they relate to one another or to a cause, an issue, a religion, a culture, a belief, a principle or even to a company.

Seven billion actions.

I've had many great learning experiences over the past year but none greater than my role as an adviser to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). 

In February, I was part of a small group of professionals invited to help the UNFPA develop a communication campaign that would raise awareness and inspire people to take action around the many issues associated with global population reaching the staggering milestone of seven billion people. 

As outlined in a previous post, seven billion is a big number. It's a number that most people simply can't grasp nor relate to.

In population terms, however, there are many harsh realities that impact people in one form or another - every day.  These realities concern employment, health, safety, adequate and affordable access to education, energy, food, water and housing (among other things).

The campaign is called 7 Billion Actions and is driven by a desire to engage people, corporations and governments in a movement to address issues of humanity. To support this, we developed an environment that would be educational and allow people to share their individual stories, challenges, feelings and commitments to take action on issues - at a local and global level. 

Through combining education and the shared experiences of others, we felt that we could indeed inspire a movement that would bring with it positive change.  Once people relate to an issue on an emotional, intellectual and experiential level - amazing things can happen.  Further to this, when people can see the possibilities and the benefits of change - the power of "relate" can be transformative.

The use of social media is significant in this campaign.

Since world population reached seven billion on the ceremonial day of October 31st, the community developed on facebook has grown to 11,600 people (increasing by hundreds per day) and more than 630 stories from people around the world have been shared and hundreds of blogs and stories from mainstream media have been produced.  Many corporations, media companies and NGOs are also supporting the effort in direct and meaningful ways.

Although it’s too early to declare success of the campaign in creating a movement, the early signs are inspiring.  As population will continue to grow at an extremely high rate, the cadence of this campaign and the issues associated with it will continue to be important for months and years to come.

The lessons of this experience have been incredibly clarifying to me.

A Social Movement for Seven Billion People

In February of this year I was invited to participate in a workshop at Columbia University School of Journalism in support of the the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The UNFPA is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programs to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.

The workshop brought together 40+ communication and social media experts and thought leaders from several companies (across industry segments), NGOs, media firms, agencies, and academia. The workshop was organized to help the UNFPA brainstorm a communication and social media strategy to raise awareness and action around the many issues associated with global population.

On October 31st, 2011 the planet will reach a milestone of seven billion people.

A big number

Seven billion is a big number. It's a number that most people simply can't grasp. However, in population terms, it represents many harsh realities that affect people every day.

 

Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, the newly appointed Executive Director of the UNFPA hosted the workshop and put forth a challenge to the group to devise a collective strategy that would support the UNFPA in its mission to accelerate education around the issues associated with population AND to inspire a global movement that would invite people, corporations and governments alike to take action (in meaningful ways) to address the very serious human and societal issues associated with the population reaching this milestone.

Given the make-up of the group, social media, internet and technology enabled communication and influence strategies were at the core of the plan.

Social media's role in influencing behavior

Social media (as I have written before) is an extremely powerful and influential medium for people to express emotion (how I feel) context (where I am/what I am doing) and experience (what I did/what I will do as a result of) - instantly and with amazing global reach.

There are numerous examples of recent events where social media (via services like facebook, twitter, youtube, etc) have been central in supporting efforts to mobilize people to establish powerful 'flash' movements.

Central to creating these movements are igniting the emotional and intellectual spirit of people in communities (in all sizes) focused on a single mission to create change.

The power of storytelling and shared experiences

Again, it's difficult for many people to grasp the significance and impact of seven billion people on the planet. It certainly was for me.

Throughout the workshop, Dr. Babatunde and others shared powerful stories of their experiences with issues like infant mortality, women's health, impact on the aging population, education, disease, climate and environment, etc. It was through the stories shared both visually and verbally that people in the room were able to 'collectively' understand the issues and implications of population - intellectually and emotionally.

The emotional connection became powerful as people in the room were able to relate and connect their own life experiences to what was shared. This was the start of creating a movement in the room!

As an example:

• We all have (or had) grandparents or aging relatives and have witnessed the affects and special needs associated with aging to maintain health.
• Those who have children (biological or adopted) have been exposed in one form or another to infants/children with special needs where without proper care...mortality is impacted.
• Many people have family members or friends who are suffering or have suffered from diseases such as cancer, aids, malaria, etc.
• We witness daily the peculiar patterns in climate due to pollution and inefficiencies in energy use.
• Many people have witnessed firsthand the nature of poverty on a global level.
• The list goes on.

Seven Billion Actions for Seven Billion People

After 2 1/2 days of amazing brainstorming and work, the group resolved that success in supporting Dr. Babatunde's challenge would come from a keen focus on organizing a campaign and movement on the importance for a 'recommitment to humanity.'

The global campaign outlined during the workshop is "Seven Billion Actions for Seven Billion People." And boy has it taken great shape since then!  The campaign will launch formally, in July.

The goal of this effort is reach and involve many of the 2+ billion people who have access to the Internet via computers and the 4+ billion people who have access to the Internet or basic communication via mobile phones - around the world.

Through focused social and mainstream media and influencer engagement, the intent is to generate massive education about the issues associated with population growth and offer a platform for people to share their individual experiences (making an emotional connection) that inspire others to take action. 

The actions will be unique to what each individual or corporation is able to do, such as: donations, volunteerism, advocacy for policy change, education of issues, etc.

The founding organizations and companies supporting the effort include National Geographic, IBM, SAP (my former employer), Facebook, Thompson-Reuters, Deutsche Telekom, foursquare, blogtalkradio, Google, Edelman, and Mars - to name a few.  Celebrities such as Alicia Keys and Shakira (via their foundations) are also onboard as are NGOs such as idealist, Wikimedia Foundation and Jumo.

A call to action for the private sector

Coming from the private sector, I appreciate the critical importance for corporations to universally get involved (particularly those companies with global concerns).

Uneducated, unhealthy, impoverished and resource stricken communities or countries offer little to no prospect for economic growth. Corporations offer abundant and unique resources to support this movement for positive social change and economic benefit.

The ability for companies to mobilize and empower employees (within their respective communities) to become active in issues through volunteerism and also through corporate donation of innovative technology and services, and investment in education systems are among the ways companies can get involved. It's called doing good while doing good business! IBM has already set an early example!

This is something that has largely been viewed as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within many companies, which will quickly become a core tenant of corporate strategy as the world becomes increasingly interconnected.

Based on 2006 numbers, Fortune 500 companies employ (collectively) over 25 million people and generate 9.1 trillion dollars in revenue - operating in 200+ countries. Harnessing just one percent of these resources (alone) is enough to spawn an amazing movement of change. 

My commitment

As a core member of the UNFPA task force for this campaign, I have personally committed my expertise and position of influence at my company(s) to commit significant resources (at SAP and soon to be Royal Dutch Shell) to the effort.  I have also tapped the nonprofit organizations that I am affiliated with - The Churchill Club and the The Society for New Communication Research to commit great support. This is a very small part in the bigger picture...and an even smaller part of what is truly needed.

I invite you to spend 10 min to learn about the issues at www.7billionactions.org and how you can support individually and/or through your company or organization.

The campaign will launch in July of this year. Through the remainder of 2011 and 2012, a powerful cadence of high-profile activity will hopefully create a groundswell of viral support from the 6+ billion 'connected' people around the world.  The isues are real and the time to (re)Commit to Humanity is now!

You are one of seven billion. How will you commit yourself to humanity?

 

Influencers to Brand Advocates

I had the great opportunity to participate in a panel discussion this morning, hosted by BrightTALK in coordination with Think Influence. 

BrightTALK is a San Francisco-based company that specializes in providing online events for professionals and their communities. Think Influence is a grassroots community of peers (across industries) focused on the exchange of ideas and best practices on the role of influence in business.

The panel discussion was focused on the topic of 'influence' with particular focus on what influence is and how to identify, create and harness it in a world heavily dominated by all things social (social media, social networks, and social business).

The panelists included:

• Don Bulmer (me), Vice President of Global Communications, SAP AG
• Guy Kawasaki, Co-founder, Alltop
• Michael Fauscette, Group Vice President, Software Business Solutions, IDC
• Moderated by Barbara French, Senior Director of Analyst Relations at Juniper Networks & Co-founder Think Influence

Many thanks to Barbara French and Morgan Cantrell at BrightTALK for organizing and hosting the  panel and breakfast reception.  Below is a full video replay of the discussion (60 min).

 

13 Rules of Leadership for Communication, Influence and Social Media Strategy

For many years I have drawn great inspiration and lessons from leaders of all sorts - political, corporate, social and the like.

A political and social leader who has had among the greatest impact on me is former U.S. Army General and U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell.  In his autobiography 'My American Journey' Mr. Powell shares many stories, insights and lessons learned throughout his storied career. 

Perhaps the most important offering in the book are the '13 Rules of Leadership' that he shares.

I refer to these rules often and each time I look at them I learn something new. 

I would like to share them with you - along with commentary as to how I apply each as a communication professional leading in an environment of constant social and business change.

Interestingly, I found a great article authored by David Zinn published in 2000 - where he applied the same rules to coaching in sports.  A few of his insights are woven Into the below as well. 

RULE #1: It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning. 

The practice and art of managing communication and influence has changed significantly over the last three years driven in large part by the impressive utilization and growth of social media - further enabled by innovations in the development of mobile technologies and social applications. 

The ability for anyone to publish and communicate instantaneously with reach beyond boarders (only limited timezone) has fundamentally changed how communication professionals manage influence and shape opinion.

Communication professionals are often under pressure (sometimes false) to react or respond to issues in the social web in a matter of seconds or a few minutes - rather than several minutes to a few hours.  The pressure to react or respond so quickly to a negative 'tweet' or blog post before it becomes viral can be great.  It can also often make an issue or situation worse if done in hast.

Because of the viral nature of social media - when you react or act you must do so with a sense of purpose, clarity and honesty.  Sometimes this means taking time to gather facts, background and even assess if a response is warranted - or - if the 'social system' will self correct issues of concern.

It is always best to allow time to assess and condition a situation before reacting...because it might not look that bad after thinking it through.

RULE #2: Get mad, then get over it. 

Social media is a tremendous environment for people to channel their emotion and how they feel about a particular issue or situation.  When people communicate via social media it is often because they want to be listened to - they want to be heard.

The Leadership Imperative to Facilitate Innovation and Design Thinking

In a recent blog post I discussed the virtues of Design Thinking as a framework to facilitate the creation of innovative marketing and communication strategies.

In this post, I offer thoughts on what leaders need to do to create a culture where innovation and design thinking can actually thrive.

Lessons from Harvard Business Review.

In an article published in the December 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review entitled “The Innovators DNA" authors Jeffrey H. Dyer, Hal B. Gregerson, and Clayton M. Christensen discuss the characteristics of leadership that drive innovation cultures within organizations.  The article is the result of a six-year study to uncover the origins of creative - and often disruptive - business strategies in innovative companies.

The authors discovered that the best leaders in many organizations are not the genius behind ground breaking innovations.  Rather they are the curators of ideas and design and are the facilitators of collaboration that often lead to great innovations.

The ability to innovate is the secret sauce of business success. 

Companies that embody the spirit of innovation through design will lead and win in the market.  Companies like Apple, Amazon, and Proctor & Gamble are great examples of companies that are leading and transforming the competitive landscape of their respective markets based (in large part) by the culture of innovation that runs through their DNA.

In an effort to isolate the characteristics of innovative leaders the authors of the HBR article identifed the following fundamental characteristics and skills that leaders must posess.

Thought Leadership – A New Social Currency

Social media is a tremendous environment for B2B companies to establish competitive advantage through compelling thought leadership.

In a social environment, thought leadership allows companies to frame and stimulate conversation and collaboration around important and sometimes complex ideas and real-world business and socioeconomic problems – where their solutions are uniquely positioned to help address.

Through social media, companies can reach highly targeted audiences by role (CEOs, CIOs, developers, etc.), industry orientation and geography through any form of generic or specialized social network or community (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MyVenturePad.com, YouTube, etc.).

If compelling, people will contribute, share and internalize the thought leadership – giving companies a tremendous opportunity to influence agendas and establish standards in the market.

As outlined in a recent post by Rob Leavitt, in order to make an impact - thought leadership requires focus, depth and continuity.

For many companies this represents a big challenge due to a lack of skilled and trained staff (in house) to produce good, deep and continuous thought leadership - on their own.

Where resources are limited (in-house) many companies rely on external 'thought leaders' and influencers such as high profile academics, analysts, consultants and industry experts to help shape industry conversations.

Every company is a media company

Tom Foremski has made a passionate and compelling case for why every company is now a media company - in the wake of a disrupted and distributed media industry.

The cascade of the strengthening forces behind the disruption of the media industry (that Tom outlines) has forever changed how corporations manage their communications, reputations, brands and execution of business strategies.

On the positive side, companies now have the ability (and forced accountability) to communicate directly with its key audiences – giving them greater reach and more influence than traditional media has ever offered as a primary channel in the past. 

On the flip side, success in a new media environment requires a shift in how companies use their cadre of resources including employees, customers, partners and external influencers to be successful.

As every company is now a media company...every person is now (also) a media entity. 

Those companies that maximize and mobilize its employees and external stakeholders around important ideas and issues - will be successful.

This is where thought leadership can play a powerful role.

Principles of Influence in a Social World

“People don't change behavior or positions based on what they know. They change based on what they feel.” – Oprah Winfrey.

 

This is an extremely powerful and clarifying statement from one of the most successful and influential ‘social’ leaders of our time.  What makes Oprah Winfrey so influential, anyway?  In my view, she is successful because she has a pulse on the issues and concerns of millions of people within her core audience.  She is a master at channeling and telling stories based on both her own experiences and those of everyday people.  She comes across as accessible. She is a masterful communicator and understands the importance of authenticity. 

Regardless of your view on Oprah’s politics or opinions…it is hard to deny the great and transformative power of her influence.

There are many things that Oprah’s statement and viewpoint inspire in me – particularly in a business sense.  If you agree with the premise that we live and work in a world that is increasingly becoming ‘all things social’ then you will also understand that new rules (in business) are being written for companies to compete and be successful in this environment.

Use of social media tools can certainly help a company amplify its message and promote thought leadership, products and services.  It is also a powerful medium that can help transform cultures, motivate and inspire people, and create global movements when used/mixed with principles of social thinking and social influence. 

In today’s environment, it is increasingly impossible for companies to separate their products and services from their brand promise AND the experience of their key stakeholders.  As an example, if you have crappy products, the amplification of social media (as an experience driven medium) will make this well known very quickly.  The same holds true if you have great products.

Corporate Communications in a Social World

I’ve dedicated a great deal of 'electronic ink' on my blog to topics that impact the world of communications in a corporate environment.

It is very clear that we now operate in a world of all things social - social media, social networks and social influence. Over the past two years, many communication leaders have had to rethink the design of their programs, mission, organizational structures and purpose - to better enable their companies to lead in a hypercompetitive and increasingly social business environment.

Without a doubt, social media has creeped its way into the core of business operations and strategy at companies of all size and industry orientation - around the word. 

Business leaders are starting to take stock of how people (consumers, employees, partners and influencers) are using social technologies to inform, shape and share opinions about their companies.  In fact, many companies are actively incorporating ‘social strategy’ and ‘social thinking’ into the core of their innovation process (research and development), service and support operations, sales and partner programs, and of course employee engagement efforts.

Implication for Communication Leaders

Reputation management is no longer the only or the primary mission of corporate communications.  More than ever, communicators must demonstrate how they help their companies create competitive advantage and support the accelerated adoption of a company’s products and services; increase both customer and employee engagement and productivity; accelerate innovation processes, etc.  Communicators must also demonstrate how they bring actionable insight into the organization through effective use of internal and external social strategies and programs. This is not proven purely through traditional measures of media volume, reach/impressions, and tonality.

It is no longer just about scoring a cover story in the New York Times or getting that popular blogger to pitch your company’s value, or scoring a good rating in an analyst report.

Social Media Meets Business: Every Company is a Media Company

2010, where have you gone?!

One of the great highlights for me so far in 2010 has been the opportunity to collaborate with two great industry friends and SNCR colleagues - Tom Foremski and Vanessa DiMauro.

Tom is a well known blogger who left the Financial Times about six years ago to be a full time journalist blogger. For the past six years he has built a loyal following of 60k+ people who subscribe to his popular blog Silicon Valley Watcher to read his keen observations and straight shooting analysis on the important trends in business, technology and media driving Silicon Valley. (Tom is also credited with defining the term “Every Company is a Media Company”)

Vanessa is a well known thought leader, researcher and accomplished business women. Through her company Leader Networks she has made quite a name for herself advising companies and developing high profile communities and social networks for businesses.  Her efforts have helped to bring her client companies closer to customers, employees, partners and thought leaders - delivering great business value in return.  
 
Through our collaboration, Tom, Vanessa and I meet regularly to discuss industry trends and share experiences from our respective work in media, business, and technology. The collaboration has (in part) formed a great foundation for thought leadership, education and insight about the impact of social media on business - with particular emphasis on how business leaders should incorporate social strategies and social thinking into the heart of their business operations (beyond marketing and communications).

Over the last two years much has been written about social media as a tool(s) for marketing and communications professionals to expand the reach and engagement with their key stakeholders (customers, partners, employees and influencers) to communicate messages, create and shape reputations and generate buzz around a company’s products and services.

The hype around social media in the context of marketing and communications has created a vibrant industry for consultants and technology companies to offer high value thought leadership, education (via events/workshops) and tools that have helped many ‘practitioners’ evolve and adapt to working in a world that is ‘all things social.’

Spending on social media projects is expected to reach $3.1B by 2014 up from $700M in 2009 according to Forrester. This is an amazing number and I am sure there are forecasts by other organizations that predict even higher spend and growth.

Coming out of ‘The Great Recession’ of 2008/2009 many business leaders see the benefits of social media from an operational perspective as a way to significantly reduce spend on high cost marketing activities (such as advertising and events) by using social media to extend a company’s reach and have a direct dialog with their customers. Social media has arguably been most disruptive to traditional corporate communication models due to its use by investors, consumers, partners, employees, governments and influencers (media, analysts, academia, etc) to share opinions and talk about companies that have had significant affect on reputation management.

Recent stats show that the adoption of social media by everyday people has reached impressive and eye opening numbers: