The number of CEO’s joining social media platforms is on the rise. However, a new study indicates that many are still unconvinced. While there is no question that an online presence has it’s benefits–such as engaging customers and employees–not all are convinced that it will increase their bottom line or benefit their brand.

As Forbes.com reports:

For every aspirational leadership rationale for signing up ─ to present an authentic face, get closer to customers, engage employees ─ there are pragmatic reasons still keeping the majority away.

Some simply don’t see the cost-benefit of the personal commitment. Others turn away due to the risk of well-documented personal attacks, disclosure issues or media scrutiny from off-the-cuff commentary.

For the full article, click here.

Since its inception in 2010, Marsh University has proven a valuable tool for Marsh employees, as well as for the company as a whole. In fact, Marsh now leads in employee engagement across all Marsh & McLennan companies. According to Ben Brooks, Marsh’s SVP and Global Director, Enterprise Communications and Colleague Engagement, some of the other benefits realized include:

• Improved performance on growth initiatives.
• Year-over-year improvement in career and employee development.
• Improved perception of leadership.
• Reinvigorated company culture.

To learn more about how this social solution was implemented, as well as the three keys to Marsh University’s success, please click here to read the full article.

Andrew begins a recent blog post by stressing the inefficient ways employees of the federal government experience training and education, and by suggesting three forces that will shape the future of learning for federal government. These include:

1. Informal learning is the new normal (i.e. Google searches, YouTube videos, LinkedIn / Quora / GovLoop question and answer).
2. The real experts are in cubicles, not classrooms (meaning that we learn less from people who stand in front of us in a classroom and more from our colleagues online and in-person).
3. Social networks are the perfect, perpetual classroom (you don’t need to wait for the next training – you can learn right here, right now).

Social Learning Boot Camp Modeled Social Learning

With that background as context, Andrew participated in the Social Learning Boot Camp hosted by    Future Workplace at Georgetown University. First Andrew shared how the Boot Camp was not just another conference, but really an executive education session which successfully modeled a new way of learning, one that is social, collaborative and mobile.

Here is what Andrew had to say about his experience at the Social Learning Boot Camp:

• Participants were encouraged to engage in pre-work that got them to interact with one another and primed them for in-person engagement
• Pre-work was incentivized through gaming and that online interaction was incorporated into the in-person session.
• Each participant received an iPad and was taught how to use it throughout the session.
• Participants broke into teams and used the iPad in a hands-on, real-time activity where they created a sample learning video to explain a concept or challenge – in under an hour!

In addition to these practical elements of the training, participants heard from practitioners who shared case studies about enterprise-level learning through internal social networks and gaming. I’d like to give a special shout-out to the Defense Acquisition University, who presented on their cutting-edge gaming endeavors.

Key Learning Points from the Boot Camp

Some other gems I heard in conversations and presentations throughout the day:

• “We are canceling more instructor-led, classroom-based courses than we are putting on due to tightened budgets and restricted travel.”
• Employers are increasingly expecting their potential hires to demonstrate social media literacy (or training them in that subject)…and applicants are increasingly expecting an open, social environment that welcomes online engagement as part of work flow.
• The top 3 barriers to adoption of social learning in an organization are: a culture that’s not ready for it, confusion about its value, and lack of training on its use.
• It is not fear of technology, but fear of transparency that inhibit social learning.
• Culture change happens when an organization identifies the committed leaders, communicates the benefits, and creates social media literacy training programs
• Social media / learning policy should explain the value, not just the do’s and don’ts (see socialmediagovernance.com for examples)

Why the Real-Time Video Project Was Successful

The videos created by participants were great examples of how quick, easy and effective it can be to prepare video for the purpose of training as they were:

• Created in real-time for just-in-time learning
• Authentic because it wasn’t over-edited
• Involved focused, fast production (vs. a long, drawn-out process)
• Fostered collaborative, social work to get it done
• “…not just a tech thing” as most of the production process was a dialogue about challenges (45 minutes) that culminated in a tech-enabled product (5 minutes)

One of the groups even used an app called Magisto to add music and some editing – all in just a few minutes – to take their video to the next level.

The next Social Learning Boot Camp is scheduled for:

March 7-8th, 2013

Georgetown University

Washington DC

Learn more and register here:
Social Learning Boot Camp

Top line findings from this research include:

• 70% of all CEOs have no presence on any social networks
• Only 7.6% are on Facebook
  • Of this, only TWO have more than 500 friends
• Only 3.8% use Twitter
• 25% of CEOs have not updated their LinkedIn profile with a current job title or company (What would you think if a prospective candidate did this!)

So what exactly does a Social CEO look like? What does he or she do and what are the implications in marketplace? As the infographic below illustrates, A Social CEO first and foremost believes in the value of learning from employees and customers in social ways. And Social CEO’s can demonstrate this in several ways one of which is by using social media to:

1) Gain market intelligence

2) Engage with current and prospective & current customers

3) Source & recruit top talent

4) Demonstrate transparency and openness

View the infographic and then read below to view the questions to ask yourself about what this means for your CEO?

Questions to ask yourself:

1) Will the demographics of the 2020 workplace change this? As more CEO’s assume office at a younger age, will they bring their social media habits to the job and insist on learning from employees and customers?

2) Will consumers vote with their dollars and decide between two brands based upon the “social literacy” of senior management? Are CEOs who have a social presence–defined as being active on some social media sites and sharing their beliefs and comments about the marketplace and industry–seen as better able to understand consumer needs and wants? According to BrandFog, a survey of CEOs who use social media found that CEOs who tweet are held in high regard by consumers. CEO activity on social networks also appears to influence employees’ faith in their company. The study’s findings indicate that 82% of employee respondents trust a company more when the CEO and leadership team communicate via social media.

3) Will HR and Corporate Learning professionals set the bar high and be the pioneers in building a social HR department and lead the way here?

Share your thoughts with me in the comments section!