Organization Name: Cisco Systems, Inc
Industry: Computer Networking
Web References: http://www.cisco.com/ , http://www.scribd.com/doc/33461366/Cisco-Social-Media-Policy-Guidelines-and-FAQs , http://blogs.cisco.com/socialmedia/social-media-%E2%80%93-the-efficacy-of-the-corporate-guide/ , http://blogs.cisco.com/author/ChristopherBurgess/ , http://blogs.cisco.com/
Description on how social media is used for business performance:
Cisco Systems, Inc. has implemented its own social media policy guidelines. Christopher Burgess, a senior security advisor at Cisco, claims that the policy was implemented in order to “empower employee engagement” and to “help employees navigate social networks, as the employee engages the many audiences present within these social networks”.
Cisco encourages their employees to be transparent whenever responding to questions from audiences. Whether it’s Cisco’s official blog or other various social networking sites, employees are required to mention that their response is their personal opinion and not of Cisco’s. Cisco blog has sub categories in which their employees can post articles relating to their respective fields. The audience can respond to the posts using their social media network sites such as twitter, facebook etc. What we are witnessing is a phenomenon in which social media is facilitating an environment in which Cisco’s employees and their intended audiences are feeding into each others growth.
Lesson for others:
Empowering employee engagement by embracing social networking as a positive change has transformed Cisco into a company that is willing to listen to its target audience. By engaging in conversation with the target market, Cisco would be able to make necessary business decisions based on the feedback.