The latest findings show that the use of blogging in the Inc. 500 companies is declining for the first time. Blogging had declined to 37% from 50% in 2010.  Advertising, Marketing and Media companies were the most likely to maintain blogs (72%) and Government Services companies the least likely.

However, as blogging reaches maturity in these organisations, the use of other social media, including Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Mobile apps, texting, Twitter and YouTube, is growing.  74% of responding companies were using Facebook, and 73% using LinkedIn.

90% of respondents report that social media tools are important for maintaining company reputation and raising brand awareness.  Slightly fewer see the tools as vital for generating web traffic and lead generation.  73% say the tools are important for customer support programmes.

When asked if the use of social media has been successful for their business, the overwhelming response was that it had been.  Respondents mentioned raising brand awareness, networking, thought leadership and the tools’ ability to give the company a ‘personality’.

25% of respondents plan to maintain their organisation’s investment in social media, and 71% plan to increase it.

The report is data rich and interesting reading.  It shows that the use of social media in organisations is evolving, with some mature tools being dropped in favour of newer ones.  A recognition of their value in supporting networking, and new ways of communicating, means that many organisations are planning to increase their investment in social tools.

First, on a Harvard Business Review (HBR) blog, Grant McCracken (who by the way describes the public library rather wonderfully as ‘a place of possibility’), described the Stuffed Animal Sleepover at his local library.

Children brought in their toys and left them for a ‘sleepover’.  The toys were photographed having adventures (being read to, playing on the computers) in the library at night time.  The librarians shared the pictures of their adventures with their children the next day.  Through this initiative, the children began to see the library as a place of magical happenings and the library was able to do things that digital experiences could not.

Second, a wonderful idea from Slovenia and picked up by springwise.com.  Ljubljana City Library ran an initiative offering mystery book packs to customers.  The mystery packages simply had a sticker denoting a literary genre and librarians advised them further on their choices.  Each parcel provided three books – a contemporary work, a classic and one ‘easy to read’.   As Springwise noted, the book packs provided an example of what public libraries do best.  They provided an enjoyable, curated and personalised experience to customers.

Sponsored by Sky News (so therefore focusing on the 24 hour news channel’s broadcasting), the exhibition covers the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the UK riots.

What emerges is the role of mobile technologies in documenting important news stories and the editorial (and personal-safety) decision-making processes that go on behind the scenes.  Satellite technologies enabled Sky Reporter Alex Crawford to report directly from scenes of conflict in Libya as well as from the Gaddafi compound as the rebels entered.  Months later, mobile phone images of the last moments of Gaddafi were broadcast to the world – albeit with warnings to viewers about the disturbing nature of the footage.

In London, another Sky journalist Mark Stone had been tipped off by Twitter and found his way to rioters in Clapham, London.  The footage of rioters and looters he filmed on his mobile phone was broadcast by the news channel.

The exhibition does not focus on the role of social media in raising awareness of or organising protests or on the growth of citizen journalism.   Nor does it include commentary or analysis of print or radio broadcasts.  Instead it explores the immediacy of 24-hour news broadcasting and the role and responsibilities of broadcasters in a world of rolling news and instant editorial commentary.

Co-operation and alternative stakeholder models have featured widely in this week’s media.  The UK’s Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, spoke about the employee engagement model exemplified by John Lewis – a model in which the employees have a stake in the business.  There is proof, he told his audience, that engaged employees can help create a more dynamic organisation.

The BBC’s In Business programme has also focused on the co-operative business model.  Peter Day reported from the Spanish headquarters of the world’s largest employee owned co-operative business, the Mondragon Group.  Mondragon is a highly successful business with a range of enterprises which is owned by 70,000 of its 85,000 employees.  Strategic decision making is also done co-operatively.  Every member gets one vote in a secret ballot.  In order to manage this process Mondragon’s Director of Cooperative Dissemination explains that the business focuses on getting the right information to its members so that people can reach their decision.

Marketing Week has also explored new partnership models this week.  Ruth Mortimer summarises why people are exploring the opportunities of alternative business models.

At a time when we all need to pull together and make the best of 2012’s unpredictable economic situation, any model that uses the brainpower, energy and enthusiasm of every stakeholder within a business seems not only like a good strategy, but a highly necessary one.

The current findings have taken the ERC by surprise – all the metrics have diverged from the patterns of previous years and some interesting mixed messages have emerged.  In particular, the ERC notes that two key influences stand out in the unusual shift in trends highlighted in the report:

The economy

The survey’s findings show that companies behave differently in economic hard times and that these behavioural changes are perceived by employees as ‘a heightened commitment to ethics’. More than four in 10 employees (42 percent) say their company has increased efforts to raise awareness about ethics.  Employees respond by adopting a higher standard of personal conduct.  While misconduct witnessed by US workers is at an historic low, reporting is at a near high.

Active social networkers in the workplace

Active social networkers are defined by the ERC as those who spend 30%+ of the working day engaged in social networking activity.  Key findings suggest members of this group have a distinctly different view of ‘ethics’ to those of ‘non-active’ colleagues.  They are more likely to report negative experiences in the workplace, and are more likely to experience pressure to compromise ethical standards.  At the same time, they are more tolerant of what others may consider ‘questionable’ activities.  For example, 42% of them stated it was acceptable to blog or tweet negatively about their employers, compared to just 6% of non-active social networkers.  46% felt it was acceptable to take company software home to use on a home computer (compared to just 7% of ‘others’).

Employers beware!

The report, which is sponsored by large businesses including BP and Walmart, suggests that employers may need to find new ways to work with new types of employees – those who may ignore social media policy but who are equally willing to whistleblow when they are unhappy with the organisation’s own ethical behaviour.  As ‘work’ and ‘life’ merge, it seems that some employees at least are setting their own ethical frameworks in the workplace – organisations ignore this group at their peril.

The 2011 campaign reached 50,000 people in library authorities, colleges, prisons and NHS trusts.

For the 2012 campaign (launching this month) The Reading Agency has partnered with Vintage, the publishers of Stop What You’re Doing and Read This which features essays from leading contemporary writers.  An additional 26 titles will be promoted during the campaign including classics such as The Secret Garden and The Pursuit of Love.  The full list includes fiction, non-fiction, poetry and graphic novels including titles for less confident readers.

The restorative power of reading (in whatever format) is well known to us all, of course and we all have our favourite mood-boosting books (let me nominate Three Men in a Boat as a book that always makes me laugh out loud although I am not sure that this qualifies it for inclusion on the list).  Any thoughts or suggestions for mood-boosting reading gratefully received!

According to NNG, smaller companies are designing better intranets compared to previous years – of this year’s 10 winning intranets, 6 support fewer than 15,000 employees, with the smallest being LivePerson at 550. The average number of employees in this year’s winning organisations is 19,700, which is the smallest since the contest launched 12 years ago.

The size of the average intranet team size grew to 15 people — slightly less than 1 intranet specialist per thousand employees, with the smallest teams consisting of 6 people at both Everything Everywhere (15,000 employees) and LivePerson Inc. (550 employees). The largest team was 26 people at NCR Corporation (21,000 employees).

Although mobile intranets have looked promising in recent years, this year saw a decline in the number of intranets offering mobile versions – possibly because teams do not have the time or resources to do more than focus on the main intranet. At the same time, social media components seem to have really taken off with a number of organisations such as MAN Diesel and Turbo making the most of the social potential of people search functionality within their intranets.

More information can be found here.

One subscription that really did ‘keep on giving’ in 2011 was McKinsey Quarterly.  The latest quarterly update features links to the most popular articles of 2011.  Appearing in the top 10 list, and first published in January 2011, this article on recovering from information overload was discussed in this blog in February.  The popularity of the article suggests that there are many opportunities for information professionals to provide guidance to colleagues on managing information flows.

Some other key themes emerge in the top ten articles, pointing the way to what is exercising those leading teams and organisations.

Creativity – information overload is identified as something that can stifle creativity – but what can spark it?  In Sparking creativity in teams the authors review the latest research and present four techniques to improve creativity, including the use of analogies and creating constraints.  In Seven steps to better brainstorming the authors recommend the asking of better questions, as well as ensuring that the right people are ecouraged to to participate in the process.

Strategy – in Remapping your strategic mindset, the author describes how executives can benefit from better mental (‘rooted’) maps to help them identify opportunities and threats.  In The perils of bad strategy UCLA’s Richard Rumelt summarises the differences between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ strategies and helps readers identify examples of both, while Have you tested your strategy lately provides 10 tests to help executives ensure their strategies are ‘roadworthy’.

All of the top ten articles are well worth reading and McKinsey Quarterly remains on my ‘must read’ list for 2012.  Other subscriptions were not so lucky, but that’s another story!

This year, in a break with tradition, Time Magazine has named not one individual but a group of people who have called for – and brought about – change throughout the world.  Time Magazine’s ‘person’ of the year in for 2011 is ‘The Protestor’.

From the Arab spring to the Occupy movement, 2011 has seen a ‘contagion of protest’.  The protest movement has provided three of the OUP’s words of the year, chosen for their resonance for 2011.

Protest has been transformational in 2011 and seems set to continue in 2012.

Whereas once it was the organisation that provided the technology infrastructure to its workers, it is now the users who are making these decisions based on their own preferences.

This trend (Bring Your Own Device or BYOD) brings challenges for organisations when it comes to managing access and security but it is important as employees and customers are increasingly expecting instant access to whatever they need, through any channel and via any device.

Writing on eChannel Line, Leyland Brown of Hewlett Packard says that companies need to shift their focus away from devices to the actual content.  If they get it right, organisations will find that they can improve the productivity and performance of the workforce by ensuring that they have instant access to the appropriate information delivered in the format of their choice via their own devices.  Sounds like a job for the information professionals!