Sandy Carter - IBM InterConnect 2015 - theCUBE
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 24/02/2015

Sandy Carter, GM of Developer Ecosystem at IBM, live from IBM InterConnect 2015 with John Furrier Dave Vellante

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The IBM Corporation is finding “a new way to [do] social,” said IBM’s GM of Developer Ecosystem, Sandy Carter. She’s one of the bright stars in IBM’s massive engagement organization and she joined theCUBE hosts John Furrier and Dave Vellante at the IBM Interconnect conference to discuss how IBM has achieved such a vibrant social presence.

 
Leveraging Employee Ambassadors

 

“One of the biggest influences of the brand is your employees,” said Carter. And therefore, having “so many IBMers out there blogging, tweeting, snapchatting has a huge impact on the brand.” It’s “word of mouth at it’s finest,” she remarked, and “a great way to engage.”

So important is employee social engagement, IBM trains its employees to be brand ambassadors. Carter explained that there is a social networking component inside IBM that gives employees the chance to “practice making tweets and videos” so they can feel “comfortable and confident” doing so in a more public forum. Furthermore, she added, IBM has a “great set of guidelines” that both gives employees boundaries and offers “encouragement from the top.”

 
Finding ROI in Social

 

Carter explained that IBM measured the ROI of its employee ambassador efforts by partnering with MIT: “We took a look at 2,200 IBMers,” she said, and “what happens when they’re out there in social.” When IBM employees connected socially with executives and people at other companies, they “produced more revenue for IBM than those that did not.” Carter concluded that customers are “going to buy from somebody [they] trust and someone [they] know,” and having a social relationship with an IBM employee makes customers more likely to connect with that employee in a professional capacity when needed.

 
Crafting the Cloud Ecosystem with Social Engagement

 

In her new role at IBM, Carter said that she is “helping to craft the cloud ecosystem.” This involves “engaging the community of developers, of entrepreneurs, start ups — everyone who’s involved in making the cloud.” In particular, IBM has been dedicated to “figuring out ways to engage [developers].”

Because”60 percent of developers’ engagement is social,” Carter explained that many of her efforts have been around “foster[ing] a culture of engagement.” This ranges from sponsoring Girls Who Code, participating in CitiMobile Challenges, and working with Digital.NYC. What’s key, she said, is that “IBM is a member of the community, not taking over the community.”

 
Appealing to Developers

 

The developer community requires a different approach than other audiences, Carter explained, because “developers — you don’t market to.” Instead, “it’s about the developer to developer conversation. They don’t want to talk to a marketing person when they’re developing code.” she added.

The best way to engage with developers, she commented is to connect “in their local environments.” That means involving IBM ambassadors in GitHub and participating in CitiMobile Challenges. The landscape may be global, she said, “but every community is local.”