In an interview on @theCUBE at InterConnect IBM’s social business program director, Amber Armstrong,  detailed out the social vision around how her team is creating a new way to engage”.   New ways of creating engaged media and crowd activated innovation owe their success to “starting the conversations early, often, and really engaging.” according to Armstrong. All the value IBM drives into their channels, Armstrong says, “we’re seeing that land back in our own company”.

Why Starting the Conversation Early Works

Armstrong said that IBM begins standing up social programs “months and months before” beginning a project — she cited their launch of an internal program called Smart Pads, a multi-structured social engagement strategy designed for special events, during last year’s TED@IBM event. The goal of starting the conversation early, she explained, is to “get that content out there, build awareness for that speaker.” Doing things in a series, she said helps them “get used to it,” they “learn to constantly come back for it.”

IBM’s Internal Social Media Policies

IBM’s employee advocacy tool, Dynamic Signal, allows employees to easily share content. It enforces a set of best practices rules that IBM embraces. “It’s a rule,” said Armstrong, “we always use visual.” Furthermore, images, “has to be in Twitter dimensions.”

Where IBM has Twitter in mind for sharing images, Armstrong says the tech giant is “still learning” when it comes to using twitter handles in their Customer Relationship Management systems. But, she added, they have powerful help on their side: MutualMind tools, for example, help IBM track all employee advocacy handles and monitor that group’s influence. “Being able to track those handles,” Armstrong explained, “helps [IBM] understand where you’re getting the most contact.”

Allowing Advocates to Speak for Themselves

IBM, Armstrong said, is “focused on getting other people to tell our story.” Their policy is to let employees, customers, external influencers, and industry experts “tell the story.” By “building a relationship,” and “letting them tell the story,” IBM allows their advocates speak for them. They encourage the interested public to “go to the hashtag, go to the person you trust.”

Crowd Activated Innovation with Crowd Chats

One area of innovation is the new CrowdChat engagement tool for twitter chats.  CrowdChat is an ideal forum for the IBM Corporation to “bring in influencers,” said Amber Armstrong, IBM’s Social Business Program Director. Then, from CrowdChat, “it’s easy to push out to Twitter to bring people into the conversation.” she added.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM InterConnect.