A "genius" approach to internal communications in a BYOD world

Usually the best advice is timeless. Look both ways when crossing the street. . . golden.

In 2013, I attended Melcrum's Digital Communications Summit. One of the biggest takeaways was a quick bit from John Stepper, MD Social Media and Collaboration at Deutsche Bank.

The smart internal communicators know that the mobile device is the now and next frontier for them to conquer. But with so many companies adopting a BYOD (bring your own device) culture, communicators feel these might be off limits from employee communications. Not true at all.

Myself included, think of how many of are more than happy to use our own mobile devices for personal and business reasons. It's easier and few want to carry around a personal device and a business device.

In John's session, he talked about Deutsche Bank's transition to BYOD. It was great that the company offered employee access email and calendar tools (obviously) but also access the intranet and document, all from an iPhone or iPad. Here's the rub; he pointed out though that employees didn't know this access even existed. Or how.

The solution? Copy from Apple's Genius Bar approach and set up sessions to teach employees how to access the information and even get them all set up. The approach is simple and powerful and achieved great results.

Watch the video to hear John tell the story.

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