FIR Interview: Martin Silman, AT&T, on Corporate Social Networking in Europe

A major survey released today by AT&T shows that the use of social networking tools as part of everyday working life has led to an increase in efficiency.

“Enterprise 2.0,” a pan-European survey of more than 2,500 people in five countries – Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands – shows that of those employees using social networking tools in the workplace, 65% say that it has made them and/or their colleagues more efficient. In addition, 46% say that it has sparked ideas and creativity for them personally.

In this exclusive FIR Interview, Martin Silman, Executive Director, AT&T Global Concept Marketing, discusses some of the survey’s key findings including how employees with first-hand experience of using social networks at work on a daily basis recognise the benefits, explains two major negatives that emerged from the survey, headhunting via social networks across Europe, and offers some advice for organizations.

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About our Conversation Partner

Martin Silman graduated in Computer Science in Portsmouth, England, back in the days when computers required whole buildings to house them. As a member of the British Computer Society and an International Chartered Engineer with a post-grad diploma in marketing, Martin worked with IBM for 15 years, initially as part of their software development division and latterly as a consultant focused on business process re-engineering using EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) and similar technologies. During that time, he had a number of works published, including the EDI User Guide written for and published by the UK government.

Since joining AT&T in 1998, Martin has held a number of product management and marketing roles and has been responsible, initially, for the introduction of AT&T’s Global Managed Internet Service and AT&T Managed Data Networking Services, and more recently, for the MPLS based Enhanced VPN Services and until recently, he led the non-US product organisation that has been responsible for developing and introducing many of AT&T’s retail products available in the global marketplace today.

His current role is focused on initiatives which confirm AT&T as a leader in the telecoms market space, such as the Formula 1 motor racing initiative which provides state of the art communications to racing teams and other players in that arena.

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This FIR Interview is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.

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(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)