I recently read an interesting white paper from IBM called "The Corporate Newsletter Goes Social: IBM and Employee-Centered Media." It's a great read about how IBM is utilizing social media to improve connections between employees, increase productivity and leverage knowledge across the organization.
One thing that caught my attention was the company's effort called "The Greater IBM Connection." According to the white paper, the goal of this program is to "build a professional network for current and former IBMers to network, collaborate and leverage social computing inside and ouside the corporation." Greater IBM has established a presence on multiple social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc) so people can choose how they want to stay connected to the organization. Since the days of having a job with one company for 50 years and then retiring are pretty much over, this is a great way for current and past employees to stay connected and share ideas.
I'm not sure if many other companies are doing something like this but I think it's a great idea. I started thinking about how something like this could work in sports.
If they aren't doing this already, I think it would make sense for leagues to start something similar (or bring the program online, if it already exists). Once you're a professional athlete, it becomes part of who you are. This will always be part of your identity, even when you retire. For example, an NBA player should be part of the NBA family for life, and should want to give back to the game and help younger players succeed. Establishing a network like Greater IBM would be very beneficial for a number of reasons:
- Help former players stay in touch with each other so they can:
- share financial advice
- explore business opportunities
- talk about life after being a Pro
- Help connect former players with current players so they can help and give advice
- Help former players stay connected to the league so they can help in community service efforts and give something back to the game that gave them so much
I'd be willing to bet something like this already exists in some form for most leagues. But a program like this could be improved by taking advantage of social media tools to provide even more opportunities for connection.
What do you think?