In today's SME Champion blog post, we meet the so-called "Queen of Cisco WebEx Social for IT." WebEx Social (WxS), previously known as IWE (Integrated Workforce Experience), is the company's internal collaboration platform that exhibits social networking, content creation and real-time communication features. A Program Manager within the IT Customer Strategy & Success (CS&S) group, Shannon is quite involved with the Client Experience, Governance and Adoption of  WxS within IT. 

Shannon Practices and Preaches Internal Social Media Usage

Shannon started using WxS when she first joined the company three years ago. Since then, she has been an active member of the WxS for  IT program team while leading projects as well as providing consulting & support to IT employees and other functional teams. Her efforts have the ultimate goal of demonstrating business value and telling the Cisco on Cisco story in order to accelerate internal adoption and increase sales of WxS with external customers. 

Shannon is a change agent responsible for evangelizing WxS and fostering collaboration within IT by helping her "customers" (IT employees) find relevant ways to utilize WxS in their everyday work lives.  She does this internally by hosting brown bags, creating viral campaigns like "I love IWE" and blogging internally to share her best practices. What's more, if someone approaches her with a question regarding WxS or needs help finding information, she is  always willing to help and is just a click away.

Not only is Shannon an active on this internal platform herself, but she also acts as a fantastic advocate to enable and encourage others at Cisco to excel on WxS as much as she does. She preaches that this internal platform is a great tool for project management and practices what she preaches by using WxS communities and Posts to manage all of her projects.  Such dedication and hard work has been awarded more than once by others at the company. Lance Perry, VP of IT CS&S at Cisco, recognized her with the "IT CS&S Above & Beyond Award": "You are one of Cisco's most valued partners, and we love working with you. Your tireless efforts championing IWE, decommissioning CEC sites, training, consulting and advocating the use of WxS-not just within IT but across the enterprise-has proved to be valuable."

What drives you to be so active on WebEx Social?

"I'm passionate about Enterprise Collaboration, and I think WxS is a great product. I have experienced the productivity gains first-hand and see the value it can bring to individuals. It's still got a way to go, but I think we can beat other competitors if we can get out in front and accelerate adoption internally."

So what's next for Shannon?

Although much of her social media work is more internal-focused such as creating IT  blog posts on WxS, a few months ago, she  started to dabble in external social media  such as Twitter, LinkedIn to share her experiences of using WxS with her followers outside of Cisco. She would like to start blogging externally for Cisco IT as well. To become acquainted with these platforms as quickly as possible, she has been an avid participant of the internal Cisco Social Media Training Program and is looking forward to getting to the next level with her external social participation.

 Meet Our SMEs" is a new blog series designed to acquaint you with some of our behind-the-scenes Cisco SMEs (subject matter experts) who have gone above and beyond to integrate social media into their day job. In addition to introducing you to their background and areas of expertise, we have highlighted some of their social media achievements and best practices. We hope you find these SMEs' stories interesting and possibly even applicable to enhancing your own social media practice.