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?The use of social media such as Twitter and mobile devices to transfer information has emerged as an important new capability for asset management and maintenance activities at process manufacturing facilities.
One indication of the potential importance, is the view from social media expert Euan Semple that internal social networks could have helped prevent recent major industrial accidents by enabling people to signal that things were going wrong.
Companies are often too conservative in their approach to services such as Twitter and Facebook, believes Semple. Organisations, he said tend to filter out the ‘noise’ at the cost of missing out on important signals about safety and performance issues from their workforce.
Semple, who helped establish an internal social media network at the BBC, has also recently advised BP on how to adapt its communications channels to make them more responsive to a networked world both internally and externally.
“This would be a more general and widespread use of social tools than something specifically aimed [for example] at safety,” he explained. “If you have too narrow a topic there is a risk that social spaces don’t generate enough traffic to be interesting and fall into disuse.”
But getting engineers and technicians to use social media is not always straightforward, according to a Bayer MaterialScience (BMS) manager who is moderating an internal social media community at the Leverkusen, Germany-based chemicals group.
“One phenomenon we see is that the engineer is not the most social. When you look to share their knowledge, one of the main questions you must ask is where is the benefit for him or her in their daily work.
“We did a few exercises asking people to spontaneously share [information]. But if it is only interesting to someone far away on the other side of the world, how exactly do I benefit from that myself?”
One of the companies to have, perhaps, most fully embraced the use of social media is chemicals maker AkzoNobel, which uses ‘Yammer’, a Twitter-like tool, as an extra means of internal communication.
“The tool is meant [to facilitate] exchange of specific information throughout AkzoNobel worldwide,” explains Jos Berkien, instrumentation & automation expertise leader at the company. “There is a select group of people who use it actively just like the social media tools are used on the outside.”
However, a more widely used platform at the company is its so-called “AkzoNobel Oneweb intranet” - an intranet environment that offers more communication functionality and information sharing.
One particular part is hosted and maintained by a group of six ‘communities of practice’ (CoP) leaders, who pool knowledge and share best practices from across AkzoNobel.
The CoPs’ remit is to “solve problems and identify opportunities more quickly and cost-effectively by reducing duplication of effort. They also provide a mechanism for identifying knowledge gaps and making recommendations for action at business unit and AkzoNobel level.”
 According to the spokesman, the six CoPs are currently active in the following areas: process efficiency; renewable raw materials; corrosion protection; colour & effects; water-borne technologies; and efficient cross-linking.
 These CoP leaders are the moderators of the platforms and actively organise webinars, send newsletters and host forums to discuss issues. The aim is to share best practice and knowledge from around the world related to their particular topics. 
“It takes a lot of time to maintain and expand such a network and to get people actively involved, so the CoP leader really acts as an initiator and catalyst,” said Berkien.
For instance, one of the tasks of the CoP leaders is to link people by passing on information and specific questions posted.
“As many people have specific operational tasks and are not constantly looking at the networking service, they need in some cases someone to provide a trigger,” the Akzo Nobel manager added.
“Once the people have seen the benefits of participation in such a network they can also choose to receive automatic e-mail alerts if new information is made available or questions are posted.”
Social media has also become an established part of the communication mix at Ludwigshafen, Germany-based chemicals manufacturer BASF over the last few years.
“Utilisation of these media ties in with our corporate goals. That is the basis for deciding which social media platforms BASF participates in,” said Prof. Dr. Remeysen, vice president, corporate operational excellence, at BASF.
Currently, BASF initiatives in the area of networking and building communities include those to connect some particular functions such as maintenance.
For example, said Remeysen, “a maintenance manager in a particular plant might have a specific topic or a problem with a type of pump. He can post his issue via an internal online business network to find a colleague who has experience with this type of pump and maybe has had a similar incident.”
The social networking facilities include Connect.BASF, an internal online business network launched in 2010. This offers BASF employees, at sites all over the world, facilities for building up networks, sharing knowledge and working together more efficiently.
Internally, BASF also sees opportunities in supporting employee motivation through open dialogue between managers and staff and fostering mutual transfer of information and knowledge.
For example, it said, ‘Wikis’, management blogs and chats are used for employee communication purposes in order to foster an understanding among employees for corporate decisions.
Overall, said a BASF spokeswoman, communities are used to share information and help employees support each other in solving problems. Interdisciplinary project teams, she noted, use these communities for their work, while corporate initiatives and service units use them to engage in dialogue with BASF employees.