Social Media Portal interview with Adam Bates at KPMG

Profiled - Adam David Bates, UK Head of Risk Consulting and Global Head of Innovation at KPMG

Social Media Portal (SMP): What is your role at KPMG?

Adam Bates (AB): UK Head of Risk Consulting and Global Head of Innovation

SMP: Briefly, tell us about KPMG (for those that don?t know), what is it and what does the organisation do?

AB: KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. We operate in 152 countries and have 145,000 people working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (?KPMG International?), a Swiss entity. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. KPMG is a strategic member of the World Economic Forum.  

SMP: Tell us about WEFLive.com, what is it and what was it designed to do?

AB: WEFLive.com is a social media aggregation site that provided a simple way to follow Twitter conversations from delegates of the Annual World Economic Forum. It gave millions of people virtual real time access to the trending topics coming out of Davos, no matter where they were, something that hasn?t happened in the past.

SMP: Who are your target audience and why?

AB: People who are passionate about future trends, innovation and emerging risks. The site was a great chance to communicate and share ideas with people you wouldn?t usually meet. An opportunity to ignore hierarchy, borders etc.

SMP: How long did it take to create and what are you most proud about?

AB: I?m proud that we allowed millions of people access to Davos, one of the most exclusive events in the world. Pretty impressive.

SMP: What was the most challenging part of building the service and why?

AB: Difficult for us to comment specifically for competitive / proprietary reasons.

SMP: How did you initially attract users to use the site, and how will you continue to do so?

AB: We initially attracted users through both social and traditional media. We had lots of people tweeting about the site or retweeting interesting comments from the site including the KPMG member firms twitter accounts. We also had support from the WEF social media team who helped promote the site.  Finally we also used press releases to highlight the purpose and benefits of the site.

As Davos progressed, more users were attracted as users retweeted content from the site (including Arianna Huffington) and we were able to use the site to release infographic summaries (www.kpmg.com/davos) of the discussions at Davos (which were picked up by digital and print media).

SMP: How successful has WEFLive.com been at Davos this year?

AB: We were very pleased with the success of WEFLive.com and look forward to next year. Over 20,000 tweets during the summit ? with 137,749 retweets

SMP: What has the use of WEFLive.com at Davos taught you?

AB: Personally, it taught me that you don?t have to be physically in Davos to understand the mood of the event, and follow the debates and direction of thinking. By following the tweets on WEFLive.com you can spot the outstanding Twitter personalities and then continue to follow them for their insightful tweets throughout the rest of the year.

SMP: What are the low moments of what you have been doing so far?

AB: In respect of my use of social media, my personal low moments are when I am struggling to balance using different social media outlets with my day job. I am really interested in learning how to use the various tools to the best of my ability but with an ever growing number (Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, Pinterest, internal platform, blogs etc.,) there are not enough hours in the day.

SMP: What are the high moments of what you have been doing so far?

AB: Connecting with people that I would never have met otherwise. In particular I love being able to connect with some of the most junior people in our organisation and have conversations and debates that just would not have happened pre social media. Chatting to an 18 year old that has just joined makes me feel (a bit) younger and gives me precious insight that you don?t get sitting in the ivory tower of the office executive floor!

SMP: What do you see as your (and for global businesses) biggest challenges and opportunities in terms of digital environments?

AB: People forget the rate of change we are experiencing sometimes and how hard it can be for some people to adapt and adopt. Lots of people like me, joined organisations pre-email, pre-computer, pre-mobile phone. I remember the days of the office memo!!

The biggest challenge - and opportunity for innovation and progress when it is done correctly - is connecting people. How do we get people to engage with new tools and technology, connect together and share good ideas and practices across borders and organisational structure?  

SMP: What are the next moves for KPMG in terms of social media?

AB: Our current internal focus in terms of social media is the global role out of a consistent single internal social platform to help our people connect and collaborate across borders and organisational structure. We also envisage much more interaction with clients through social media being the norm ? helping us to strengthen our relationships with our clients and communicate instantaneously across the globe.

SMP: What will be the plans for WEFLive.com when Davos ends?

AB: WEFLive.com is still accessible for people to search and analyse post Davos, and we intend to re-activate the online service at next year?s World Economic Forum.

SMP: What?s the next big step for social media and networks?

AB: Posting to social media via other sources than typing by hand. For example being able to tweet someone while you are walking down the road using voice recognition (no matter what your accent!) or augmented reality tools like the rumoured Google glasses. Also continuing increased/ more innovative use of video. 

SMP: What?s going to be the most interesting aspect regarding social media / technology throughout 2012?

AB: What will be the final Facebook valuation on its IPO? Does Pinterest become truly viral? Will voice recognition become true reality (e.g. will I be able to tweet using my voice)?

SMP: How is KPMG guiding through its clients the world of social media (what are new frontiers that need to be aware of)?

AB: Businesses recognise the benefits of social media especially around marketing and customer service, recruitment and as a source of customer information. The challenge for big corporations is how to embrace social media and the benefits it can bring and at the same time manage the associated risks ? social media is built on immediacy and openness, it was not designed for the commercial world and therein lies the risk as a number of organisations have discovered over the past few years. KPMG works with its clients, on a case by case basis, to help them utilise the benefits and mitigate the risks.

SMP: What are your top predictions for social media throughout 2012?

AB replies with:

1. Thanks to the new Facebook Timeline, brands will be forced to learn that it?s about telling a personal story to their customers/clients, and not about promoting products and services or getting ?likes?. Person to person.
2. Pinterest is on fire, and will continue to gain traction with the consumer audience extending into many new markets. The ?love? brands like Starbucks and Coke will capitalize on this opportunity, but the B2B brands will grapple with how they can engage with their clients in the ?scrapbook? social site.
3. Google+, due to the SEO benefits it offers, will continue to grow ? slow and steady wins the race.

SMP: What are your top five social media tips?

AB  replies with:

1. Use clever humour. Don?t take yourself too seriously. In my experience people engage more with posts that have a humorous element. Obviously it needs to be appropriate though?.
2. Content: Provide original content or promote other people?s content that you have found insightful or interesting. It?s good to learn.
3. Speed: Listen before you post, but be timely and relevant with your posts.  
4. Enjoyment. Your time is precious so only use the social tools that you enjoy interacting with.  
5. And overall - be yourself. The joy of social media is that it allows you to connect with people rather than organisations. Therefore it is important to be yourself otherwise you come across as fake.

SMP: If there any social media news, research, reports or similar from KPMG should be aware of?

• KPMG?s Social Banker series
  
• Going Social publication
  

SMP: Best way to contact you and KPMG?

Adam
@adambates_kpmg
LinkedIn
Email: adam.d.bates @ KPMG.co.uk

KPMG (Globally)
LinkedIn
@KPMGGlobal
YouTube

For career social sites (twitter, YouTube, Facebook etc.,) see KPMG career social sites.




SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?

AB: Eggs Benedict (but don?t tell my doctor?)

SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?

AB: Recently I connected with one of our knowledge managers in the US through our internal social collaboration tool. During our conversation she recommended a book called Back of a Napkin that she had read about but not actually read yet. I then bought four copies, one for me and the rest for the first three people who requested them. Thus, I slightly madly shipped one copy from London to the States ? not exactly the most cost efficient way I suspect but nice to do!!

SMP: How many hours to you work a week?

AB: 70 plus.

SMP: If you weren?t at KPMG what would you be doing?

AB: I would be travelling with the world?s best photographic travel agency (some people say) Shutterspeedtravel taking photographs of apes all over the world. Bonobos are my favourite but they are not always that easy to take pictures of as this short video shows?

SMP: What?s your best WEFLive.com tweet that you can remember?

AB: I was invited, via Twitter, to meet for coffee by one WEF delegate. Unfortunately, rather than being in Davos, I was doing jury service in the distinctly less glamorous surroundings of the Crown Court in central London and so was not legally allowed to leave the building! Thankfully I was legally allowed to use Twitter as I was not yet on an actual case.

Will KPMG be pitching for the FBI?s social media brief to build a monitoring tool?

AB: I can neither confirm nor deny.

SMP: When and where did you go on your last holiday?

AB: My last holiday was at Christmas when I was photographing Orangutans in Borneo.

SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?

AB: I get into the office early when it is quiet (before the beldam starts) and spend the first half hour or so researching what is happening in the world, tweeting, posting on our internal social platform and writing blogs for internal and external use.   

SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?

AB: Instantaneous travel around the world. Why? To save time - the most precious thing in the world is time and health (and love of course). Travel doesn?t do either of these any good!!

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