Content summary: Francesca Karpel, senior manager of Internal Communications at NetApp, delivered a breakout session at the 2010 New Communications Forum titled "How Social Media & Online Communities Strengthen Employee Engagement," April 23, 2010.

From the NewComm Forum session description:

NetApp (#1 on Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For in January 2009) employees around the world wanted more opportunities to communicate – with each other and with leadership. Based on this employee input, NetApp built an online community, NetApp Live, connecting its global workforce and delivering on its brand promise.

Learn from NetApp’s experiences building an online community for employees, including building a cross-functional team to drive the initiative, conducting a thorough vendor-evaluation process, developing social media guidelines, identifying the people and skills needed to manage the site, launching community, encouraging participation, and the metrics to assess the impact. Discover why social media is an investment in NetApp’s future.

This presentation was part of the "New Communications & Communities" track.

Special thanks to Michael Procopio for supplying the recording.

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About Francesca Karpel, Senior Manager, Internal Communications, NetApp

Francesca Karpel is a communications expert with more than 20 years of experience in various industries including technology, education, and financial services. Her expertise includes identifying and executing strategies and technologies, which facilitate corporate growth. She has grown NetApp’s internal communications infrastructure as the company has grown from 1,000 to more than 8,000 employees, and become recognized as a great place to work in locations around the world. Francesca led the cross functional team that selected the software platform for both internal and external communities at NetApp as part of the NetApp brand launch.

Francesca has spoken at conferences and provided best practice examples in professional texts on internal communications and branding.

Francesca earned a BA from Smith College and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She also studied at École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales, Cergy-Pontoise, France, one of the premier management schools in Europe.

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