Wrestling With Internal Social Media

nälive! A [email protected] @AliveWithldeas Pros Cons & WRESTLING WITH ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS When it comes to greater collaboration, connection, innovation, engagement and productivity the ESN is set to be a hands-down champ. * * * 'By 2016 enterprise social networks will become the primary communication channel for noticing, deciding or acting on information relevant to work activities.' Gartner Like anything though, there are pros and cons to grapple with... Pros Cons O According to research by McKinsey, ESN's can increase productivity by O Initial excitement can wane 30-35% O Can create new silos rather than breaking down old ones O Can make popular killer content exclusive to your ESN O Getting people on board can be tricky O Fosters innovation, allowing organisations to crowd source ideas Qualiti of posts O Increases knowledge and insight sharing O Works well for small, specific groups regularly liaising on key topics will vary Go mobile! report in real-time on activities and events O Can be seen as confusing competition for other channels O New problems arise when reaching a mass audience O You can end up with a plethora of groups and long feeds O Creates a searchable knowledge database - get questions answered quickly and easily O Can become "Facebook for the office" O Can share varied content types - documents, discussion threads, images, video, blogs, polls, etc. O Appeal will vary depending on culture - age groupS, communication styles and location O For a global business, one language may dominate, excluding others O Create private collaboration spaces O Cuts down on email traffic O Can be challenging to embed the right behaviours Gives people a voice O Socialises the business O Become a more responsive organisation by helping people connect across geographic, organisational, language and cultural boundaries. O Increases transparency. O Increases sense of belonging and pride - a sense of being part of something bigger than just us. GOING FOR GOLD! CONSIDER THESE WINNING FACTORS FOR SURVIVAL AND SUCCESS BE IN IT TO WIN IT Be clear about WHY you want to use it and WHAT you want to achieve O Have a defined plan about where it sits alongside other channels O Get buy-in from senior executives before you begin O Develop a robust training programme for user adoption GET READY TO RUMBLE Create a FUN activation and communication plan O Start with a pilot programme - create video case studies - real stories from people O Identify a community manager to nurture adoption and manage implementation - mission critical to success! O Put appropriate governance in place O TRUST - Have the COURAGE to not censor contributions O Have high quality content providers from all levels O Avoid using your ESN as a propaganda tool O Focus on 'people centric' collaboration PROMOTE YOUR TOP CONTENDERS O Install apps on phones and machines - add to the start-up of machines to automatically Create community advocates open each day O Keep it high profile, top of mind O Manage what gets posted in the company feed VS what should be posted to specific groups O Promote the use of hashtag to categorise topics and conversations O Always find ways to drive traffic to your ESN O Rigorously evaluate the business benefits alive! email: [email protected] | twitter: @AliveWithldeas | web: www.AliveWithldeas.com