The main misconception around enterprise social networking is that it brings a new level of inane conversation to the workplace. To use enterprise social networking effectively, you do need to know what it is, what purpose it’s able to serve and how it fits into the culture of your organization. When implemented correctly, it ultimately helps users to become more informed about what’s going on in their organization.
But is enterprise social networking truly a must for businesses today? More importantly, is it a must-have for your business?
There is no doubt that it tends to appeal more to the younger generation of workers. Employees with more seniority may be skeptical of implementing Yammer internally, for example. But what many people find is that these social tools help them learn more about what’s happening in the rest of the organization in a just few minutes. Reading a three-sentence project update in a daily digest is far more streamlined than wading through a bunch of email blasts, or trying to track down the status report on the project site.
Of course, the key to any successful enterprise social networking initiative is to begin with a clear strategy. An easy way to get started is to have senior leadership use the tool to make corporate announcements and updates. This pushes everyone in the organization to log into the platform to keep up with what’s going on companywide, and it gradually introduces people to the new technology.
Taking this top-down approach also means the first people that employees see using the platform are the executives, which is critical for increasing the level of engagement around the initiative. In this way, enterprise social networking opens up communication between management and the employee base without imposing a heavy mandate that everyone must use it. One of the best ways to do this is by posting individual or team recognition.
Remember, enterprise social networking isn’t about encouraging employees to waste time bantering and talking about plans for the weekend. These are business tools. And if using such tools improves communication within an organization, then they should be considered essential.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a company that wouldn’t benefit from improved communication, either across the organization, among teams or between individuals. If you’re able to make a compelling case that communication in your organization is already exemplary without enterprise social, then by all means, skip it — but that’s not likely in most cases.
However, if there’s not executive buy-in around an enterprise social networking initiative, there’s little hope of broad success. If that’s the case in your organization, investments should be made elsewhere.
So, is enterprise social networking a must in today’s business environment? While every organization’s needs are unique, it’s hard to argue against the benefits that social tools are able to offer businesses.
Learn more about implementing enterprise social networking in your business by contacting Portal Solutions.
