Ways To MakeEnterprise SocialA Success5

5 ways to make enterprise social a success

Enterprise social networking has the potential to transform the way people get work done.

It gives employees the ability to connect with co-workers, find information, solve problems, and

make decisions faster.

In addition to freeing people from the limitations and frustrations of communication silos, social

collaboration tools also let you tap into your organization’s collective intelligence.

While employees will appreciate something that helps them accomplish more while boosting

morale, they won’t touch it if the headaches outweigh the benefits. In order for your enterprise

social network to reach its potential, here are five things you must achieve to ensure effective

implementation and adoption.

1. It must be easy to get started

2. It should integrate all info sources

3. It must be contextual

4. It must adhere to how people actually work

5. It needs to be it IT-friendly

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It must be easy to get started

Your enterprise social networking platform should be easy to use. Chances are good that your

employees enjoy social sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in their personal lives, and they

should be able to quickly understand the social networking features you offer them at work.

Just as quickly as they “get it,” they have to be able to get to it. Collaboration strategist Andrew

Barendrecht, who helped deploy enterprise social networking for the oil and energy company

Apache Corp., explains why it must be easy to get started. “I see enterprise social as a pure

acceleration of traditional communication,” he said. “Before, it would take us time to train

everyone on where to go. Now we’re not wasting time on the training.”

It’s also important to provide a social networking platform with native apps for iOS, Android and

BlackBerry, so employees can easily gain access anytime, anywhere and from any device.

It should integrate all info sources

The antidote to fragmented, independent tools is a unified social networking platform that

integrates seamlessly into your workflow and business applications. Integrating social with your

business processes makes collaboration unavoidable and more importantly, desirable.

For better collaboration, put your content and your people in the same place:

• Intranet content

• Corporate services information

• Email/calendar functions

• Audio, video conferencing and IM capabilities

• Project portals

• IT help desk system

• Business applications (CRM, Content Management, Corporate Directory, Expense Management Systems)

• Enterprise search Source: Karthik Chakkarapani, July 12, 2011

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It must be contextual

Not every employee will have the same need for social networking tools, so you need a variety

of collaborative features for different types of users. Knowledge workers will frequently participate

in subject-based blogs and wikis, and will appreciate tools that help them rank internal content

and share browser bookmarks. Widely dispersed teams will find value in videoconferencing, screen

sharing and other meeting services. Business leaders might be interested in a microblogging

format for sharing leads, collective intelligence, and more. And of course everyone can take

advantage of microblogs, polls and profiles.

An enterprise social network “represents a huge potential knowledge gap that’s filled by social,”

Vice President of Forrester Research Rob Koplowitz said. “We do teleconferences, we send a lot

of email, but really the ability to leverage expertise and content across all of these groups is difficult

to do today. ... We need to be able to fulfill that boundary, and again, enterprise social is a great

way to cross organizational boundaries.”

It must adhere to how people actually work

The last thing you want your enterprise social network to do is overwhelm your employees with too

much information or with distractions that interrupt their workflow. You need to give users the ability

to select the information they want to follow, so they can tailor the social network to their specific

projects, interests and areas of expertise.

Relevance is key. The network must provide employees with the ability to follow very specific

information, such as the customer account they’re involved with—or broader information, such as

an industry topic. It helps to have an enterprise network that categorizes content and messages

by topics and projects. Employees need to follow what’s pertinent to their day-to-day work.

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It needs to be IT-friendly

An enterprise-worthy social network needs to provide a level of security and compliance that’s

acceptable for protecting your corporate data and IP. Jim Rapoza of Network Computing writes,

“Integrating the social network with your LDAP directory, utilizing VPN and all HTTPS connections

to secure communications, and choosing to install the enterprise social network inside your

company firewall can all go a long way toward making enterprise social networking more secure.”

A social networking platform should meet your organization’s requirements for enterprise-grade

security, governance and compliance. It should be easy to deploy as an on-premise solution,

behind your company firewall or as a secure cloud-based solution. Solutions with pre-configured

integration for common business applications and back-end systems are easier to deploy. And as

mentioned earlier, it should be accessible from any device, including tablets and smart phones.

Conclusion

There are a lot of choices when it comes to enterprise social networking tools, and the number

of available products and services is growing every day. Make sure the solution you choose

addresses the five issues discussed here, and you’ll be well on your way to a system that leads

to success.

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About tibbr

tibbr is the social network for work. It brings people, applications and actions together in

one place—on a desktop, smartphone or tablet—so work gets done faster.

tibbr also gives real-time insights on the people and topics that are influencing your business,

making it a great tool for discovery and innovation. It encourages the sharing of ideas and

inspiration so organizations can take advantage of their collective intelligence.

Launched in January 2011, tibbr is already used by over a million humans in more than

100 countries, revolutionizing how we communicate, collaborate, share and learn.

Learn more at www.tibbr.com.

sourcesChakkarapani, Karthik (2011). “Enterprise Collaboration Adoption Strategies – 10 Key Steps and Best Practices,”July 12, 2011.Retrieved February 2012 from http://karthikchakkarapani.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/enterprise-collaboration- adoption-10-key-strategies-and-best-practices/

Chakkarapani, Karthik (2011). “Enterprise Collaboration Strategy – 15 Key Steps for Successful Implementation,”July 2, 2011.Retrieved February 2012 from http://karthikchakkarapani.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/enterprise-collaborationsocial-business-platform-key-steps-for-

successful-implementation/

“Gartner Says 80 Per Cent of Enterprise Collaboration Platforms Will Primarily Be Based on Web 2.0 Techniques by 2013,”October 27, 2009.Retrieved February 2012 from http://www.gartner.com:it:page.jsp%3Fid=1215930

Rapoza, Jim (2011). “Enterprise Social Networks And Security Risks,”Network Computing, June 28, 2011.Retrieved February 2012 from http://www. networkcomputing.com/wan-security/231000497

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