By now most companies are aware of the value of social media marketing. Many companies have set up their presence on the public social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube… Some are even taking advantage of the newer social networks such as Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr. Marketers are busy monitoring their brands and writing remarkable content in the hopes of engaging with their customers and prospects.
A few companies, however, are taking advantage of social technologies in a completely different manner. They are deploying internal social networks, usually called Enterprise Social Networks (“ESN’s) in order to harness the power of social and enhance the collaboration and knowledge sharing of their employees.
Theses companies have realized that a properly deployed ESN can really change the way employees work and make their work processes more efficient. Let’s examine seven of the ways ESN’s can add value to your organization:
Improving Collaboration and Breaking Down Silos
ESN’s can help people connect and work better together, across department’s functions and locations. ESN’s allow employees to easily share documents and other files and comment on those files without having to cc everyone on an email. ESN’s also gives projects and questions visibility across the whole company.
Improving Organizational Speed and Agility
ESN’s can help all employees be more productive and react faster to emerging opportunities or problems. Users can submit updates to an ESN at any time and from anywhere. With ESN’s, users can spot new opportunities in the field, capture them with their phone cameras and share them instantly with their team or across the whole company. Similarly, users can alert others of problems or issues they are facing and ask for help or suggestions in a very quick and efficient manner.
Enabling Innovation
ESN’s help streamline the process of sharing ideas across the organization. If an employee has an idea or needs help in coming up with ideas, ESN’s are the perfect tools for sharing ideas or asking people for help. Employees can quickly post a message to their walls and fellow employees will instantly see it and respond accordingly.
Locating “In –House” Experts
With an ESN, employees are able to quickly identify colleagues who are experts in a particular area. By performing a quick search, users will be able to identify those individuals at their company who are knowledgeable in a particular skill or area. Some ESN’s also recommends experts based upon what the user is doing and what they are looking for. Gone are the days when employees have to call around asking for someone who may have an answer. With an ESN, employees can quickly find those individuals who are familiar with their issue and provide an answer in a short period of time.
Flattening the Organization and Improving Transparency
ESN’s help reduce communication bottlenecks and encourage connections across all levels and functions. Employees are no longer confined to communicating within their department or through their supervisor. Anyone with an idea can share it and make it available for the whole company to see. ESN’s allow employee contributions to go public, without regards to title or departmental focus.
Promoting “Bottom-up” Communication
ESN’s give every employee an opportunity to be heard. Gone are the days of top to bottom communication. Have something to share or say? Have an idea on how to improve a product or a process? Share it on the ESN.
Raising Engagement
ESN’s can convert top to bottom communication to a two-way conversation. It can bring focus to what’s important at your company and allow for everyone to participate in that conversation. ESN’s can make all employees feel engaged with their professional community and in tune with the mission and vision of their company.
In summary, ESN’s can deliver real business value to any organization. The key is to insure that all employees are properly trained on not just how to use these tools but more importantly why? Adoption is key when it comes to ESN’s. It is important for everyone in your company to understand their value and the value of changing the way they work.
Great summary, thanks for sharing. I’ve done quite a bit of research in this area as well and am having a hard time finding good case studies where the above types of things are actually being implemented effectively. I have no doubt they will recognize the potential you’ve noted above but it’s just a case of who will come up with the right implementation model first?
Thanks Andy!
I have implemented ESN’s for three different companies all with different levels of success. I just finished a year long engagement with one of my clients, a leading adult beverage company, and we had many case studies where we where able to show the exact benefits I am referring to. Having a good implementation plan is key. At my last client we made sure to launch the ESN to a small number of business case studies (projects that where already in existence or where about to launch) that we thought could benefit from leveraging the ESN functionality. Three months later, we launched the ESN to the entire company. The benefit of this approach is that by the time we launched to the entire company, we already had some key success stories and internal champions who helped in communicating the value of the technology to other employees.
One other key component for success is executive adoption. Executives need to lead by example and participate in the implementation and use of the ESN.
Dear Guy,
Im interested to know if ESN can help leaders and managers in managing and communicating organizational change easily ?? Do you come to any examples of organizations used ESN in change project ?? can you share us those organizations ??
Thanks
Guy
Have you had any luck getting some hard and fast case studies/success stories? I’m researching in to this for a major law firm and am keen to give some examples from the professional services sector – I suspect these’s still not much out there. Thanks Rod
Hi Rod:
You are correct there is still not much out there when it comes to law firms, however, that is beginning to change. We are actually conducting a study and writing a book that will highlight some of the case studies out there as well as a ranking on how law firms are doing over all. I would be happy to share it with you when its complete or just subscribe to our mailing list and you will be automatically notified.
Hi Guy
Very keen to share what you discover – do you need any information/help about what’s happening in the UK? Happy to do so if I can.
Fantastic summary! ESNs can also be used to reward and recognize team members. It’s also an ideal platform to promote positive, culture-building/defining behaviors. I launched and was the community manager for my former company’s ESN and am now doing the same for my current company. Learn more about my views on ESN and employee engagement at http://bitly.com/bundles/pheebkat/6.
Thanks Phoebe! I checked out your Bitly bundle. Great collection of content on ESN and employee engagement. I completely agree and forgot to mention in my post. ESN’s are a fabulous way to recognize and reward good work. Gamification can also play are great role when integrated into your ESN.