enterprise social networks: evolving models for success

© Enterprise Knowledge, LLC

Enterprise Social Networks: Evolving Models for Success

Craig St. Clair, Principal Consultant


Social networks baseline: 2011

• Championed by a couple of evangelists

• Hired consultants to get it started – all very conceptual

• Interest from senior executives

• Set up pilot groups

• Assigned executives to seed conversations (weekly posts)

• Monitored behavior for several weeks

1

50 year old technology company – culture typified by traditional big enterprise behavior

Failed miserably


Why didn’t it work?

• Lack of Pain + Force of Habit = Low Adoption

• Too much effort > Not enough (immediate) return

• The relevancy issue > Employees have real jobs and deliverables

• Multiple fire hoses

• “Disruptive” isn’t the answer

2


A legendary sound technology company: 2013

3

Social tools integrated on the home page

Aggregation of streams the individual is following

Traditional announcement communications driven through the stream


International architecture firm: 2014

4

Embedded on the home page of the intranet

Independently available via app

Streams are organized around practice areas

Tightly integrated with custom MySite pages


An international architecture firm: 2014

5

Dedicated social streams for knowledge capture for individual projects


Key Concepts for Social Network Design

• Design it: Social networks can be purpose-built

• Manage it: Monitor and manage the proliferation of social groups

• Get the right mix: Social content is just part of the content equation

• Look for organic information exchanges > move them to social tools

• Avoid the pure techno-phile as evangelist

• Enterprise social networks are not Facebook; they are a tool for business and the same rules apply

6


Thank you.

Craig St. Clair

Enterprise Knowledge, LLC

www.enterprise-knowledge.com

@EKConsulting

enterprise social networks: evolving models for success

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