Social Networking Behind the Firewall Forces Intranet 2.0
Most companies think promotion when they think social media marketing. Generally their thoughts go right to Facebook or Twitter, and the emphasis is on external followers. Which begs the question, why overlook those dearest for you – your employees?In my experience, the “internal social” discussion generally begins when everybody else believes the intranet is a tragedy. Several organizations standard to the path of least resistance, Microsoft SharePoint. According to intranet consultant Prescient Digital Media, this might be a blunder. From their blog:SharePoint is a fantastically strong and complicated answer that gives more capabilities and bells & whistles than almost any technology system in the world. Nevertheless, it cannot be all things to all people all the time… it works well for some things such as record and group effort, and less well for enterprise and modification material management.” Take a look at single-purpose softwareAs Prescient’s Jed Cawthorne writes: “( SharePoint) may be the item for you, but how do you know until you review your requirements?”Sometimes a better option is single-purpose pc software. It will do the thing you need done effectively. Such resources are usually free or cheap.Take blogging for instance. Just this week I helped a customer put up an interior weblog. Their intranet is cluttered and stuffed navigating the maze is not any longer rewarding, so it is avoided by people. Mail just clogs inboxes. However a current employee survey specifically said people desired to hear more from the CEO. Enter the inner blog.We create WordPress, the gold standard of blogging computer software, which will be free. The IT department made a little inexpensive Linux server available. The consumer was taken by me to a niche site that carries premium WordPress styles (Woothemes.com) where you can obtain pre-designed themes at under $200. The client will spend only a little money to really have a graphic artist develop a custom masthead for the weblog, and presto – they will take the publishing business! More importantly, employees are certain to get what they want, frequent updates from the CEO (assuming that he keeps up with the publishing ).I had one customer a couple years back that necessary employees to blog internally for six months before being granted to blog externally – a blogging park team! What a great way to learn these abilities in comfort and safety.My first experience with this sort of “internal social” idea was each time a former boss of mine adopted Yammer, a sort of internal Twitter, for the sales staff. Reps around the world helped one another out, resolved problems, and provided reassurance. Yammer helped us build a better revenue team.You’ll desire a planPrescient Digital Media recently produced early findings from their 2011 Social Intranet Study. The statement plainly reveals intranets and cultural are in a situation of flux. As an example, while “Social media tools such as blogs, wikis and other cars are present on most corporate intranets” and “Most organizations invest little or nothing on their enterprise social media tools” however “Executives and employees alike are significantly less than happy making use of their enterprise social media.”The Prescient report goes on to note:Without a proper strategy and business case, many organizations may fail to correctly implement Intranet 2.0 technologies”Even the very best tools could fall prey to awful planning and publishing. Information is still master, even within the firewall.Doug Lacombe is president of Calgary social media company communicatto. He’s presently searching for that document on the intranet and swears it was here last week
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