Enterprise Social Networking - A Great Place to Start

Recently, there has been a lot of press covering the Enterprise Social Networking industry.  I have my own definition, but I have included the Wikipedia definition below:

Enterprise social software, also known as Enterprise 2.0, is a term describing social software used in "enterprise" (business) contexts. It includes social and networked modifications to company intranets and other classic software platforms used by large companies to organize their communication. In contrast to traditional enterprise software, which imposes structure prior to use, enterprise social software tends to encourage use prior to providing structure.

The Association for Information and Image Management(AIIM) defines Enterprise 2.0 as "a system of web-based technologies that provide rapid and agile collaboration, information sharing, emergence and integration capabilities in the extended enterprise".

Regardless of your specific definition, it is clear that today's companies need a clear and targeted Enterprise Social Networking strategy.  For some companies, it is part of their DNA and has never been formerly defined.  For example, I work for an open source provider of CRM software that quickly grew from an idea in 2004 to one of the most successful startups in this decade.  EnterpriseSocial Networking was never a formal strategy for the company, but it was critical to the growth and success.  The company started with three dedicated and focused founders who began creating and developing their vision for next generation CRM software that leveraged thoughts and ideas from around the world.  To harvest these thoughts, ideas, and contributions, they build a "community" to help them share in their goal and achieve their objective.  The community was leveraged for product ideas/features, product roadmap feedback (ranking ideas/voting), submitting ideas/code/extensions, and quality assurance testing of the product during development.  In many cases, the community became so dedicated to their mission that they even helped debug and fix areas of the product for the founders.  The community forum quickly grew from a source of information and sharing between the founders and developers into a larger community that supported a variety of purposes ranging from consultants for hire/career/jobs to client - to - client discussions sharing the best practices for implementation and customization of the software.  Over time, the community became equally important to software company and resulted in the founders becoming another peer in the community rather than driving the community.  Each release was driven by the product ideas, product feedback, and assistance from the overall community.  However, there is no stated Enterprise Social Networking strategy at the company, rather it is a critical part of the company culture.  It is hard to quantify the value of the community because without the community, there really is no company.  The community today has over 100,000 members with over 12,000 specifically focused to developing and assisting with technical details.  Through the community, there have been over 5 million downloads of the software which has helped to drive more than 5,000 commercial clients using the commercial/fee based edition.  Those numbers are proof that there is a huge ROI behind Enterprise Social Networking.  However, the common question I receive from client is really simple.  "How do I start?"

Step 1: Define your target audience.  Does you company want to improve client interactions or harvest employee knowledge, or both?  Research topics on the "voice of the customer" to make sure that you are "listening" to all the relevant clients, community members, partners, and stakeholders in your business.

Step 2: Review currently deployed tools and review your strategy with a holistic approach that incorporates existing communication channels such as your corporate website, demand generation programs, affiliate marketing, support portals, intranets, email campaigns, and forums.  Very few companies are starting from a complete "green field" scenario, so it is important to incorporate and refine existing interaction channels.

Step 3: Deploy, test, and refine.  Start with a phased approach, but move quickly enough to make an impact on your business.  Start small, but grow quickly.

Step 4: Encourage your employees to adopt "social networking" tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to get them thinking along the lines of new Web 2.0 communication tools.  While I noted a great example for how my company leveraged the community and forums for growth, I have a similar example where marketing failed to leverage Web 2.0 tools.  At a recent user conference, the company announced a Twitter feed for news related to the user conference.  The company posted only one single tweet, and that was on the topic of announcing the new Twitter feed.  The lesson for all is to make sure your employees embrace, understand, and become comfortable with using these new Social Networking tools before they take them into the "Enterprise" where your company often doesn't get a second chance if they fail with communication. 

In summary, many of the same concepts which drive intelligent use and adoption of social networking tools can be applied to Enterprise Social Networking.  Encourage your company to begin reviewing their strategy and interacting with clients, partners, and employees using these revolutionary new tools and strategies to improve your business.

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