It seems the case study model of blogging is valued by my readers and therefore I am inviting you to reflect and share perspective on the next issue of social media adoption for internal communication.
Over the last few weeks I have had three separate conversations with leading communicators from global and Indian organizations on challenges in influencing social media adoption for internal communication. Not surprisingly, the questions were uncannily similar.
Take the case of Shruti who is tasked with internal communications for a well-established IT services provider in India with a workforce of close to a lakh employees. Here is a transcript of our conversation.
Shruti: “We introduced an internal business and social networking site for our employees hoping to get participation and they just don’t seem to show up. What do we do?”
Me: “What were the objectives of starting your site?”
Shruti: “We thought about the demographics of our workforce and designed a platform to engage the community. There are both geo specific sites and global ones for them to choose. I have thankfully a smaller audience of 2500 employees to work with. This set of employee belongs to one division that I support. The objective is to connect employees in an efficient manner, allow interaction with HR and also share organizational updates. However they don’t seem interested. How can it be?”
Me: “Do you know why your employees aren’t participating?”
Shruti: “Most of our employees belong to Gen Y and as you know prefer social networking and lesser face-to-face meetings. Taking this into consideration, we created the site but it’s not being leveraged by them to the fullest. This is especially true for our division as we have access to other external sites like Facebook and Twitter. Whereas people in other verticals don’t and for them their social networking site has been successful. Our employees find time to go to Facebook but don’t think it valuable to connect on our internal system. Did we do something wrong?”
Social media in India has come a long way in the last five years and it’s no secret that the new media communication has transformed the way people communicate within organizations. As companies realize the need for enhancing everyday communications and constantly innovate to deploy new employee engagement tools, social media is becoming a preferred medium for sharing knowledge and experiences hence, building long-term relationships. In India, with a tracked number of close to 80 million people online, social media is undoubtedly growing in leaps and bounds.
It is estimated that India will touch 45 million social media users by 2012. Also Indians today, according to Nielsen’s social media usage report spend more time on networking sites instead of personal e-mail. Other sign of the growing influence of social media in India is Facebook’s recent takeover from Orkut as the most popular social networking site.
With the country boasting of the world’s youngest workforce, corporate India is seeking young blood to drive their organizations forward. According to a recent survey conducted by the leading financial daily, The Economic Times along with the global market research firm, Synovate, 73% of the people polled; felt their company could perform better if they had younger leaders.
Back to the case.
- 1. How can we get employees to embrace social media for internal purposes?
- 2. What can internal communicators do differently to ensure the organization’s investment is maximized?
- 3. How can Shruti revisit her approach to improving engagement using the site?
I invite you to reflect on Shruti’s dilemma and share perspectives to get our valued internal communicators on the same page with adopting social media internally. Post your comment here.
INTRASKOPE - Internal Communication Viewpoints 
First of all Aniisu, I would like to appreciate how your style of writing and communicating have evolved over the years. Its been some years I have been reading your writing and every month I see that it has improved. Thank you also for the valuable insights so far.
I think one way to improve social networking initially is to do all your contests online, blogs and chats with senior managers should also be online so that there are more fun things to read more often. Once you get used to using the site, then one can always share other initiatives and updates through social netwrok.
Hi….I am facing a similar predicament….but i feel part of the solution is in the transcript itself, wherein Shruti pointed out that her set of employee base uses external sites…and the verticals which do not have access to this external sites are successful in implementing the internal social networking site…
Logic:
Why was social media successful? What alternative does an employee explore while in office 5 days a week? What is the favorite pastime of a social animal…??
The success of social media platforms is owing to the fact that people can be virtually live on these spaces ….while working in office, watching a movie or at home….and them being LIVE on this space doesn’t hamper their daily routine(in majority of cases)
Same is the case while in office, when an employee wants a part of his mind to wander off to non-work areas(take a mini break……gossip….the favorite pastime…), a tool used by brain to balance the work pressure/monotony….
…and social media provides the best available platform…while being present in front of the system making them less conspicuous…(earlier people used to go out for a cup of “chai”, a smoke…..they still do…but less frequent if they have access to social media….)
As per me the success of social media lies in the human’s “NEED TO BREAK OFF FROM WORK/studies/ any routine” even if it is for a few seconds……….
” than the actual urge to network”…
Also, given that majority of our wakeful hours go on office work….most of the “friends” the employees have on their social networking accounts are originally “business associates turned friends” from current and earlier organisations…
Now coming to shruti’s case….it might be interesting to find that MAY BE a good number of employees in her group might actually be networking with each other on facebook/orkut already and hence do not feel the need to switch to the company’s networking platform…
Once you disable the access to the social platforms….well, there might be a small fuss initially …………but people will gladly shift to official social platform…
BOTTOM LINE: when there is an alternative; the primary tends to get neglected…
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Dear Aniisu,
Let me take this opportunity to congratulate you on your consistent and valuable endeavour. Fills a much-needed gap.
Coming to Shruti’s issue:
1. There seems to be a prevalent mindset of ‘build it and they will come’. This is never the case with social media – whether stand alone or part of an official channel.
2. One should never expect official social networks to wholly replace external networks like facebook and linkedin. People have come to rely on these external networks and it will be difficult to wean them away to company-built alternatives.
3. I don’t entirely agree with Guru Saran’s point above pertaining to the need to break off from work. As an organisation with an eye on enhancing productivity, the official social network should do just that – enhance productivity. I believe the following recommendations may help formulate a strategy to effect the same.
a) Make it non-work yet relevant
By this I mean those gray areas not exactly related to job roles or descriptions but with which most of us could use some help. Think skill enhancement, tips from experienced professionals, forums for growth, development and interaction, discussions on company culture, blogs on latest developments, thought leadership etc.
b) Use services to draw in users
Classifieds or company-wide barter of goods and services is often a good way to draw in users. Most people need a compelling reason to join. A classified listing gives them just this. Once they are in the network, they will look around and see the benefits it offers and become active users.
c) Cross promote the social network
Make the network the hub for company announcements, team announcements, documentation, phone directory, email lookup etc. By merging these essential, often-used services with the network, users will unconsciously develop and affinity for the network. Once this is done, they will begin using the actual social features therein.
The about are merely ideas on getting employees to start using the internal network. While in scope it may seem like an Intranet – it is in essence really just that. An effective intranet for a company will have all these elements but well-designed to integrate with one another and offer employees a resource that they can turn to in order to make their lives better.
That may very well boost usage.