Enterprise social networks offer a litany of benefits to companies ranging from more efficient internal communications to fostering a stronger workplace communities, but getting maximum ROI from your platform is heavily dependent on one thing: successful employee adoption. While the methods for encouraging employees enterprise social usage and interaction will differ for each company based on employee preferences, industry and work culture, there are some tried and true ways to ‘break the ice’ and ensure successful enterprise social network adoption across your company.
Here are 10 Ways to Break the Ice with Enterprise Social Networks:
- Develop incentives for discovering best uses. Tell your teams how much you believe in enterprise social media’s ability to improve customer service, but ask them to determine the best way for doing so. Give a free prize to the team finding the best solution, like a monetary bonus or extra paid vacation.
- Introduce new team members. When you have a new hire, post their professional bio and a few interesting personal facts so that when people meet him or her, they have a great conversation starter.
- Make new solutions public announcements. Did someone discover a more effective solution to a common workplace problem? Post the solution publicly, and coworkers will be motivated to ask this worker how he developed the solution.
- Introduce the employee of the month. No need to post this award on the wall anymore! Instead, post it publicly on your enterprise social network. People always want to talk with the most successful individuals at any workplace.
- Hold non-work-related contests. Some workplace might enjoy a weekly trivia game, while others may enjoy picking the winners of the college basketball tournament. Pick something your work culture will appreciate and make a contest out of it.
- Share how-to videos. Is a new process confusing people? Assign someone who has the process down to create a demonstration video to help everyone else learn what to do.
- Ask for employee input. Are you the head honcho in charge of making the final decision? You can get great feedback from people who work on the front lines every day – ask them for their input!
- Post updates on the competition. If a competing company is getting ahead of you in some ways, post the story internally. Ask your employees what your company could be doing better to catch up.
- Emphasize your accessibility. If you are the company’s executive, show your employees you care by regularly posting you are seeking their input. Assuming people will take an action means they probably won’t do it, but encouraging them greatly increases the chances they will.
- Post an inspiring quote/thought of the day. Do this yourself and ask your employees to do the same! Not only does it encourage interaction, but it will lift morale too.
Now you have ten ways to try to facilitate interaction when you first implement your enterprise social network. Maybe this will get your creative juices flowing – have you thought of any others that might work well at your company? Share in a comment below.
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