Top 5 Stories on Enterprise Social Networking – Web Roundup

There is no doubt that mobility is transforming the enterprise. Today, most mobility use cases center on increasing productivity by equipping employees to do their jobs better on the go and enhancing revenue by offering an alternative channel for customers that includes new features like location and presence.

While this transformation is taking place, it is also disrupting the enterprise by creating new business models and also destroying old ones. The problem is that many businesses are scrambling to create a mobile strategy; hamstrung by unrealistic expectations, vague requirements and organizational inertia. Enterprises must adapt more quickly to the mobile revolution or run the risk of being left behind by flexible competitors. Gartner believes the most important trends that will impact enterprise mobility strategies in 2014 are (continued…)

It’s been awhile since the ASAE Annual Meeting, but I recently came across an Association’s Now re-hash of a few sessions, including the one by friends Ben Martin and John Chen that sparked so much commentary about the value–or lack thereof–of lurkers in online communities. Just to clarify, a “lurker” is a common term for someone who consumes content but does not create content i.e. they read but don’t create. I have to say that I totally disagree with the idea that lurkers are of no value in online communities. I see every lurker as both an asset to the community just by virtue of lurking, after all, if your members didn’t read/consume/lurk, then it’d be much more unlikely that other members would create. Also, keep in mind that every lurker is a potential future contributor (continued…)

The endless parade of technologies to improve workforce collaboration has certainly led to the shrinking of time and distance, but has it actually led to a long-term increase in engagement and business performance? What should enterprises do today? (continued…)

A manager’s core challenge is to blend the diversity (and imperfections) of their team into a group which wants to work together each day and produce results on behalf of the organisation. Yet for many managers the very concept of social within the enterprise still remains a vexed issue with scant recognition of how it could help. The fact is that an ESN, properly designed and implemented, provides the grease which lubricates the alignment of employees with an organisation’s core values and beliefs. This provides a purpose to come to work and a reason to produce results on behalf of the organisation. An ESN also provides the same lubricant to the alignment of employees with the organisation’s key objectives and strategy – this helps make a team’s output effective (continued…)

Let’s dispense with the hype and marketing speak; an intranet is an internally focused, private website. And like all websites they’re meant to hand out information like a Pez dispenser. They are corporate brochureware and their time has come and gone. (continued…)