Enterprise social networking can transform the way business is done–how employees connect with their co-workers, find information, solve problems, and make decisions. But how do you ensure a successful deployment? How do you know people will use it? And, will IT actually support this initiative? Get everyone on board, and make IT happy. Download 5 Ways To Make Enterprise Social A Success and discover why enterprise collaboration must be social.

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1. Ways To Make
Enterprise Social
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2. 5 ways to make enterprise social a success
Enterprise social networking has the potential to transform the way people get work done.
It gives employees the ability to connect with co-workers, find information, solve problems, and
make decisions faster.
In addition to freeing people from the limitations and frustrations of communication silos, social
collaboration tools also let you tap into your organization’s collective intelligence.
While employees will appreciate something that helps them accomplish more while boosting
morale, they won’t touch it if the headaches outweigh the benefits. In order for your enterprise
social network to reach its potential, here are five things you must achieve to ensure effective
implementation and adoption.
1. It must be easy to get started
2. It should integrate all info sources
3. It must be contextual
4. It must adhere to how people actually work
5. It needs to be it IT-friendly
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3. It must be easy to get started
Your enterprise social networking platform should be easy to use. Chances are good that your
employees enjoy social sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in their personal lives, and they
should be able to quickly understand the social networking features you offer them at work.
Just as quickly as they “get it,” they have to be able to get to it. Collaboration strategist Andrew
Barendrecht, who helped deploy enterprise social networking for the oil and energy company
Apache Corp., explains why it must be easy to get started. “I see enterprise social as a pure
acceleration of traditional communication,” he said. “Before, it would take us time to train
everyone on where to go. Now we’re not wasting time on the training.”
It’s also important to provide a social networking platform with native apps for iOS, Android and
BlackBerry, so employees can easily gain access anytime, anywhere and from any device.
It should integrate all info sources
The antidote to fragmented, independent tools is a unified social networking platform that
integrates seamlessly into your workflow and business applications. Integrating social with your
business processes makes collaboration unavoidable and more importantly, desirable.
For better collaboration, put your content and your people in the same place:
• Intranet content
• Corporate services information
• Email/calendar functions
• Audio, video conferencing and IM capabilities
• Project portals
• IT help desk system
• Business applications (CRM, Content Management, Corporate Directory, Expense Management Systems)
• Enterprise search Source: Karthik Chakkarapani, July 12, 2011
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4. It must be contextual
Not every employee will have the same need for social networking tools, so you need a variety
of collaborative features for different types of users. Knowledge workers will frequently participate
in subject-based blogs and wikis, and will appreciate tools that help them rank internal content
and share browser bookmarks. Widely dispersed teams will find value in videoconferencing, screen
sharing and other meeting services. Business leaders might be interested in a microblogging
format for sharing leads, collective intelligence, and more. And of course everyone can take
advantage of microblogs, polls and profiles.
An enterprise social network “represents a huge potential knowledge gap that’s filled by social,”
Vice President of Forrester Research Rob Koplowitz said. “We do teleconferences, we send a lot
of email, but really the ability to leverage expertise and content across all of these groups is difficult
to do today. ... We need to be able to fulfill that boundary, and again, enterprise social is a great
way to cross organizational boundaries.”
It must adhere to how people actually work
The last thing you want your enterprise social network to do is overwhelm your employees with too
much information or with distractions that interrupt their workflow. You need to give users the ability
to select the information they want to follow, so they can tailor the social network to their specific
projects, interests and areas of expertise.
Relevance is key. The network must provide employees with the ability to follow very specific
information, such as the customer account they’re involved with—or broader information, such as
an industry topic. It helps to have an enterprise network that categorizes content and messages
by topics and projects. Employees need to follow what’s pertinent to their day-to-day work.
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5. It needs to be IT-friendly
An enterprise-worthy social network needs to provide a level of security and compliance that’s
acceptable for protecting your corporate data and IP. Jim Rapoza of Network Computing writes,
“Integrating the social network with your LDAP directory, utilizing VPN and all HTTPS connections
to secure communications, and choosing to install the enterprise social network inside your
company firewall can all go a long way toward making enterprise social networking more secure.”
A social networking platform should meet your organization’s requirements for enterprise-grade
security, governance and compliance. It should be easy to deploy as an on-premise solution,
behind your company firewall or as a secure cloud-based solution. Solutions with pre-configured
integration for common business applications and back-end systems are easier to deploy. And as
mentioned earlier, it should be accessible from any device, including tablets and smart phones.
Conclusion
There are a lot of choices when it comes to enterprise social networking tools, and the number
of available products and services is growing every day. Make sure the solution you choose
addresses the five issues discussed here, and you’ll be well on your way to a system that leads
to success.
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6. About tibbr
tibbr is the social network for work. It brings people, applications and actions together in
one place—on a desktop, smartphone or tablet—so work gets done faster.
tibbr also gives real-time insights on the people and topics that are influencing your business,
making it a great tool for discovery and innovation. It encourages the sharing of ideas and
inspiration so organizations can take advantage of their collective intelligence.
Launched in January 2011, tibbr is already used by over a million humans in more than
100 countries, revolutionizing how we communicate, collaborate, share and learn.
Learn more at www.tibbr.com.
sources
Chakkarapani, Karthik (2011). “Enterprise Collaboration Adoption Strategies – 10 Key Steps and Best Practices,”
July 12, 2011.
Retrieved February 2012 from http://karthikchakkarapani.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/enterprise-collaboration- adoption-10-key-strategies-and-best-practices/
Chakkarapani, Karthik (2011). “Enterprise Collaboration Strategy – 15 Key Steps for Successful Implementation,”
July 2, 2011.
Retrieved February 2012 from http://karthikchakkarapani.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/enterprise-collaborationsocial-business-platform-key-steps-for-
successful-implementation/
“Gartner Says 80 Per Cent of Enterprise Collaboration Platforms Will Primarily Be Based on Web 2.0 Techniques by 2013,”
October 27, 2009.
Retrieved February 2012 from http://www.gartner.com:it:page.jsp%3Fid=1215930
Rapoza, Jim (2011). “Enterprise Social Networks And Security Risks,”
Network Computing, June 28, 2011.
Retrieved February 2012 from http://www. networkcomputing.com/wan-security/231000497
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