"The success of social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn has proven that consumers like to broadcast their thoughts to the people making up their followers and friends online, and then to receive feedback on them in the form of comments and likes," said Dayle Wheeler, MD of Modern Business and founder of the "ideas" ESN platform.
"ESN aims to replicate that same enthusiastic interaction that people have with their family members and friends, virtually. However, instead of sharing amusing cat pictures, random thoughts and jokes, the goal is to get employees to communicate with colleagues, shareholders and customers, and to share ideas that can benefit the company and increase productivity."
ESN is certainly catching on too. According to recent analysis by Deloitte, more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies will partially or fully implement an ESN by the end of 2013, which would be a 70% increase over 2011. It may well increase profitability too. Research conducted by McKinsey Global Institute and published by Clearvale estimates that social networking could potentially contribute between USD900 billion and USD1.3 trillion in annual value in just four industry sectors, and that two-thirds of this value lies inside the company, not on consumer or personal social networks.
It is a valuable time saver too. The McKinsey study also found that companies using social technologies noticed that they were spending 25% less time on emails, 35% less time searching for information, and that they had seen a 20-25% improvement in knowledge worker productivity.
"Yet despite these proven benefits, unless companies set out clear goals when deploying an ESN in their organisations, they will not see success," Wheeler said. "With ESN, the adage 'if you build it, they will come', is not true. It might be true of extra lanes added to a congested highway, but not in this instance. Merely creating or subscribing to an ESN is not enough; as with every other aspect of your business, you need to set out clear goals and strategies of what you would like to achieve with ESN, and inform your employees."
Indeed, information technology research and advisory company Gartner recently disclosed that most social collaboration initiatives employed by companies fail, because they don't have a compelling purpose, relying instead on a "provide and pray" approach.
This, Gartner says, only leads to a 10% success rate. Gartner's research into the social collaboration efforts of more than 1,000 organisations found that those companies that had a clear and compelling purpose from the start tend to succeed. And you will not succeed unless your employees participate and utilise the ESN. It has been proven that adoption and contributions will not come from the employees.
The Deloitte survey found that 20 or 30% of employees won't even sign up for an ESN if registration is required. And of those who register, one-third will merely read content once a week and only 40% will contribute a post in the average month.
"Your goal should be something that entices your employees to want to sign up and use it. You cannot just be focused on what's in it for the company, because you won't meet those objectives if none of your employees participate. Contribution is usually driven when employees know that there is something in it for them as well, that it will help them to achieve their own personal career goals and assist them in doing their own jobs more efficiently and with greater ease. Educate them how and why to use it," Wheeler concluded.
