Jagdish’s previous post on the need for a community manager prompted me to think more on the topic of bringing people to adopt the social media initiative in an organization.

“This is social. It should work by itself. People should flock to the network. After all they all are in FaceBook,” is a very common attitude that I have come across in many organizations. Well, this logic is fundamentally flawed in its premise. As Aaron Weiss points out in his article, there are incentives for people to be in FaceBook. What’s the incentive for employees to be in their company’s collaboration network?

That’s a good question to start with. And there are a few other things that you, as an organization, can do to bring in the social change, for the better.

The following are a few strategies that worked for our customers. They are not in specific order:

Set the Context

It helps if employees understand why they’d use the network and what they’d accomplish by doing so. Leaving the network open and letting people figure out its purpose is not a wrong strategy per se. However, people will make their own meanings of the platform. The management should be open to this possibility and not expect people to stick to its agenda, which it never communicated.

This HBR article on Social Media’s Leadership Challenges succinctly communicates this message – “Successful communities all have compelling and inspiring goals for their existence and their leaders are passionate about these goals.” (The article, by the way, has plenty of good advice to offer.)

In fact, the context and the use cases should have been defined right at the beginning – product evaluations should have happened based what you intend to achieve by using the system. Also define appropriate metrics and success criteria so that it becomes easier for you to find if intended results are being achieved.

Provide Flavors

When defining the use cases, remember to have a variety in the kind of activities that people are going to do in the network and in the content that they’re going to consume. Its more interesting if I can get to know HR-related updates in my platform where I also work with my colleagues on my day-to-day projects.

Get in people from the business, HR, Training and Corporate Communications as stakeholders for the platform. Discuss and finalize what use cases each of these departments is going to bring to the platform. Consistently stick to it.

Create the Buzz

Mail Campaigns, posters, SMS and other announcements are definitely useful, especially when the platform has been introduced by the management. One of our customers organized a live chat on the platform with the CEO. Employees got an opportunity to interact and quiz their super leader. The conversation was not about the new platform, but was more about the company and where its heading. That’s another point to remember – focus on the content, rather than the technology.

Bring in the SJs

Like all jockeys, Social Jockeys can make the crowd jig. SJs are people with high-voltage enthusiasm, who know how to create the buzz, the fun and make people want to participate.

No, they are not essentially community managers – people with administration and moderation roles; though community managers could be SJs as well. SJs are people who are acknowledged by their peers, for their knowledge, expertise and thought leadership. So, yes, they need not be necessarily heads of department and line managers.

The initial team you put together from different departments should essentially be made of SJs.

Don’t Scare Off

Policies & guidelines are important, especially when the organization is trying out a new communication channel. Strict & clear definitions of do’s and don’ts are absolutely essential. But do not stress them often, that too, when users have not got a full hang of the platform. This only sets a context that the platform will be highly monitored and curated. People do not want to participate in (one more) initiative where they have to play by very strict rules.

One of our customers attached the policy document to the launch email.  Another customer just provided a link to the policies link the platform.  Employee responses were definitely different in both cases.

The need for a community manager

While it always ideal that networks evolve and grow with minimum intervention, a role of a community manager cannot be ignored. A community manager who understands the power a social collaboration tool can act as a catalyst, to ensure that the organization derives the desired benefits. I read  good article recently which provides insights into what kind of roles a community manager plays.

Here are some:

• Welcome Wagon
• Gardener
• Referee
• Listener and Moderator
• Member Advocate
• Brand Spokesperson
• Nurturer of Brand Champions
• Someone Who Measures, Analyzes, Adjusts, Rinses, Repeats

For more details checkout the article.

The book “Social Knowledge: Using Social Media to Know What You Know” has been published.

I had the opportunity to contribute a chapter, “Social Knowledge Workspace”. Enjoyed sharing my learning with this great team of researchers, academicians and practitioners around harnessing knowledge using social collaboration platforms like KineticGlue. Here is the abstract of the book:

For the past two decades, executives have struggled to develop effective ways of sharing what their organizations know.  Organizational leaders are now seeking ways to share knowledge with both internal and external stakeholders driven by concerns such as downsizing, the impending retirement of baby boomers, terrorism, and a host of other organizational challenges.

Social Knowledge: Using Social Media to Know What You Know aims to provide relevant theoretical frameworks, latest empirical research findings, and practitioners’ best practices in the area. The book is multidisciplinary in nature and considers a wide range of topics, each of which is related to social knowledge. It is written for professionals who want to improve their understanding of the strategic role of social knowledge in business, government, or non-profit sectors.

For more details please visit the IGI site.

Why Slacktivists are Good for You

Continuing on identifying the different varieties of people at the workplace – there is another breed of people, who are ready to do anything. These people have strong affinities to ideas, causes and to their beliefs; they talk passionately about them – it might sound that they’ll jump off mountains to prove their commitment. But don’t worry – they will not even move from their chairs.

These are the Slacktivists – they take the minimal personal measures required to turn their words into actions. A slacktivist involved in ‘The Save Trees Campaign’ might show his support by wearing a green arm band.

Because they take no strong action, slacktivists, in general, are considered ineffective to the causes they support. It doesn’t mean that such people are bad at work, but it’s just that they cannot spearhead organizational programs or projects.

However, in an online collaboration platform scenario, slacktivists can do much more valuable work. Companies can use slacktivists to create the spark, light and momentum necessary for energizing organizational initiatives. These are factors why this is possible:

- Slacktivists are among the firsts to rally behind a good initiative or an idea.

- They make ideas more visible, speaking about them openly and frequently in the platform.

- They become local champions of a cause or a project, supporting and defending it passionately and pulling in their friends and contacts as well.

For a slacktivist, these are just his natural style of work. Further, the platform throws brighter spotlight on him (which he usually will not get in the physical world), egging him to do more. Such visibility has found to make people take real responsibilities and stop being just advocates.

Thus a collaboration platform, can help employees turn their intentions into actions, cut the slack and keep the activity.  It can make the one with the green band, to go, plant  a tree.