3 questions you should ask yourself before deploying an Enterprise Social Network for your organization

This is an interview I did with Jenny Blumberg (@jennyblumberg) from Sepia Labs, the company behind Glassboard.

And it goes likes this …

Me: Jenny, what woud you say are the top 3 questions any stakeholders should ask before implementing an Enterprise Social Network?

Jenny: Stakeholders evaluate Enterprise Social Networks as a possible value-added approach to running their business. Sure, a lot of companies are adopting a more social atmosphere instead of a typical corporate structure, but will it fit in your company culture? Here are the top three questions they should be asking:

1. Will an Enterprise Social Network (ESN) improve your company, and more importantly, the bottom line?

In order for an ESN to effectively improve your company, it has to solve some kind of problem in the workplace. There’s no point in fixing something that isn’t broken. Do employees already collaborate and communicate effectively or is there room for improvement?

Stakeholders should evaluate if their current business practices are leaving them behind in their respective market and if a more social approach to running their business will help them become more competitive. The whole point of getting your employees on board with a social network is to give them a means to share knowledge more effectively. If you find that this is something that would enhance productivity, then an ESN would likely contribute to your bottom line. However, it doesn’t matter how great an ESN is, it’s nothing without people participating in it. This leads to the next question:

2. Will the current workforce adopt it?

There are two implications here: will an ESN be approved by IT and HR? Even if that hurdle is overtaken, can you see all of the employees not just adopting it, but embracing it? You must consider whether an ESN is an attractive solution to people in the organization. Even if companies are made up more and more of younger, more socially-savvy workers, this doesn’t necessarily mean they will transfer their Facebook-like activities into the workplace.

(A few approaches can ensure success when questioning if employees will adapt to a social work environment:

• Use incentives, like badging and recognition.
• Get top tier managers engaged from the beginning. If employees see their managers, hell, the CEO using the ESN, they’ll be more likely to come on board.
• Train people! Empower employees by putting knowledge bases and wikis at the forefront of your ESN solution. I’ve also found that training sessions with free food tend to help.)

3. Once implemented, how will you measure whether an Enterprise Social Network is successful or not?

Before implementing an ESN, you should have some goals in mind that you can use as a measurement of success. It’s not realistic to think that 100% adoption is likely, so at what point is your social network good enough? Were there problems with efficiency and productivity before you implemented an ESN that you can use as benchmarks?

You may find people are not using email as much, but is that really something of value? Are ideas being exchanged, is collaboration happening, and are employees’ needs being met by being more socially engaged?