Social business is quickly shaping the future of business collaboration and adding a fresh channel to empower teams. The value in this new tool starts when the employees are given the opportunity to amplify connections and optimize productivity through the platform features.
Once the enterprise social network is launched, it is imperative that the community managers and advocates are trained on maximizing the use of the system — creating interactive and robust content is key to the implementation and long-term success of integrating social business into the fabric of operations.
First step is to learn how to develop a process to bring the multiple channels under the platform umbrella. The platform tools will allow for interconnectedness and seamlessly unify data and information. To optimize work flows, each business unit should map out the channels that will leverage the use of current file sharing and project management tools –it is imperative that employees are trained and understand how to use each of the content development tools and @ mentions, including commenting, to build an online knowledge bank for the department to read, interact and learn from any location 24/7.
Next step is develop a schedule wherein the daily and weekly activities of the department are posted to the team’s portal site. For example, the weekly meetings can be added to the calendar, post meeting notes to the team blog and action items from the meeting published to tasks. This is just one of many examples of how to create a channel to coordinate efforts and maximize work flows.
Last step is to monitor and reinforce. To ensure that continuous engagement and interaction ensues, it is critical to maintain relative and active content. Users will quickly lose interest in the platform if the site does not lead to a productive means to business operations. Selecting top power users from the team to act as key content developers will not only build a connected community but also encourage positive behaviors that are equally important when engaging in a professional social network. Additionally the power users can play a roll in training and rewarding through blog posts, @ mentions and hashtags.
The social business model will continue to transform as more executives and leaders understand the value and how it can drive process improvement in the new SMART Workforce.
For further enterprise social learning check-out these videos that shares stories about how innovation will evolve and reshape the way we work — how social business is forming to optimize community collaboration and connectedness.
Enterprise Social Media Help 