Below is a webinar I recently attended by Josh Bernoff, a leading authority on social networking 2.0, Co-author of "Groundswell" and a Vice President at Forrester Research. He did a fine job of presenting some of the chief ideas from his groundbreaking book on social networking trends, "Groundswell". I would encourage you to spend the 60 minutes going through his webinar, as it presents an excellent framework to develop a viable Social networking strategy for your organization, which I believe can be a very potent yet non disruptive tool for driving organization culture change.
If an organization's employee population has an average age anywhere around 40 years or below, the company may benefit tremendously by tapping into the power of internal and external social networking tools in shaping the organization's employer brand and culture along its stated values. The book advocates a well thought out customized approach to promoting social networking technologies based on an understanding of the Company's demographics, socialization patterns and long term strategy , as opposed to a "me too" approach.
You may find of interest some of my observations based on the Webinar and other related research:# Employee Demographics key driver of Usage & Adoption PatternsYounger people are the most active users (adopters and contributors) of Social networking technologies with 18-25 being the most active (90%), 26-34 at 84% and 35-44 at 76%. After that adoption and usage patterns tend to taper off dramatically. So your employee demographics clearly drive what social networking strategy and tools maybe appropriate for your organization. Gender, Income and social level does not appear to have a direct correlation to adoption and usage patterns.
# Employer Branding>80% of US College students are apparently active on Facebook. So if College hiring is a key aspect of your hiring strategy, Facebook is probably the most effective vehicle to leverage for your College Branding and Outreach programs. Best of all most of the branding can be done easily, quickly and free of cost. For lateral hiring, while I donot have exact statistics, I would venture to say that Linkedin may probably the most effective.
# Shaping Organizational Culture (Collobaration, Productivity and Community)While many organizations, focus a lot on defining and driving their top down communication strategy, a great part of their culture is really determined by the sideways informal communication and peer to peer networking that goes on in the organization. Social technologies are a great way for organizations to promote this sideways communication and leverage it to really shape the organization's culture along the lines of its stated values. It can be a very effective way to promote collobaration, knowledge sharing and a sense of belonging both with constituents within and outside the organization as evidenced by examples of Accenture, Best Buy, and Universal McCann.CEO Blogs at Mariott & Forrester, the internal Wiki at Razorfish, IBM and P&G's alumni networks are again great examples of how Social networking tools can be leveraged to create strong vibrant communities both within and outside the organization within a short span of time and at minimal cost.
# One Company across the WorldEspecially for organizations with a widespread employeebase across different parts of the world and culturesthis may probably the most effective tool to build a cohesive culture, a one company brand and to promote knowledge sharing across the organization. It maybe also a great tool to quickly assimilate start up operations, acquisitions and new employees into the organization
# Effective Learning toolMany organizations are also finding these networking tools as effective means of promoting learning within the organization. Serious Games (ie learning games) produced by organizations like Skillsoft and Virtual heroes are finding increasing takers in organizations like Best Buy and others who are using their "Learning games" to great effect on their internal employee social networking websites.
I hope this piques your interest !
Best personal regards, Ranu
Josh BernoffCo author of GroundswellVice President & Principal Analyst, Forrester ResearchBe a part of the ongoing Groundswell discussion happening now athttp://www.talentgraffiti.com/
Click here for a copy of the presentation
If an organization's employee population has an average age anywhere around 40 years or below, the company may benefit tremendously by tapping into the power of internal and external social networking tools in shaping the organization's employer brand and culture along its stated values. The book advocates a well thought out customized approach to promoting social networking technologies based on an understanding of the Company's demographics, socialization patterns and long term strategy , as opposed to a "me too" approach.
You may find of interest some of my observations based on the Webinar and other related research:# Employee Demographics key driver of Usage & Adoption PatternsYounger people are the most active users (adopters and contributors) of Social networking technologies with 18-25 being the most active (90%), 26-34 at 84% and 35-44 at 76%. After that adoption and usage patterns tend to taper off dramatically. So your employee demographics clearly drive what social networking strategy and tools maybe appropriate for your organization. Gender, Income and social level does not appear to have a direct correlation to adoption and usage patterns.
# Employer Branding>80% of US College students are apparently active on Facebook. So if College hiring is a key aspect of your hiring strategy, Facebook is probably the most effective vehicle to leverage for your College Branding and Outreach programs. Best of all most of the branding can be done easily, quickly and free of cost. For lateral hiring, while I donot have exact statistics, I would venture to say that Linkedin may probably the most effective.
# Shaping Organizational Culture (Collobaration, Productivity and Community)While many organizations, focus a lot on defining and driving their top down communication strategy, a great part of their culture is really determined by the sideways informal communication and peer to peer networking that goes on in the organization. Social technologies are a great way for organizations to promote this sideways communication and leverage it to really shape the organization's culture along the lines of its stated values. It can be a very effective way to promote collobaration, knowledge sharing and a sense of belonging both with constituents within and outside the organization as evidenced by examples of Accenture, Best Buy, and Universal McCann.CEO Blogs at Mariott & Forrester, the internal Wiki at Razorfish, IBM and P&G's alumni networks are again great examples of how Social networking tools can be leveraged to create strong vibrant communities both within and outside the organization within a short span of time and at minimal cost.
# One Company across the WorldEspecially for organizations with a widespread employeebase across different parts of the world and culturesthis may probably the most effective tool to build a cohesive culture, a one company brand and to promote knowledge sharing across the organization. It maybe also a great tool to quickly assimilate start up operations, acquisitions and new employees into the organization
# Effective Learning toolMany organizations are also finding these networking tools as effective means of promoting learning within the organization. Serious Games (ie learning games) produced by organizations like Skillsoft and Virtual heroes are finding increasing takers in organizations like Best Buy and others who are using their "Learning games" to great effect on their internal employee social networking websites.
I hope this piques your interest !
Best personal regards, Ranu
Josh BernoffCo author of GroundswellVice President & Principal Analyst, Forrester ResearchBe a part of the ongoing Groundswell discussion happening now athttp://www.talentgraffiti.com/
Click here for a copy of the presentation
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