There is an additional approach to Social Media for those of you who are concerned about privacy or do not want to jump on the Facebook train. Internal social networks are starting to become the next big thing for large corporations and they are generating huge ROI for companies when it comes to business growth that is generated from the ideas that are shared internally between executives.
USA Today wrote a great article Social media is reinventing how business is done, the article states:
“Companies are using social networks to build teams that solve problems faster, share information better among their employees and partners, bring customer ideas for new product designs to market earlier, and redesign all kinds of corporate software in Facebook’s easy-to-learn style.”
In today’s world many people are working remotely, and the new challenge for an organization is competing with different time zones, conference calls and hundreds of emails to get their attention. What if you want to have your executive leaders brainstorm with the customer service reps, who work on the floor, to think of new ways to serve your customers? Some of the reps may feel intimidated talking to a 30 year veteran leading the company, either in person or on the phone. How can you overcome this and get them to talk one on one? Knock down the barriers, Twitter’s claimed success. Create an internal social network for co-workers to share ideas, collaborate, and even conduct training webinars.
The benefits of an internal Social Network:
- Having to read less email
- Seeing the avatar of your co-worker for instant identification
- Feeling open to express your ideas in a Forum or to the CEO and not needing to wait for your idea to work its way up the ladder. Also not having to risk your idea being taken by someone else on its way to the top.
- SMS alerts to let you know that someone has sent you a message, which makes participation more easily adopted
- Being able to voice your opinion, communicate or learn 24/7
The disadvantages of an internal Social Network:
- The cost of implementation
- Getting your employees and executives on board to use the application, and to see the benefits of doing so on a regular basis
- Training your network on how to use the application
At Engage121 we have created an internal social network inside our social media management software. Our tool mirrors Twitter’s functionality and allows you to post status updates to your organization, send direct messages to co-workers or publicly reply to updates. Enterprise accounts can allow franchisees to send messages to the franchisor, or an agency can message their clients internally as well.
Here at Engage121 our internal social network, Connect121, is a huge benefit to connecting with my co-workers and updating them on marketing promotions that are beginning today by posting a public update. They can reply publicly or privately to ask me questions on how this will affect our clients. Emails are becoming a less successful way for me to communicate and Connect121 enables me to get in front of everyone in my organization immediately, due to SMS alerts that can be set up to let someone know that there is an update.
Do you have an internal social network in place at your organization?
