This post is the introduction to a new three part “Learn, Plan and Do” series that explores the use of social technologies to take your intranet to the next level, to create a social intranet. But hopefully you will find that it goes even further.. to not only create a social intranet, but to also introduce your employees to an integrated social experience.
Special note: Proud to say that this post made Ragan’s HR Communicator on March 17, 2011. Thank you everyone for your tweets, retweets and comments. The Social Workplace only truly exhibits the essence of social media when you contribute to it. Thank you!
Introducing the Social Intranet
Social media has generated a flurry of organizational buzzwords and catch phrases — collaboration, enterprise 2.0, knowledge share, cloud computing, community, online reputation, social CRM, crowd sourcing… and the list goes on and on. One of the phrases that you hear more and more frequently is actually one that has been around for quite some time: employee engagement. (And one that is very near and dear to my heart.) With this renewed focus on engagement, organizations are now assessing how they can leverage social technologies to engage their most important audience, employees. And where better than your company intranet? The corporate intranet is (or should be) the hub of all employee activity and transactions; where employees go to manage money, career, life events, and health. Taking your intranet to the next level means to not only stop pushing static content, but to also use social technologies to enhance the every day activities and transactions necessary for employees to learn, plan and do their jobs; thereby making them more efficient, engaged and productive: a social intranet.
Tagged as:
collaboration,
community,
enterprise 2.0,
intranets,
social intranet
If you haven’t seen the flurry of conversations the past two days, let me be the one to tell you that Forrester has just released a very insightful report on the use of Location-based Services (LBS). Specifically, the use of applications such as Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt as a means for companies to engage and interact with consumers. LBS applications, as an emerging technology, has a lot of consumers (of the people surveyed 84% had never even heard of Foursquare, Gowalla, or Loopt) and brands wondering if it is technology that is all hype — not surprising since any new technology has a period of adoption while users determine it’s stickiness.
The report contains a lot of insightful information regarding the current fragmentation of the LBS application market — currently, consumers are having to choose between Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt — where even someone like me, who considers herself a hard-core user of LBS applications has a hard time knowing what each application offers that’s unique from the other. And we haven’t even seen the impact that Google could / will have on LBS applications.
LBS Seeks Internet-Savvy Professional Male
But the takeaway that struck me the most interesting was how Forrester’s study shows that men, not women, are the majority users of LBS applications and suggests that male-oriented brands have the potential to have the largest impact.
And based on this information, Forrester’s report makes two recommendations:
- Almost 80% of location-based service users are male.
Tagged as:
foursquare,
location-based services,
newsweek,
paco underhill,
social influence,
social marketing
Original post: eModeration publishes new white paper: Communities of Purpose
A new white paper from moderation and community management company, eModeration, details how best a ‘community of purpose’ can be managed, to maximise the engagement and support that these communities can offer their members.
The paper, Communities of Purpose, focuses on interactive online communities with a clear goal, otherwise known as ‘communities of purpose’. Brands and not-for-profit organisations alike can establish these communities to act as a focal point for members to meet, contribute content and provide mutual support. Think of Weight Watchers, Walk the Walk (raising money to combat breast cancer) or Liberal Democrat Voice for example.
This paper (co-authored by eModeration’s CEO, Tamara Littleton, and Head of Community Ashley Cooksley) gathers the thinking from some of the highly respected voices in community management today to provide clear, practical advice to those thinking about establishing a community of purpose. It details best practice for the management of Communities of Purpose in order to maximise the engagement and support that these communities can offer their members. Including:
- Create the ‘burning imperative’. The community has to have a strong goal for people to join and continue to be active members.
- Add value. What does your community offer that members can’t get elsewhere?
- Stay relevant. The community will lack credibility if there’s a clear disconnect between the community purpose and the brand.
Tagged as:
communities of purpose,
community,
eModeration,
social communities
Original Post: Employment Law Implications of Location Based Social Media, by Mark J. Chumley
So you just got comfortable with your blog, LinkedIn, and Twitter. What about location based social media? Part game and part micro blog, these websites allow you to check in throughout your day with your location and related comments while earning various online honors and prizes. Thus far, it seems that the two market leaders are Foursquare and Gowalla and they are fighting for market dominance. According to FastCompany.com:
The companies both launched eight months earlier at the South by South West interactive festival. Their products pioneered the then-uncharted territory of location-based social networking. On Foursquare, a user “checks in” to locations (as pinpointed via satellite) to invite along friends, leaves tips glued to GPS coordinates (like ordering advice at restaurants), and competes for digital rewards in the form of badges, or titles like “mayor” (for the user who checks in the most at a venue). Similarly, Gowalla asks users to check in places in order to collect digital goodies, akin to virtual geocaching.
In addition to Foursquare and Gowalla, there are many other location based social media sites. If your employees are not already using one, they soon will be.
What are the legal implications of these sites? Initially, critics pointed out the fairly obvious fact that telling people where you are throughout the day also lets them know where you are not, e.g. your house. This lead to the satiric site pleaserobme.com, which purports to demonstrate the danger of location revealing social media sites.
Tagged as:
employment law,
Keating Muething & Klekamp,
location-based social media,
social media policies
If you’re a friend of mine on Facebook or Twitter, you more than likely also know that I am a HUGE fan of Foursquare, a location-based social community where you check in to different venues and receive “badges” based on how your check-ins are tagged or categorized. And while many companies are now realizing the benefits of location-based marketing, I, of course, see a huge opportunity to leverage Foursquare-esque technology to engage and motivate employees.
Using Location-Based Information for External Marketing
The popularity of the Foursquare community has increased so much that mega companies are now using the newly introduced Foursquare business tools for social media marketing. For example, Starbucks recently announced a “Barista” Foursquare badge for those who visit a Starbucks five or more times and Foursquare recently partnered with 30 businesses to introduce tools that give companies real-time statistics on who checks in to their establishments. Moreover, it’s another opportunity for a company to humanize itself to its consumers. Case in point:
Shelley Bernstein, chief of technology at the Brooklyn Museum, sees promise in the Staff pages. “Basically, the new statistics tools give us the ability to promote a personal face for our staff so we’re not just seen as an institution,” she said. “We’re wrapping all of this into our Web site through Foursquare’s A.P.I.’s , and we allow people to interact with staff and have the opportunity to engage with them in new ways.”
Original Post: Foursquare Introduces New Tools for Businesses, New York Times
Tagged as:
badges,
foursquare,
location-based social networking,
verizon,
verizon wireless
