Social Intranets: The magic is in the culture, not the tools
by Stephan Schillerwein
Using social media successfully in internal communication can be much more challenging than using it externally. With external social media use, the rest of the organization doesn’t necessarily need to get too involved or fundamentally change how it operates. The opposite is true for the internal use of social media: If you want a social intranet to truly take off, the entire organization has to get on board and gradually change its way of working and communicating.
Looking at the figures, one might think that social intranets are already well established in most organizations. According to the recent “Intranet 2.0 Global Study” (conducted by Prescient Digital Media Ltd.), 87 percent of organizations have at least one social media tool on their intranet. But it takes more than tools to make an intranet social.
Participation is key
Until now, intranets have been characterized by one-way communication and a lack of opportunities for direct participation by employees. The social intranet (or Intranet 2.0) enables employees to openly communicate, collaborate and share with each other, independently of hierarchies, job functions and geographies. It thus enables everyone to participate in what is going on in the organization.
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