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Page 1: A guide for internal communicators · Kim Escherich, Executive Innovation Architect at the Pan-European CTO Team in IBM SWG 126 Followers 53 Days 480+ Photos posted on to Employees

Get social media ready! A guide for internal communicators

Page 2: A guide for internal communicators · Kim Escherich, Executive Innovation Architect at the Pan-European CTO Team in IBM SWG 126 Followers 53 Days 480+ Photos posted on to Employees

weareopen.dk

The task force members In addition to Open, the task force consists of internal communicators who already have valuable experience with internal social media in large international organizations. The members are: Jonas Bladt Hansen, Digital Consultant, Arla Foods amba Christian Skjæran, Intranet Manager, Christian Hansen Dan Prangsgaard, Director Corporate Communications at Carlsberg Christian Larsen, Head of Internal Communications at GEA Process Engineering Non-biased One of our working premises has been to be objective whenever possible. We do not want to promote a certain platform, and we wish to show both the pros and cons of internal social media. © 2014 Open Aps. No part of this publication may be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission of the copyright owners.

Page 3: A guide for internal communicators · Kim Escherich, Executive Innovation Architect at the Pan-European CTO Team in IBM SWG 126 Followers 53 Days 480+ Photos posted on to Employees

#socialmediaready

About this publication 5

Foreword by Søren Schultz 6/7

Is your organization social media ready? 8

CASE: IBM’s social media nervous system 10/11

Why a wait-and-see approach is not a viable option 12/14

What other studies show 15

The business potential of internal social media Reducing wasted time 17 Making employees happier 18 Allowing more present leadership 19 Creating agile communities 20 Keeping track of the organization 21 Using employees as brand ambassadors 22

CASE: NNIT takes snapshots of the company spirit 24/25

... and some potential pitfalls Unplanned introduction of internal social media 27 Lack of top management support 28 Security and compliance 29 Too much unstructured Information 30 Misuse 31 The organization is not ready for social media 32

Roadmap – how to get started Analyze your organization 35

Index

Find the matching platform 35 Calculate the business case 36 Make a realistic implementation plan 36 Stakeholder management 37 Persuade top management 37

Thanks to ... and about Open 38/39

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#Enterprise Social #Social Enterprise #New Social Media #Internal Social Networks#internal social collaboration tools #Social Platforms #Social Business #Social technologies

Our definition of internal social media

As you have probably noticed many terms are being used to name what we in this publication call internal social media. When we write internal social media, we mean social media used for internal communication. We do not limit our definition to social platforms conforming to pre-defined barriers of the organization, such as e.g. Yammer, Jive, Podio or similar, because external social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can also be used to communicate with employees. Social media, in the context of this publication, includes all Web 2.0 digital communication channels that allow us to interact and connect with each other to create and share ideas, knowledge and information.

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About this publication

In the fall of 2013, Open established the Internal Social Media Task Force. The purpose was to produce a publication to help internal communicators navigate the new buzzword jungle called Enterprise Social/Social Enterprise/New Social Media/Internal Social Networks/Internal Social Collaboration Tools/Social Platforms/Social Business/Social Technologies. The aim of the task force has been to narrow in on the most important questions internal communicators have about internal social media, gather and sort relevant information, create an overview and present our take on what we can gain from using social media for internal communication. What are the risks and pitfalls and how do we get started? With this publication we hope to answer why and how organizations should become social media ready.

If you have any comments, questions, ideas or inspiration as to how you can work with social media internally in organizations, we hope you’ll share it on Twitter with the hash tag #socialmediaready so that we can get a good discussion going. You can also contact us directly on Twitter @openchangecomm and follow us for updates and inspiration. On Facebook we are facebook/opencommunication and our website is www.weareopen.dk.

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Let me just come right out and say it! It has already happened ...

2012 was the year when the first complete class of genuine digital natives became adults. That was two years ago. A digital reality is no longer merely a future prospect or something that only applies to young people and kids. They have grown up, these people who have been raised with social, digital and mobile media. And they are already in the workforce. Young people between 18 and 25 make up more than 10 percent of the Danish workforce and in just five years every fourth employee will be a so-called digital native. They are constantly available. They have lived all their life with social media’s extremely fast and frequent feedback. They have never really been alone because they carry around their mobile and therefore always have access to

everything and everybody. And they expect the same from both their friends and those they work and do business with. This new generation already thinks that e-mails and intranet sites are terribly old-fashioned. Opening hours and fixed office hours make very little sense in a digital world. Digital natives are entering the labor market with full speed and companies have to keep up if they want to be able to recruit and retain new talent, prevent generation clashes and make the most of this generation’s skills and potential. A key factor of this generation’s happiness and effectiveness at the work place is that management is present and available. But for these people, presence doesn’t necessarily mean being in the same room or having a scheduled in-depth talk with the boss every

Foreword by Søren Schultz Researcher and management consultant on digital natives

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three weeks – it means being visible and giving frequent feedback quickly. Using social media internally in the organization makes this type of management possible. In other words, it is no longer a question of getting started in time. Even then, you are at least two years behind. So the question is... How social media ready is your organization?

80% of millennials surveyed (aged 18-29) would prefer real-time feedback over traditional performance reviews, 89% of them use social networks as communication

tools in the workplace and 40% would even pay out-of-pocket for social tools

to increase efficiency

Source: Queens University of Charlotte, 2014

Søren Schultz is author of: Årgang 2012 (Class of 2012) Digitale indfødte på job (Digital Natives going to Work), to be published February 2015

For more info see: aargang2012.dk

Video interview with Søren Schultz Click the photo or scan the QR code

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Is your organization social media ready?

When we first set out to figure out what the buzz about internal social media is, we thought our outcome would be discussions on whether social media is worth the investment, which platforms are suited for what and tips on how to handle security issues that often go hand in hand with internal social media.

These are, of course, still important questions. But as we have become wiser, we no longer consider internal social media as something you might choose to implement or not. We are firm believers that internal social media is not only inevitable, but also of great value as a central internal communication channel. And in fact, we are in a bit of a hurry to get started. We no longer see it as a discussion of which internal social media platform to choose, but more as a matter of embracing and maybe enforcing the culture surrounding social

media. International and global corporations need to become better at harvesting the benefits and exploiting the synergies that come from being large and global. And this is where internal social media and the culture that accompanies it have an important role to play. So in our opinion, the question should not be which platform to invest in. Corporations should instead start by looking at the mechanisms at work when social media is used efficiently, and which benefits such culture could bring to the business. Is your organization ready for social media and the culture it will require? And should it be a strategic decision to work determinedly to enforce such a culture?

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By adopting social technologies, companies could raise the productivity of knowledge workers by 20-25%. But realizing such gains requires significant transformations in organizational structures,

processes, and practices, as well as a culture compatible with sharing and openness.

Source: McKinsey Global Institute 2012

My TeamCompany Intranet

Page 10: A guide for internal communicators · Kim Escherich, Executive Innovation Architect at the Pan-European CTO Team in IBM SWG 126 Followers 53 Days 480+ Photos posted on to Employees

Today – 18 years later – the intranet contains a large-scale social collaboration platform called IBM Connections, connecting more than 435.000 employees, customers and collaboration partners. Employees are encouraged by top management to share and connect with people on IBM Connections. For some employees, internal social media activity metrics are even part of their personal KPIs.

This platform has powered IBM forward, building a more agile, open and transparent organization. It has enabled project-specific communities to form, grow and communicate. IBM Connections has successfully freed the organization from some of the constraints of geography, time-zones and departmentalization.

Case: IBM’s social media nervous system

10 / 44

IBM uses a customized and highly refined social collaboration platform to increase agility and global collaboration among employees, customers and collaboration partners.

IBM is, in many ways, light years in front of other companies when it comes to social media. At IBM, collaborating, sharing and being open are business-critical values that soak through all layers of the organization, both from the top down and the bottom up.

Before social media arrived in IBM, the seeds of a culture supportive of social media were already planted. IT-savvy employees felt the need for a collaborative digital platform to support their way of working and so they began to develop the traditional (and often static) intranet.

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IBM Connections has had a significant impact on ways of working in IBM. In a project-focused organization working across all thinkable boundaries, it is

important to have one flexible backbone to support collaboration and communication. For me, Connections provides significant support to my work – from sharing

documents with teams, generating ideas and coordinating tasks to giving me the ability to search millions of documents, files and experts.

Kim Escherich, Executive Innovation Architect at the Pan-European CTO Team in IBM SWG

126Followers

53Days

480+Photos posted

on to

Employees spread over eight countries

2.200

Are improving their personal reputation

74%Feel more productive

84% Access expertisemore quickly

64%

126Followers

53Days

480+Photos posted

on to

Employees spread over eight countries

2.200

Are improving their personal reputation

74%Feel more productive

84% Access expertisemore quickly

64%

126Followers

53Days

480+Photos posted

on to

Employees spread over eight countries

2.200

Are improving their personal reputation

74%Feel more productive

84% Access expertisemore quickly

64% Video interview with Kim Escherich, Executive Innovation Architect at the Pan-European CTO Team in IBM SWG Click the photo or scan the QR code

#socialmediaready

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Why a wait-and-see approach is not a viable optionWhat happens if you decide that internal social media is not worth the effort, security risks and loss of control? Or if you prefer to just wait and see? In our opinion, it’s just not an option. Chances are that employees in your organization are already using a variety of different internal social media. And that, of course, goes for older generations as well as the digital natives. They have maybe started a Facebook group or a Google+ community. Maybe they are working on different projects on Podio, or have signed up for a free Yammer account. This is a development that cannot be stopped. So shouldn't we rather be a part of it, to secure the opportunity to gain influence and support our agenda, than to be a bystander on the sideline with no control?

Internal social media is here to stay, for two main reasons. Firstly, more and more young employees – who will not accept working without the interactive functions that social

media provide – are joining the workforce. They often work best when they can use social media to seek and share information, ask questions and get instant feedback on their thoughts and ideas. In fact, most of them do not have experience with any other form of working and find it challenging to seek information in more traditional formats such as newspapers and annual reports.

By embracing social media, a business positions itself to make the most of their social media savvy employees. And ultimately, this will be visible on the bottom line. Opting out of social media could well mean the opposite – not being able to harvest the full potential of especially the young employees or losing out on acquiring and retaining talent altogether.

Secondly, we are seeing a mindset shift: internal communication should no longer be about developing and controlling specific

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messaging, but rather be about nurturing collaboration, building networks, stimulating discussion and encouraging peer–to–peer communication. That is where the future of internal communication lies, and such a culture will be the key to continued support of overall business goals.

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SOCIALMEDIASTUDIES

Pioneers in this area have not had the expected success with internal social media – yet.

We still have to learn how to use the channel in order to make employees more involved.

Source: Aalund Internal Communication 2014

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What other studies show

Internal social media is not only the talk of the town, on the to do-list of every internal comm professional and at the center of discussion on internal comm blogs. Perhaps more importantly, it has also been the subject of many surveys and studies. We have read many of these, and we find that they share a few key conclusions:

• The use of internal social media is growing rapidly, but not all are onboard yet

• The majority thinks that the use of internal social media is growing but they have low expectations concerning its efficiency

• Few measure the effectiveness of social media, yet organizations that use internal social media well measure the effect

• The potential is great, but so far, untapped

• Internal social media is a question of culture, behavior and leadership

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The business potential of internal social mediaHow can a business benefit from using internal social media? Many different answers to this question have been offered. We have researched, examined and categorized them to arrive at six potential key points we find most likely and most interesting.

Top-performing organizations are building community – fostering the sense that

employees at all levels are in it together. These organizations create the opportunity for social interactions using the latest new media

technologies (...) Those that do this well typically see better financial performance.

Source: Towers Watson 2012-13

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Reducing wasted time

Many employees are struggling with unstructured information and have difficulty finding the right information. A great feature of social media is the possibility to customize and sort information more intelligently. Traditionally, you have to seek the information or documents you need yourself, for example on an intranet. But with social media, you can sign up for topics you are interested in or work with, and the information will come to you. This means, when scaled sufficiently and executed efficiently, a reduction in the amount of time employees spend looking for things. It also has the potential to avoid unnecessarily duplicated work across departments or locations.

1

My ProfileCompany Intranet

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2Making employees

happier

As employees, we increasingly expect the same user-friendliness and two-way dialogue that we are familiar with from using social media outside of work. We want to interact — not just listen. The growth of social media in our personal lives is often explained by social media’s enabling primal human behavior, such as seeking identity and connectedness with individuals or groups who share our characteristics, interests or beliefs. Social media supports well-known sociological behaviors, such as telling stories, forming groups, sharing information and seeking recognition from people with whom we desire to form relationships. Being empowered to act according to these primal behaviors via internal social media is likely to increase the sense of unity across an organization and make employees happier and more engaged.

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3Allowing more

present leadership

Internal social media can provide managers with a whole new platform to communicate with employees both near and far. And the increasing use of mobile devices by employees at all levels makes it easier to reach remote workers like sales and blue collar workers — especially now that more and more people are willing to use their own devices for work-related tasks. Not only can internal social media reach employees quickly, but the nature of social media communication invites dialogue, transparency and involvement, fulfilling some of the most common employee requests. Used in the right way, internal social media can boost leadership communication at all levels.

My TeamCompany Intranet

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4

Creating agile communities

Change is the order of the day for all corporations. And change requires agility. One of the greatest potentials of internal social media is the possibility to build or strengthen communities. Strong, agile communities support global collaboration and foster smoother collaboration procedures when working in project groups across divisions, countries or time zones, as well as with customers and external stakeholders. It also offers easier access to the company's collective know-how and strengthens the possibility for knowledge sharing. This is very useful for both active social media users and more passive users, who benefit from "listening in". Having strong and agile communities will ultimately make companies more change ready, as communities create a sense of belonging and the feeling of ‘we are in it together.’ This will eventually support the overall business goals.

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5

#Greatplace2Work

#SustainableIdeas

#NewColleagues

#Strategy2020

Keeping track of the organization

Internal social media opens the possibility for social listening among employees. This rather new concept has proven to be of great value when it comes to consumer brands as they can extract a lot of valuable data about their products and brand on social media platforms for use in product development and advertising. Using the same method internally, organizations will be able to get a much more current and precise picture of what employees ‘talk’ about and find important. Listening to the organization’s own internal social media platforms provides a unique possibility to gain insights on both positive and negative ‘conversations’ in time to act upon them. It's also a good way for internal communicators to uncover information and stories for other communication platforms such as employee newsletters and intranet sites.

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6Using employees

as brand ambassadors

The lines between internal and external communication are becoming more and more blurred. Many employees communicate about their work or organization with family and friends on social media, thus opening a window into the organization. On the other hand, organizations are becoming increasingly aware of creating consistency in what employees read in newspapers and what is being communicated internally. If organizations work strategically to educate employees in communicating according to business goals and direction on social media, a lot of money could be saved from marketing and employer branding budgets.

#Greatplace2Work

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When businesses successfully engaged their employees and customers, they experienced a 240% boost in performance-related outcomes

Source: Gallup 2013

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"

Case: NNIT takes snapshots of the company spiritNNIT used Instagram as the main channel in an internal campaign to define and communicate ‘One NNIT Spirit’.

NNIT chose a new and ‘social’ approach when facing the challenge of creating an experience of ‘one company’ among employees in eight countries. The goal was to engage and include all employees in defining ‘One NNIT Spirit’, by involving them in a user-generated definition. NNIT chose to launch a large-scale campaign using Instagram as the primary channel for participating – a social media channel many employees already knew and used outside of work. Because the communication on Instagram is mainly visual, it has the advantage of breaking down linguistic barriers. And that allowed employees from all NNIT’s global offices to

You can read more about the NNIT case on Dansk Kommunikationsforenings website (in Danish): http://is.gd/xyfGzH

participate on equal terms. This played a vital role in making the campaign a huge success – also in a more unexpected way, as the employee-generated material proved valuable in an employer branding perspective as well. The NNIT case is a good example of an achievable social media initiative that can help make your organization social media ready.

126Followers

53Days

480+Photos posted

on to

Employees spread over eight countries

2.200

Are improving their personal reputation

74%Feel more productive

84% Access expertisemore quickly

64%

126Followers

53Days

480+Photos posted

on to

Employees spread over eight countries

2.200

Are improving their personal reputation

74%Feel more productive

84% Access expertisemore quickly

64%

126Followers

53Days

480+Photos posted

on to

Employees spread over eight countries

2.200

Are improving their personal reputation

74%Feel more productive

84% Access expertisemore quickly

64%

weareopen.dk

24 / 44

Page 25: A guide for internal communicators · Kim Escherich, Executive Innovation Architect at the Pan-European CTO Team in IBM SWG 126 Followers 53 Days 480+ Photos posted on to Employees

"

Case: NNIT takes snapshots of the company spirit

The #onennit photos showed a picture of a growing IT company where people are passionate about what they do – a place where you really want to work. With so many

positive photos posted, the employees proved to be great ambassadors for NNIT. We managed to build a popular platform for employee participation and sharing that creates a sense of

belonging and 'one company' across national borders and cultural differences

Anne Pia Bjerg Overbeck

#socialmediaready

Video summary and definition of One NNIT Spirit Click the photo or scan the QR code

Family wall in #onennit family

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... and some potential pitfalls

So far we have focused on all the positive stuff and how we cannot avoid internal social media. However, this does not mean that we should overlook potential risks and pitfalls. It is important to take necessary precautions so that implementing internal social media will be worth the effort.

The benefits of social technologies will likely outweigh the risks for most companies.

Organizations that fail to invest in understanding social technologies will be

at greater risk of having their business models disrupted by social technologies.

McKinsey Global Institute 2012

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1Unplanned introduction of internal social media

If you are one of the many organizations where perhaps Yammer spread without you knowing it, and later you had to close it down, then you might face a complicated implementation. Having had access to a social media platform or function and then having it taken away again does not make for a happy and positive group of recipients. You’ll likely have to work even harder due to resistance and reduced credibility.

What to do?As with the introduction of all new things, planning is of the essence. Consider these two key points when it comes to planning:

1. Make absolutely sure which need your internal social platform should meet. There are many different platforms and they solve different needs. You will not find a platform that will do it all. So choose one or two realistic needs that match where your organization is and work hard on fulfilling them. It is much easier to build on a small success than a big failure.

2. Do not spend an eternity making a full-blown long-term strategy. The world will change while you plan. Find a need, find the matching platform and get started. Consider using a pilot or test group that can help you gain arguments for a large-scale implementation. This group can also later function as frontrunners and ambassadors for your new way of working.

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2Lack of top

management support

Another big risk when attempting to implement social media is the lack of support from top management. Here the generation gap is often very clear. In many cases, top management does not have experience with social media and its benefits. They are often afraid it is a security risk and most of all, another time-consuming add-on which will not create any value. And if we do convince them of the opposite, it will become a major problem and threat to a successful implementation. Mainly because, as we have touched upon earlier, implementing internal social media also means supporting a collaborative, sharing and transparent culture. And if top management is not on board, the likelihood of success is very limited.

What to do?• Make sure you are well prepared when

presenting to top management

• Make a business case to show the ROI

• Show cases from competitors

• Let a few of your younger employees explain how they work with social media and why they find it useful

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Security and compliance

The risks most organizations are worried about are security and compliance. If employees use an internal social media platform, how can we ensure that our intellectual property is protected? How do we make sure that confidential information will not be accessible to competitors and whoever wants to listen in?

What to do:• Make a social media policy and educate

employees in social media behavior

• Make sure your organization won’t lose property rights to content posted or attached to your internal social media platform

• Join forces with IT and legal before deciding on a platform

• Investigate which internal social media platform best matches your compliance rules

3

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4Too much

unstructured information

There is a real risk that internal social media will become yet another place where our busy employees have to stay tuned and spend time figuring out what content concerns them. Many top managers are reluctant to embrace internal social media because they are worried it will be an extra add-on to their own — as well as their employees’ — limited time.

What to do?The key is to pinpoint a real need among employees and let internal social media fill that need. If your new social platform is just another intranet with slightly different content, then it will become a time consuming add-on – or if employees post irrelevant information that overshadows the type of information that the platform was intended for. Conversely, if you enable cooperation in project groups to run more smoothly or help managers become

closer with their remote workers, it will not feel like information overload. Also, guiding employees in using the new social media platform will help limit irrelevant information.

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5

Misuse

There is a risk that the use of the platform will not match the intention. Contributors might create an unpleasant atmosphere by being negative or complaining about irrelevant issues, as sometimes happens on public Facebook sites. There is also a risk that the content or posts made by employees may seem irrelevant or do not create any real business value.

What to do?If the full potential of internal social media is to be unlocked, then employees and managers should be trained and guided in the purpose and use of the platform. This might seem a massive investment, but studies show that companies that benefit most from their internal social media platform also spend time and money educating their users (Towers Watson 2013-14).

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6The organization is

not ready for social media

The biggest risk when implementing internal social media is that the organization simply is not ready. The structure, traditions and silo thinking of an organization can work against the culture necessary for social media to function. Managers and employees might be protective of their work, and collaboration across divisions may not be the norm. Maybe changes are difficult in general, because the organization is built to be stable and not agile.

What to do?Internal social media only functions well in organizations where the culture is generally collaborative, open, trusting and where people are rewarded for sharing knowledge. If that is not a profile of your organization today, then you have to be patient. Such a cultural change does not happen overnight, and definitely not because a communication

department introduces a social media platform. The best advice is to remember that internal social media is a cultural change and not an IT-project. Take baby steps.

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Roadmap – how to get started

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Analyze your organization

Which organizational needs can internal social media best support? This should be done as an empirical study, interviewing managers and employees. Finding the most pressing need is critical to the success of implementing internal social media. There should of course be a strong link between the overall business strategy and the internal social media strategy. Consider also how many of the employees would need some training in using the new media. The majority of the typical workforce is not comrpised of digital natives. Focus on how you can bridge generation gaps and improve collaboration.

Find the matching platform

There are many different social platforms, and more will continue to surface. There are platforms which are defined by the barriers of an organization, and there are traditional social media platforms. There are platforms with a very narrow set of features and there are ‘large’ platforms, which aim to be a ‘one stop social shop’. It is therefore imperative to do thorough research before choosing the platform that will best suit your organization’s needs.

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Calculate the business case

Implementing even a minor internal social media platform or function will demand an investment in both time and money. For many companies, such an initiative is actually a major change management project and for it to succeed the resources allocated to it need to reflect this. Since focus on cost efficiency has increased significantly these last few years, it might be a hard sell to make without a realistic bid on what the ROI will be. Furthermore, many top managers have difficulty believing the business potential of internal social media. This can stem from their own lack of experience with social media, and also from the lack of measured and documented effects, a consequence of internal social media still being a relatively new field.

Make a realistic implementation plan

Harvesting the benefits of implementing internal social media will require a change in mindset and working culture in many organizations - and that will take time. Success does not come with the platform itself, but with how employees use it. It's therefore important to make a realistic and not over-ambitious plan. Start with something minor that fits with the social culture of your organization right now. It doesn’t have to be a platform – it could also be a function like a chat module or an idea box on the intranet. Or make a pilot study to learn and gain experience before going all in. Make sure to engage employees in the project and ensure top management buy-in.

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Stakeholder management

With your business case and implementation plan in place, you are now almost ready to make your case to top management and get started. But you might also benefit from first pitching the project to other stakeholders globally to make sure you are prepared with different perspectives when presenting to top management.

Many projects are decided by top management and thus work well at headquarters, but unfortunately fail in other parts of the organization. True success in working more socially requires many different participants collaborating and sharing knowledge all across the organization. You will also need the support of IT, HR and IR for such a project. So join forces and get them on board as early as possible – and let them take some of the credit when your project becomes a success.

Persuade top management

When presenting to top management, make sure to emphasize the link between the overall business strategy and the internal social media strategy and the business case. Which platform you recommend and how exactly it will be implemented is less important. If you have the support of key stakeholders such as IT, HR and IR, your case will be even stronger. Also, remember to emphasize all the benefits for management, addressing their specific agendas. Often internal social media is wrongly perceived as simply of benefit to employees.

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Thanks to …This publication is based on knowledge and inspiration from

a wide range of surveys and blogs on the subject.

We would like to thank: Gatehouse

Aalund Gartner

McKinsey Global Institute Towers Watson

The Future of Work Simply Communicate

All Things IC 2ndC

Søren Schultz Kim Escherich

Anne Pia Bjerg Overbeck

And of course our task force members, who have helped us with their input and experiences from everyday life in the organizations.

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About Open: We help create employee engagement in large organizations. We do that by combining strategic and creative communication efforts based on our

belief that active involvement is key to getting people on board.

We work closely with our clients to understand their needs and corporate culture. And we put employees at the center of everything we do, encouraging them to

inspire, act and share across all levels of the organization.

To learn more, please visit weareopen.dk or facebook.com/opencommunication.

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