So, you have decided to implement Social Media within your organization. Now, what?
By nature, Social Media provides people with resources and tools for accessing information they deem valuable. However, the ability to access this information is not always reason enough to motivate people to adopt and use new Social Media. Knowing this, what steps should you take to get people excited and motivated to start using your new Social Media?

Consider the following as you create an implementation strategy:

1. Identify your application’s purpose and communicate it!
   There are many reasons why people choose to use Social Media, but at the root of it all are three desires: connect with others, build relationships, and create shared communities. What makes Social Media unique among all new technology is its ability to provide people who have similar interests and passions with a way to connect and create shared communities of common interest. As you build your implementation strategy, is it vital that you keep these desires front-of-mind and communicate how your application will either improve or help to remove obstacles hindering people from doing any or all of them.
2. Engage early adopters and share their thoughts with others.
   Engaging people who are already using other Social Media applications or who are early adopters can help you do three things. First, by engaging these people you are able to quickly gather insights into the perceived value of your application so that you can make changes that will benefit the larger population. Next, feedback from these people can be used to actively market the application to others. Most importantly, word-of-mouth recommendations and referrals from these people help to create buzz and raise awareness about your application and its value to others.
3. Don’t forget to engage the big cheese.
   People want to feel that their contributions are of value and that they play an active role in shaping the quality of their own lives and the quality of their future work. Therefore, it goes without saying that if people feel that their contributions are of no value, they will not participate. It is for this reason that getting influential people (like senior leaders and executives) within the organization informed and engaged is so important. A great example of this was illustrated by Bell Canada’s implementation of “ID-ah!” (a Social Media application for gathering and rank ordering ideas for improving the company). Once employees knew that senior leaders of the company were reading the posts and had a sincere desire to implement the best ideas (a total of 12 ideas have been implemented), the adoption and usage of the application rapidly increased.
4. Promote through other technology and think interactive.
   As you actively market and promote your new Social Media, be sure to seek ways to link and promote it on other heavily trafficked sites and resources being used within your organization. For example, if your organization has an Internet site or enterprise portal, look for ways to partner with the owners of these sites. Some ideas include trading links or creating interactive campaigns that “drive” users from their site to yours.

As you roll out new Social Media applications, be sure to focus on these considerations. We would like to learn more about how you are exciting and motivating people in your organization to use new Social Media. Feel free to comment below!

Tags: ID-ah!, Social Media, Technology Adoption

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.