These are just some of the issues to be addressed in tomorrow's Putting Social Media to work in your Intranet Strategy (February 26th, 2009, 12PM EST – it's free to attend but you need to reserve your spot now).

The real value of social media on the intranet are the relationships and connections that are built and enhanced for unlocking tacit knowledge and unleashing creativity and future potential. Consider the research findings of MIT¹:

• 40% of creative teams productivity is directly explained by the amount of communication they have with others to discover, gather, and internalise information.

• Employees with the most extensive digital networks are 7% more productive than their colleagues.

And yet while most social media represent simple technology (and some like discussion forums and instant messaging have been around for more than 10 years), it is new enough that most employees have little experience using it (particularly older generations) or struggle with understanding the value it represents to the business. This cultural shift or barrier is also explicit in the findings of the Intranet 2.0 Global Study (430+ organizations worldwide) where most organizations have implemented or are planning to implement social media, but few really know or understand how to make it work (or are able to convince senior management or employees of the value):

• 41% have implemented blogs, but only 11% at the enterprise level

  • Those that don't have blogs, only 11% don't plan to use them; the remainder have plans or are considering their implementation

• 46% have implemented wikis, but only 15% at the enterprise level

  • Those that don't have wikis, only 10% don't plan to use them; the remainder have plans or are considering their implementation

• 47% have implemented discussion forums, but only 20% at the enterprise level

  • Those that don't have discussion forums, only 9% don't plan to use them; the remainder have plans or are considering their implementation

Amongst the biggest barriers to implementing social media on the intranet:

• Lack of executive support (33%)

• Lack of a business case (31%)

• IT supprt (31%)

• Addressing internal policy concerns (29%)

If your executives don't understand or see the value in social media, older generation employees certainly won't flock to adopt. However, the pressure to adopt and innovate comes from the younger generation, particularly those under 40. Here in Canada, more than 90% of those under 40-years-old are on Facebook. You can imagine how eager those same employees might be to use “employee networking” and other social media tools on the corporate intranet if they were educated as to how it works, and why it's of value to them.

Leading me to the potential cost of failing to adopt social media into your intranet strategy: 39% of 18 to 24 year-old employees would consider leaving their employer if they were not allowed to access sites like Facebook and YouTube; a further 21% indicated that they would feel ‘annoyed’ by such a ban (Telindus study of 1,000 European employees).

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ATTEND THE WEBINAR: Putting Social Media to work in your Intranet Strategy (February 26th, 2009, 12PM EST – it's free to attend but you need to reserve your spot now).

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