Is your intranet ‘social’? Or is it antiquated?

Social media on the intranet (Intranet 2.0) are present on about half of all intranets (in the Western World). Once a nice-to-have or a future wish, Intranet 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and other vehicles have become mainstream – although not to all employees.

Despite the low cost of entry, most intranet 2.0 tools are merely experiments, pilots or limited to a very small audience. Social media has only been deployed at the enterprise level in about 25% of organizations (see the results of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey Intranet 2.0 becomes mainstream).

Intranet wikis, for example, are increasingly popular: as of last year, employee wikis were present in 45% of all organizations (regardless of size), but only 17% of organizations had deployed them enterprise wide. The results for intranet blogs are similar: only 13% of organizations had deployed them at the enterprise level.

Many of the experiments and pilots, the department and team level tools will be rolled-out to the rest (or most of the rest) of the enterprise in 2010. Still, more organizations that are sleeping through the social media revolution will jump on the bandwagon. 2010 will be the year of the social intranet.

To confirm or disprove this theory, we’re once again conducting the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey 2010 to learn the latest about what social media organizations are using, are not using, and the reasons for their use (or absence on the intranet).

The following survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. Respondents who complete the survey will be eligible to win $400 (a random email address will be drawn from all responses to the survey). All respondents will also receive a full copy of the results at no cost. Please provide your contact information in order to receive the survey results and to be entered into the $400 prize draw.

Take the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey 2010.

ADDITIONAL READING:

To download a free, summarized version of the Intranet 2.0: Social Media Becomes Mainstream on the Corporate Intranet report or please visit:

To purchase the full, 44-page Intranet 2.0: Social Media Becomes Mainstream on the Corporate Intranet report of analysis & recommendations please visit:

http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/purchase-intranet-2-0-global-survey-report

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It matters little what technology powers a blog. Don’t ask me whether Drupal is better than SharePoint, or if WordPress is better than Blogger. If you ask such a question then you’re likely consigning yourself to failure. If you ask such a question, you best bring in an expert to help you because you’re missing the point: a blog isn’t a technology, it’s a tool (and like most tools, the quality of the end work depends on the ability of the user).

There are a lot of successful blogs that use free, open source software with little or no bells and whistle (e.g. www.RunningAHospital.com Paul Levy (CEO, Beth Israel Hospital). The success behind the blogs starts and ends with the writer, and is exemplified by the content, context and conversation. Specifically, have a look at some of the successful executive blogs highlighted in the webinar “Implementing an executive blog” (below) and be sure to note the 8 ingredients of a great executive blog that were culled by a thorough examination of dozens of executive Internet and intranet blogs.

ADDITIONAL READING:

8 ingredients of a great executive blog

Intranet 2.0 becomes mainstream (intranet blogs on the rise) 

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Most executives are pretty smart, capable people, but many (if not most) get a failing grade for social media, particularly blogs.  While there are always exceptions to the rule, there are in fact very few good executive blogs. I’ve read many “leading” or “top 10” executive blogs (based on traffic and word-of-mouth, more than anything) and most are not bad, but few are really great.

Having examined many of these blogs, including other well-known and lesser-known blogs, here is a compilation of 8 key ingredients to a truly great executive blog, with good and bad examples for each:

1-     Audience specific content (well-written & subject focused).

·         Good example: John Dragoon (CMO, Novell).

·         Bad example: Jim Estill (former CEO, SYNNEX).

2-    Current, fresh content (timely).

·         Good example: Paul Levy (CEO, Beth Israel Hospital).

·         Bad example: Jonathan Schwartz (President & CEO, Sun Microsystems)

3-     Easy to navigate (content categories).

·         Good example: Bill Marriott (Chairman, Marriott).

·         Bad example: Ross Mayfield (CEO, Socialtext)

4-     Social media integration (bookmarking, sharing options, Twitter).

·        Good example: Matt Blumberg (CEO, Return Path)

·        Bad example: Bill Marriott (Chairman, Marriott).

5-     Audience engagement (user comments & responding to comments).

·        Superb example: Paul Levy (CEO, Beth Israel Hospital).

·        Bad example: Jason Calcanis (CEO, Mahalo.com)

6-     Clean design (not cluttered with ads and crap).

·        Good example: Paul Levy (CEO, Beth Israel Hospital).

·        Bad example: Huffington Post (not an executive blog mind you, but so, so terrible)

7-     Cross promoting the business (without blatant advertising).

·         Good example: Mark Cuban (CEO, Dallas Mavericks et al)

·         Bad example: Ray Lutz / GM Fastlane (GM)

8-     Text + Multimedia (large blocks of text turn-off readers)

·         Good example: Ray Lutz / GM Fastlane (GM)

·         Bad example: Mark Cuban (CEO, Dallas Mavericks et al)

ADDITIONAL READING:

Blogs are about content & context, not technology

Intranet 2.0 becomes mainstream (intranet blogs on the rise) 

Intranet 2.0 Plan

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(SAN JOSE, CA) “Digital work became more social… but work has always been social,” says Thomas Vander Wal, InfoCloud Solutions, addressing the KM World 2009 conference. “Businesses by nature are social – you need to have people in your organization talking to each other.”

Drivers of social media and enterprise 2.0 include:

• Office productivity tools are not efficient for collaboration
• Social tools augment face-to-face
• Volume of information has grown
• Gaps in enterprise tools, CMS, and other traditional work tools
• Individuals are making a difference
• Ease of sharing & connecting with others
• Easier knowledge capture

“All of this is similar to e-mail in the 1990s. It was a strange new way of thinking… and now we’re using social tools and saying the same things that we did about email," adds Vander Wal.

“Social software creates a lot of information – many layers of information. We need tools to understand this information and structure for understanding.”

Vander Wal cites the 1–9–90 rule (Charlene Li) that helps understand the ‘who’ in social media: 1% creates the information; 9% curates it; 90% merely are consumers of the information.

SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE INTRANET

“We’re looking at our intranet and it’s an utter mess. Something is really broken here,” says Thomas, emulating a typical intranet client. “Social media helps fill in some of the gaps in the enterprise tools (example: BBC intranet: 115% wiki use in 7 years).”

When comparing Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 Vander Wal has a clever analogy: Web 2.0 is like tunneling through a mountain (it’s tough to sort out the context in the mass of information, and problems are merely small cracks in a large mass); Enterprise 2.0 is like tunneling under water (it’s easier to get started, but problems quickly become massive problems). “Web 2.0 is about numbers of users, Enterprise 2.0 is about % of users (% of employees using social media).”

Vander Wal encourages the need for "social comfort" for employees:

• Comfort with others (people to interact & share with)
• Comfort with tools
• Comfort with subject matter

“It’s been said that walled gardens are bad for the enterprise, but they give comfort to employees,” says Vander Wal, citing Andrew McAfee’s opening keynote at KM World 2009. “What we really want are comfortable walled gardens with permeable walls.”

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The breakdown of specific types of social media on intranets include:

• 47% have wikis (10% have no plans or interest)
• 45% have blogs (11% have no plans or interest)
• 46% have discussion forums (9% have no plans or interest)
• 37% have RSS (12% have no plans or interest)
• 23% have podcasts (30% have no plans or interest)
• 9% have social networking (20% with no plans or interest)

I am not sure which is better the high numbers who have already adopted or the low numbers with no plans or interests. The study concluded that an organization without Intranet 2.0 tools, or plans to use them, risks being out-flanked by their competition.

Read Bill Ives' complete column from (New Study Finds Social Media Becoming Mainstream on Corporate Intranet)

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According to the results of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey (561 organizations of all sizes from across the planet), 46% of those with 2.0 tools have spent nothing or very little on the solution:

• 46% have spent $10,000 or less

• 35% have spent between $10,000 and $100,00; 19% have spent $100,000 or more

It should probably come as no surprise then that satisfaction levels with 2.0 tools is also quite low:

• Satisfaction rates with executives is dangerously poor: 38% of executives rate the 2.0 tools as poor or very poor; a lowly 23% rate them as good or very good

• Employee satisfaction is almost poor: 35% of organizations say employee satisfaction with the 2.0 tools is poor or very poor; only 27% rate the tools as good or very good

• Only 29% of organizations rate the tool functionality as good or very good; 24% rate them as poor or very poor

In short, organizations are spending very little on their 2.0 initiatives, and the satisfaction levels are correspondingly low. Investment doesn't necessarily deliver satisfaction, but a look into the technologies used reveals some further insight. The vast majority of organizations with 2.0 tools use free, open source solutions or those bundled with a platform solution like SharePoint:

• 48% of organizations use SharePoint

• 20% of organizations use Facebook

• 17% of organizations use MediaWiki

• 16% of organizations use WordPress

There isn't a single, dedicated 2.0 licensed solution used by more than 13% of organizations. The vast majority use free, open source with the exception of SharePoint which sports 2.0 tools that leave very little to be desired (although the social media components in SharePoint 2010 are supposed to be spectacular, and represent a heavy portion of the investment in the SharePoint upgrade).

Two lessons are worth noting:

ALSO READ:

Intranet 2.0 Becomes Mandatory

THE INTRANET 2.0 GLOBAL SURVEY:

The findings of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey are highlighted in the report "Intranet 2.0: social media becomes mainstream on the corporate intranet."

To download a free, summarized version of the Intranet 2.0 report please visit:

http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/download-summary-report-of-intranet-2-0-global-survey

To purchase the full, 44-page Intranet 2.0 report of analysis & recommendations please visit: http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/purchase-intranet-2-0-global-survey-report

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