It cannot have escaped your notice: social media is a hot topic for your marketing department. Or rather, when people talk about social media and organizations, it practically always comes down to marketing strategies. This does social media a disservice; social media is also a perfect tool for other parts of your organization.
Knowledge Management 2.0
Science is gradually beginning to realize that social media is not merely a subject used by students to avoid studying, but that it genuinely holds added value for organizations. In addition to the well-known marketing options often highlighted in blogs, reports, and scientific articles, there is an ongoing trend in knowledge management.
Knowledge management is the management of knowledge within one or more organizations.
While knowledge is managed in an organized manner and flows easily in small organizations, this is not so much the case in large multinationals. Add to this the risks an organization faces when a star employee leaves and takes half of all customers with them, and the usefulness of a knowledge management system becomes obvious.
Social media can be used to store all knowledge within an organization and subsequently disseminate it. These systems, often referred to as Knowledge Management 2.0, consist of social networks, wikis, and blogs, among others.
This article shows how you can benefit from Knowledge Management 2.0, in the form of a social network specifically for your organization.
Research
Earlier this year, a study was conducted by the Faculty of Information & Computing Sciences at Utrecht University to examine how organizations implement Yammer. Yammer is a social network aimed at organizations. You log in to Yammer using your organization's email address; it is best described as a combination of Facebook and Twitter. Employees post what they are working on, ask questions about problems they encounter, and follow other employees to stay informed about developments. The Netherlands is the second country on the list of Yammer users; the United States leads the way. Interestingly, no study has ever been conducted on how effective Yammer, or any other social network, is within an organization. This effectiveness could be measured by looking at how knowledge is shared, absorbed, and reused within the organizations in question.
The organizations are large Dutch organizations with multiple buildings and divisions, employing between 50 and 1200 people. Some organizations set clear expectations for the Yammer implementation, while others were simply faced with the implementation because employees can start a Yammer network themselves. In these organizations, neither expectations nor goals were set.
The results
The first results of this study are briefly outlined below; they do not yet cover all organizations that have been assessed and are based on qualitative research.
Management Support
As expected, and previously demonstrated in research into implementations of general information systems, management support is very important. In addition to the fact that direct communication between senior management and employees is highly appreciated, management support validates to employees that participating in the social network is considered useful. This likely has to do with the denotation of Facebook as entertainment rather than as a useful pastime. Furthermore, issues such as privacy and security concerns may be addressed more effectively; in some organizations, the IT department did not want to deal with Yammer because those hours could not be billed.
Organic Growth
All organizations allowed the network to grow without much intervention. In some cases, a general organization-wide network was established, but otherwise, the growth was organic. This is perceived as very pleasant by employees, but a potential disadvantage is that it can lead to a proliferation of groups and networks.
Goals & Expectations
Not a single organization had set concrete goals. This makes it very difficult to measure effectiveness, let alone determine whether a social network is a suitable knowledge tool for the organization in question.
Participation
There is often an imbalance between users who read and those who actually write on the network. Users indicate that the incentive to actively participate in the network decreases as a result, which can lead to a negative spiral. Interestingly enough, users consider the freedom to read whatever they find interesting, without any constraints from the organizational structure, to be precisely the major plus point of a social network. It therefore appears that a leverage effect occurs: the more people actively participate (read: write) on the network, the more effective the network becomes.
Accessibility
Because Yammer's interface is so similar to Facebook and Twitter, users of those social media platforms have no trouble switching to Yammer. Users without that prior knowledge indicate that they can switch without too much difficulty. Additionally, many employees are active on the social network outside of regular working hours thanks to apps for smartphones and tablets, as well as web applications. This also enables accessibility in other locations (such as on the way to a meeting).
Yammer in your organization
Although these are only the first results—full results are expected at the end of this year—there are already a few interesting findings that can help you set up Yammer in your organization.
- Provide management support. As trivial as this may sound, because any employee can set up a free network, this is often not given much thought.
- Try not to intervene too much; the strength of the social network lies in the diversity and creativity of the user group. Creativity and connectedness are created because employees from different organizational units can consult with each other seamlessly. Managers asking for input to discuss during a meeting with a business contact is one example of this, while employees from different divisions help each other solve a problem.
- Think carefully about what you want to publish on the social network. The free version of Yammer is hosted in the US; there may be privacy and security risks.
- Some organizations provide courses to help employees get to know the system and to create a culture of sharing and helping.
- Finally, even though a free version is available, drawing up a good plan with clear goals and expectations is a must. This allows effectiveness to be measured and clearly evaluated to determine whether a social network fits within the organization and achieves what is expected.
Last but not least, just give it a try. During all the sessions, it became clear that employees love suddenly having the freedom to communicate with each other, that there is a system they are already partially familiar with, and that is accessible anytime, anywhere via their own devices. The fact that users indicated they quickly check the network before going to bed speaks volumes.
About the Author
Thijs Baars is an entrepreneur and Master's student in Business Informatics at Utrecht University. He was involved as a researcher in the study described above as well as in the follow-up study. He is secretly still looking for companies that have fully implemented Yammer in their organization.
You can reach him via mail@thijsbaars.nl; twitter: @thijsbaars