{"id":6254,"date":"2015-12-17T21:49:38","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T21:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=6254"},"modified":"2015-12-17T21:50:21","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T21:50:21","slug":"encouraging-adoption-in-enterprise-social-networks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/12\/encouraging-adoption-in-enterprise-social-networks.htm","title":{"rendered":"Encouraging adoption in enterprise social networks"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my job, consulting with many organisations who are adopting Microsoft products and services, including Office 365, I have a lot of discussions about Yammer and other modern communication methods (e.g. Sway<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Many have already had pilots with Yammer and found it didn’t work for them. Some are smart enough to realise that it wasn’t Yammer at fault but a lack of executive sponsorship. Adapting a new medium for communication takes time; it needs a cultural shift. If your boss uses it, you might consider giving it a try (although when I had a team, my experience at getting them to use Yammer was best described as mixed). But if your boss’ boss uses it, or the CEO, and the internal communications team are are using it instead of email, then you might stand some chance of success – because, as well as executive sponsorship, it needs critical mass (which means people need a reason to visit).<\/p>\n

Of course, the platform itself has to be usable. In my last place the corporate social platform was Newsgator (which was awful), coupled with an old version of SharePoint and, aside from the teams whose job it was to evangelise its use, it was pretty much ignored. In fact, so much so that other social networks popped up in their own bubbles: the sales community were using Salesforce Chatter; although Yammer actually seemed to gain more traction in some areas (via an external network hosted by Microsoft for partner engagement) because there was something of value there for people.<\/p>\n

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@markwilsonit<\/a> Social Business platforms need to be enforced from Senior Mgt. If not, old slow ways will come back<\/p>\n

\u2014 Gareth Reynolds (@garethreynolds) December 17, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n