In no particular order:
- Launching or relaunching a platform? Start where connection and collaboration are strongest in the org; dept, division, team. First, determine why and then work to clone it.
- What happens (or doesn’t) on your platform is very, very rarely because of your platform.
- Ignore platform defaults and vanity metrics. To nobody but the vendor does “adoption” mean logging in 1x in 30 days! Adoption means workflow integrations.
- People are naturally social. When they are not, it’s because there is a physical or psychological barrier. Addition comes through subtraction.
- All conversations in a business are business conversations. Don’t stifle chit-chat. People work best with people the know and like.
- The fastest way to irrelevance is focusing on platform usage wins NOT business wins BECAUSE of the platform.
- Fun, games and gimmicks are top of the funnel activities. What’s next? Once platform familiarity is established, shift quickly to how the tools improve productivity, efficiency, effectiveness.
- The fastest way to accelerate adoption of a platform is by identifying the organizational influencers, the key nodes in the network. Leverage Social Network Analysis #SNA
- Most workers are not looking for the c-suite to signal what & how to use your social tech. They look to those that directly support, evaluate and reward them – their managers. Gain their buy-in and use.
- Don’t promote your enterprise social tech to employees as a place. Promote it as a tool. People at work do work… with tools.
BONUS – remember, when uptake is slow or non-existent, nobody you want to see use the platform ever really asked for a platform. WHAT’S-THE-PURPOSE?