August 16, 2012
In the new business landscape IT must, as Tron would say, “fight for the users,” making the technology serve people, and not the other way around. This holds doubly true in the realm of social media, which many companies are leveraging to connect globally dispersed workforces and clients.
CIOs implementing platforms that facilitate enterprise-wide collaboration face the same challenge that they face every time they roll out any new application -- engagement. You may be tempted to think that giving your people the tools would be incentive enough. After all, you’re offering them a chance to essentially mimic behavior they enact in their spare time. However, assuming that they’re going to engage with your social tools just because they use Facebook is like thinking they’ll watch company videos because they like to watch TV. In reality, if you don’t totally wrap the experience around their preferences and needs, you’ll have no more luck getting them to use your tools than you would trying to get them to watch a really bad TV series.
