With Microsoft’s acquisition of Yammer and its subsequent integration roadmap with SharePoint, questions remain as to how best move forward with
your enterprise social strategy. 

In part two of this exploration of the social enterprise, I asked leading members of the SharePoint
community to weigh in on what organizations can do to ensure social endeavors
are a success, regardless of which social tools you use. All of the experts are
among the Top 25 Online SharePoint Influencers, a list created by platform-independent social software provider
and my client harmon.ie. Experts include Sean Bordner, CEO at SharePoint AMS; Christian Buckley, Director at Axceler;
Liam Cleary, Senior
Manager at Protiviti; Jeremy Thake, Chief Architect
at AvePoint; Todd Klindt,
SharePoint consultant at Rackspace; and Wilco Turnhout,
Owner of Rapid Circle. Here are their road-tested tips to successfully
implement social in the enterprise.

1: Strategize, strategize, strategize

“The interesting thing
about a social enterprise is that organizations have the ability to ensure it’s
a success. The ingredients are simple, yet are often overlooked. The
strategy needs to answer some important questions: Who are your audience
participants? What’s in this ‘social enterprise’ that is important to them
that cannot be found elsewhere? This is the place where they ___(fill in
the blank). What’s in it for them (staff, vendors, customers, etc.)? What’s
in it for your organization?” (Sean Bordner)

2: One size does not fit all

“While some social
capabilities should be available across the enterprise, you should work with
different teams and business units to understand their specific needs. Some
teams may need something light weight and ad hoc, others may need something
comprehensive.” (Christian Buckley)

3: Blur social elements with collaboration

“Too often [social] has been seen as a separate
component completely when [in fact] it works best when it is mingled with
collaboration. Combining the two creates a *need* to use social as more than
just a status updating mechanism.” (Liam Cleary)

4: Use
your data

“Customers
are dipping their toes into the business intelligence (BI) pond and seeing how
they can make the most of it. Some are doing it well, some are not. Almost all
are realizing that their data needs to be cleaned up and reorganized for
SharePoint’s BI to really make good use of it.” (Todd Klindt)

5: Tools are important, but it’s
people-power that really drives social  

“Simple, friendly, and mobile tools are
prerequisite for the social enterprise… They also need to glue various
features, content, and people together. But most important, a company needs to
believe in it, senior management needs to live it, and people need to learn it.”
(Wilco Turnhout)

“‘Social’ is not just
Newsfeeds and microblogging with mentions and hashtags ‘Twitter style’.  ‘Social’ in SharePoint is about
Communities, Blogs, Wikis, User Profiles, SkyDrive Pro, and much more. I think
every organization will have a different secret sauce due to different factors
such as their culture and technology in place. The most common [success] factor
I am seeing that leads to a rise in use of social is to identify champions and
let them spread the good word to the workforce. If you can get a few people in
each office doing this, and demonstrating value in their day-to-day
responsibilities…others will join.” (Jeremy Thake)

6: Build an
exciting community experience

“Choreograph the launch of your social enterprise. Socialize
the idea with your staff prior to launch. Your users should be excited about
the launch date. Send out teaser emails leading up to the launch. Send out
announcements such as ‘4 Days till Launch!’ or ‘See you soon online!’

Within the community Site itself, things need to be happening! Content
must be created daily. Your community needs to be the place for discussions and
where new presentations are first posted. It should not just be a place to get
data. 

Utilize staff talent at your organization by identifying what they’re
passionate about and encouraging them to express this passion in the community.
Passion is the difference between another boring tool and an exciting and
provocative experience!

Your organization’s active participation is vital to the success of the
social enterprise. You wouldn’t invite people to your home for a party and not
show up yourself, would you? A good host is always present. The
active involvement of the staff needs to initially be higher, but can taper
down as active community leaders step to the forefront. This too should be
planned, encouraged, and accounted for in your strategic social enterprise
strategy.” (Sean Bordner)

Part three

In the third and final
installment, I’ll speak to the experts about the
importance of mobile in an enterprise social strategy and why and how every business should prepare for it.

Jenna Dobkin is a
results-oriented advocacy and influencer engagement professional with a passion
for helping businesses grow sales, build brands, and enhance community
relationships, online and off. Over the past 10 years, she has worked extensively
in the Microsoft developer and SharePoint communities. Clients include Visa
International, McDonalds, Starbucks, Mainsoft, and harmon.ie. Jenna is also a
nerd. She graduated top of her class from the University of California at
Berkeley Haas School of Business.