Guidelines for Choosing an Enterprise Social Network

1. Guidelines For Choosing an Enterprise Social Network GroupRocket.net

2. Enterprise social networks are an emerging trend and many companies are implementing such social networks within their organizations. Though some see it as time waster, others see it as a valuable tool that can be used to boost employee productivity. Consider how tedious it will be for the employees to constantly exchange all information via emails? With more information, the email threads can get longer and monotonous to read and reply. But with an enterprise social network firmly in place, all information is at hand and employees can even socialize with members belonging to other teams besides theirs while taking breaks or sipping their coffee. While choosing the right enterprise social network for your company, you have to keep some metrics in mind so that you make the right decision. GroupRocket.net

3. Performance The performance of the enterprise social network should be fast and clean and it must live up to its word when it comes to the features. If the documentation says that a particular thing will or won’t happen when you do this or that, then the user must be able to see the same thing on his screen and not something else. The performance and the attributes should be good enough for the employees to check their accounts and log in several times every day. Let the individual modify his own privacy settings and control what he can see in the newsfeed so that he can get updates that are relevant only to his work. Employees should be able to establish groups within the enterprise social network where they talk about work related topics, come up with innovative ideas for new products that can be launched by their company and share knowledge and other useful information with other employees through the network. GroupRocket.net

4. Security Social media security within an organization is crucial in order to prevent unauthorized personnel from getting the passwords of the accounts and retrieving information that is vital to the company. Sometimes anyone can send a phishing email disguised as an ethical and professional email to the person who manages the enterprise social network accounts and trick him into clicking a vicious link. Employees should be told to change their passwords often and some kind of training should be provided to the concerned authorities so that they learn to recognise suspicious links and emails with malware. A two-factor authentication process for both employees and the person who monitors services like DNS can provide significant defence against security breaches and curtail those who intend to steal business related information. GroupRocket.net

5. Cost You want a sophisticated enterprise social network for your company but don’t want one that will burn a hole in your pocket. Pricing is an important factor that you’ll have to consider. There is no point in implementing an enterprise social network that is too expensive or costly and does not fit within your budget. Easy on-boarding It must be easy for the employees to sign-up and register on their enterprise social networks so that they can have their account up and functioning within no time. Asking too many queries or making the on-boarding process complex can be a turn-off and the employees might abandon the enterprise social network even before they begin to use it. GroupRocket.net

6. Cost You want a sophisticated enterprise social network for your company but don’t want one that will burn a hole in your pocket. Pricing is an important factor that you’ll have to consider. There is no point in implementing an enterprise social network that is too expensive or costly and does not fit within your budget. Easy on-boarding It must be easy for the employees to sign-up and register on their enterprise social networks so that they can have their account up and functioning within no time. Asking too many queries or making the on-boarding process complex can be a turn-off and the employees might abandon the enterprise social network even before they begin to use it. GroupRocket.net

7. Design The user interface must be simple and elegant and must compel the employees to log in multiple times a day. The user interface must be simple to use and must allow the employee to login quickly. Mobile readiness Your employees must be able to login to the enterprise social network from anywhere, even places outside of the workplace. To enable this, the enterprise social network must come with a mobile app. With the mobile app the user can receive notifications and updates from other employees even though he is not physically present in the office. While commuting on the bus or on a leave, the user should still be able to connect with all the other employees within the organization. GroupRocket.net

8. Instant notifications Have you seen the notifications popping up in Facebook? Have you noticed how an email is sent to the user every time there is a new comment or friend request? This kind of notifying system must be present in your enterprise social network as well. Notifications must be sent to the employees every time a meeting is scheduled or a new agenda is created. When the manager calls for a video conference, all the team members must be immediately informed about it via notifications. GroupRocket.net

9. User friendliness The enterprise social network that you implement in your company must be user friendly so that it’s easy for employees to navigate within the network. Since everything is very transparent within the network, employees must have full control over the privacy settings so that they are comfortable with using and sharing content over the network. Employees must have the power to turn on or off any feature that they want. They should also be able to control what updates they get in their live newsfeed. GroupRocket.net

10. Search features Employees should be able to perform deep searches to extract the information they need within the enterprise social network. They should also be able to save the information from the network that they can read later. They should be able to search and look up other employees within the enterprise social network and send them invites. Various search filters like Co-workers, Pages, Groups, Discussions boards etc should be available so that employees can quickly locate what they are looking for. Profile Employees must be able to create a profile for themselves within the enterprise social network. They should be able to add all the pertinent details like photo, job designation, Skype handle, phone and other contact details to the profile and also be able to update their profile in case of any changes. GroupRocket.net