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Features

Published December 2008

Learning Opportunities Embedded in Social Networking

  

  Mark Sylvester

In the past five years, social media in the enterprise has transitioned from simple e-mail and discussion boards to customizable, full-featured, in-house social networks. In turn, organizations are beginning to realize the learning benefits of such networks.

While the learning strategy of an organization will typically vary widely, at its heart, it must answer the question of how to involve learners in the process. A primary benefit of a social network is the inherent interactivity in each system. To benefit from the network, one ultimately has to interact, which takes the form of creating a profile, joining groups, posting and reading threads on forums, adding content and generally being a part of a conversation.

This interactivity is vital to the success of a vibrant social network and is not arrived at by chance. Creating a compelling environment with clearly articulated goals takes thought and its own strategy. And this strategy must support the overall learning strategy of the organization.

There are many ways to add social media tools to support a learning strategy. Companies can add groups on public-facing sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and many are seeing tremendous participation here, much to the chagrin of management. Because these sites are one-size-fits-all and not specifically designed for the organization, they provide an avenue for employees to meet and communicate with one another outside the workplace but don’t necessarily support the overarching goal of involving them in the learning process.

Yes, it is a positive outcome that they are meeting one another. But it seems to be more for the social part of networking, instead of finding others with similar skills or study partners to improve their knowledge about the job at hand. These sites are excellent at raising the awareness of social networking. Yet, they fail to help learning professionals meet their strategic goals. The need to tailor networks has led professionals to seek out social networking platforms that are customized to support their learning needs.

Now there is a growing market of “white-label social networks” that are meeting this need. Major research organizations — such as Aberdeen, Bersin and Forrester — are starting to cover this growing group of companies, and recent surveys prove most organizations are looking to add social media tools to their arsenals.

Where to Start
Social networking has the ability to make important connections between employees. Consider what you want employees to learn about each other and what you want to learn about them when crafting the profile portion of your network, the most important component when designing your own site. Also, what would they want to know about each other in a professional context? It might be previous experience, usually known only by HR and covered in their filed away resume. It might be hard and soft skills or certifications, competencies, values or even professional interests that span beyond their current job responsibilities.