Attending a conference this week in Sydney on the topic of social networking and business collaboration, I was struck by one significant thought: how much the web - and its numerous trends that dissipate as quickly as they appear - is different compared to a typical intranet.

This might seem obvious, but it's an important consideration because, as I discuss in the new edition of Melcrum's report Transforming your intranet, we're often told that "What happens on the web happens on the intranet". It's true to a certain extent - the technologies filter through in various ways - but the dynamics of the two environments are poles apart, and subsequently the way tools and technologies are used can be poles apart too.

Read on for examples of how wikis and social networks differ between the web and the intranet and also learn 3 ways you can give social media a gentle push in the right direction.

Internal wikis
On the web, the wiki is epitomized by Wikipedia, the vast, all-conquering knowledge base, the accuracy of which is surprisingly high. Wikipedia is read by millions but developed and expanded by a relative few. It's a passion for its contributors, a keen source of interest and diverse knowledge for its readers.

In an organization, however, an all-encompassing, business-wide knowledge base, passionately developed by employees and vigorously maintained so that those reading corporate facts during downtime are kept amused is an unlikely scenario. What's far more realistic are mini-project wikis, idea-sharing wikis and policy documents authored in a collaborative fashion. These are the types of things wikis are used for internally and it's quite different to their general perception on the web.

Business social networks
What about social networks? Again, on the web, we have epic user numbers in the hundreds of millions for Facebook, Bebo, MySpace and Orkut. On MySpace, over 60 million messages are sent every day, with tens of thousands of videos and pictures uploaded. At Friendster, they're getting 150,000 new users every single day.

What about a business or internal social network? Do you imagine your colleagues uploading thousands of pictures, updating their status, and spending lunch hours watching internal videos? Again, and given that it's often a tough task to get simple ID pictures of employees, you can't really see it happening.

What you can imagine are real-time updates of where people are, how they can be contacted, maybe their blog links and social bookmarks if possible. Even on well-maintained corporate networks and directories, the vast majority will only have this type of basic or necessary information.

Key differences
This isn't to say social media tools within organizations don't work. Far from it. But it's vital to comprehend and take into consideration that dynamics in the business environment are vastly different to the web. Chris Knowles, web manager at Heinz Australia, nicely summarized why this is in his presentation at the Sydney conference:

In organizations:

• People are working, not exploring, discussing or contributing to a topic that's their hobby, or social past-time. Because of this, there's not the same amount of passion around a topic.
• The incentives are also different ("What's in it for me?"), as is the motivation to speak out, or even criticize.
• And in the corporate environment, you're less inclined to share your knowledge because that knowledge may be your power: "People are quite happy knowing what they know".

I'd also add that in the corporate environment, the tools at your disposal also lack the sophistication of the web, which in turn affects how inclined you are to use them.

3 tips for setting the stage
What can you do, then, to push social media along, or get it off to a good start?

1. Make it useful
   Beyond the experimental phase, there has to be a reason for your smart new tool, and you have to be able to articulate its use well, and demonstrate that it's going to save people a lot of time or effort (or make their lives dramatically easier).
2. Make it easy
   You not only have to demonstrate that your new idea will make life easier for everyone, but it has to be easy to use. Yet another password to think of? That's too much effort for many. Non-standard creation such as Wiki Markup versus a basic word processing-style system? That's another set of technical jargon for people to take on board. You have to keep it simple.
3. Don't give up
   Despite the lightning fast pace of change on the web, changes in business take much longer. Set yourself or your project team realistic targets, and don't expect to transform your Enterprise into an Enterprise 2.0 in just the time it takes to set up a new corporate blog.

Until next week,

P.S. You can now find us on LinkedIn at Melcrum's new Communicators' Network group. Sign up today and join the discussion!

Leaders are losing the battle for employee trust
Sona Hathi, Internal Comms Hub, November 24, 2008

Recent research shows that employees have little faith in CEOs and even less in senior managers and those closer to the CEO trust management more than employees nearer the frontline. Read more

Pension communication – are you doing enough?
Di Smith, Internal Comms Hub, November 24, 2008

In this special 2-part report, the Hub takes a closer look at the employee pension picture across the UK and US, and the implications of the developments for communicators. Read more

Lose the "command and control" attitude to build prosperous social networks
Annie Waite, The Melcrum Blog, November 20, 2008

Peter Bradwell, from think tank Demos, says today’s difficult business environment tends to create an instinctive reaction from management to return to traditional “command and control” hierarchies - where productivity is closely monitored and measured. Read more

The Source for Communicators is a free resource for corporate communicators from Melcrum Publishing.
Melcrum Publishing Ltd, The Glassmills, 322b King Street, London, W6 0AX, UK
Melcrum Publishing, 449 N. Clark, Suite 305, Chicago, IL 60654, USA
Melcrum Publishing, Level 12, 95 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia

Copyright Melcrum Publishing Limited 2008.