The amount of organizations that
evaluate or implement enterprise social software (ESS) is growing. Since these
tools and their use are evolving, research literature in the area is limited. My research
focuses on the challenges around adoption of ESS and factors that impact ESS
adoption. While interviewing internal community managers from organizations
that use ESS, I noticed that many of them mentioned “leadership support” as one
of the key factors of successful adoption of Jive, Yammer, Socialcast and other
social software. However, the understanding and the explanation
of “leadership support" by each community manager was varied. Some of them thought
about “executive support” in terms of resources or a sponsorship: CEO approved
the purchase of the social software and positions of internal managers; CIO
allocated personnel and create infrastructure to support software implementation,
integration or customization.
Others community managers praised
C-Suite for exhibiting social support, promoting ESN or even being a model for
using ESS. According to just published Community
Roundtable's 2014 Report on the State of Community Management (2014),“ in
best-in-class communities, 58% include CEO participation vs. average CEO
participation rates of 36%”. According to this study, the general engagement rates
are higher if CMO, CEO and CIO actively participate in community conversations,
post content or provide feedback. The CR report does not go into details about
the quality and quantity of the executive participation and leaders' communication content/style.
However, according to anecdotal data and numerous posts on the discussions boards,
not all forms of executive participation and messages engage community members
or be welcomed by them. If discussion
boards or micro-blogs posts are not authentic, too formal or even seem
ghost-written, community members do not post comments. Some executive blogs mediate
comments or disable this functionality. Not all executives are accepted by the internal
community and not all their “online identities” stimulate open conversation and
trust. It will be interesting to research leader-followers relationship in internal
communities that utilize ESS.
