10 Things to Consider While Choosing Enterprise Social Platform for Your Business
So, you have decided to adopt an enterprise social network for your internal communications? Great! But the more important and trickier question arises now. How do you choose the best enterprise social platform for your business?
Actually, there is no ‘the best platform’ because different social platforms have different strengths. So, keep in mind to choose the one with the benefits and features that best align with your business goals. Here are the 10 things to consider while choosing an enterprise social platform for your business.
10 Things to Consider While Choosing Enterprise Social Platform for Your Business
Does it align with your business goals?
Always tie the benefits of an internal social platform with your business goals and know the effectiveness of this collaboration. Will the platform help in information sharing? Will it ease the internal communication and increase employee efficiency? Ensure that there is an increase in the quality of communiqué rather than the amount of noise.
Does it have a familiar interface?
Implementing a social platform for communication means changing the way your employees communicate and adapting to change is always quite tricky. Choose a platform that has a look and feels like that of other external social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc. A social platform that is easy to use is always accepted enthusiastically.
Do you have the executives’ support?
It is good to have the support and involvement of C-level right from planning to implementation. Their support and excitement help in building up the same vigor throughout the organization. Without their backing, it will become difficult to make your employees understand the importance and need of an internal enterprise social platform.
Can you create and update extensive user profiles?
Internal social platforms are meant to make the communication easier. So, user profiles are the key features to look at while evaluating the options. User profiles include employees’ personal details, skills, and experience, etc. that help in finding the right people for the right project and apt communication. Make sure that the platform you choose allows creating and updating extensive user profiles easily.
What is the level of security it provides?
Security is one of the main concerns while talking about communication processes, especially via social platforms. Businesses have many things that are not meant to be shared publicly or even to other teams or departments. So, consider a platform that offers proper security as per the industry and regulatory standards. Ensure that it allows you to manage who sees what on the platform.
What is the level of training required?
Whenever you plan to bring in a new change in your organization, it is likely that your employees will require training for a smooth transition. Consider such a platform that is easier to adopt, understand and operate and comes with the training materials and manuals. Have a proper training and content plan in place to make the change successful and worthwhile.
Does it integrate well?
Does the platform you’re evaluating integrate well with the existing systems that you are already using? Is it important to integrate it with all the business applications you’re using? User satisfaction and experience boosts high when everything is integrated well as that gives the users the freedom to communicate and collaborate from anywhere, anytime.
How easy is it to collaborate and share?
All social platforms are meant for collaboration and sharing. Does the social platform offer these functionalities with proper security? Can public or private groups be created? What are the privacy controls for the same? While choosing an enterprise social platform, ensure the ease of uploading, sharing and collaborating on documents, via groups or to a specific user.
Can you access it from mobile devices?
More and more businesses are going mobile. You cannot afford to miss any work-related communication just because you are at a remote location. Also, it is rather difficult to collaborate with many people over email. Make sure that the social platform you choose is available on mobile devices so that you stay updated on-the-go. Also, check its availability on different OS like Android, iOS, and Windows.
Does it have the features you’re looking for?
No social platform suits all types of business. Every platform has its own features and benefits and every business has unique goals. Some platforms are hosted while some are installed. Some systems can integrate with other common business applications while others are standalone systems. Choose whatever suits the best for your business.
When you consider the above points before taking a decision, you will have a much better clarity about what you should expect from an enterprise social platform for your business.
Jambo is one such enterprise social platform which comes with many other unique features too. You can have your custom URL, homepage and registration page. Jambo offers much more meaningful user profiles with badges and hierarchy too. You can create a poll and administer to a group or set of users, have all media neatly segregated at one place, and announce a challenge and wait for your people to provide you with solutions.
