Entreprise social networks and employee engagement. Slides from Emma Bridger of People Lab

2. Enterprise Social Networks:
A force for good or evil?

5. The rise of social media
• Over eight in ten (83%) of adults now go online using
any type of device in any location
• Nearly all 16-24s and 25-34s are now online (98%)
• Two-thirds (66%) of online adults say they have a
current social networking site profile, unchanged since 2012 (64%)
• Nearly all with a current profile (96%) have one on Facebook
• Three in ten social networkers say they have a Twitter profile
• One in five say they have a YouTube (22%) or
WhatsApp profile (20%)

6. The current picture
• Until very recently, most companies have focused their digital media
strategies on building relationships with customers, rather than with
their employees (Silverman 2013)
• A study by Oracle (2013) found that whilst
86% of companies have a Facebook site,
closely followed by 82% with a LinkedIn
account (both externally facing social media),
just 18% have a specific ESN platform
• Gose (2013) argues, “ESNs will become as
essential as telephones and email are today”

7. The current picture
• Why is there a gap?
• Lack of control and perceived
risks to reputation.

8. Table discussion
• Is there a gap in your organisation?
• What do you believe are the reasons
for any gap?
• Do you feel differently about using
these types of communication within
your workplace compared to outside
of your workplace?
• Are there any implications for digital
communication within your organisation?

9. How we view the organisation

10. How it
really is?

11. Bradley and McDonald (2011) identify
six emerging patterns of use for ESN:
1 Expertise location – which enables
employees to find the right person or
solution to tackle a problem or issue
2 Collective intelligence – which refers
to the ability to collaborate in a group
to solve issues
3 Emergent structures – which refers to
the building of online communities which
tend to form on a more informal basis
ESN patterns of use

12. 4 Interest cultivation – which refers to
the use of ESN to bring together
like-minded people
5 Mass co-ordination – which is when
is when a community is created quickly
to spread messages virally
6 Relationship leverage – refers to the
ability to gain value from an online
network and online relationships
ESN patterns of use

13. ESN - a force for good?
• Increased responsiveness
• Insight
• Collaboration
• Finding stuff
• Knowledge capture
• Innovation
• Culture
• The list goes on…

14. ESN – a force for good?
• Research presented in the journal The British Psychological
Society found that students who experience low self-esteem can take
advantage of social media and its capability to bond them with others
in order to pull themselves up from slumps in their mood
• Research presented at the 119th annual American Psychological
Association found that introverted adolescents can actually gain social
skills by using social media. In part, this is because shy individuals
may feel safer behind a computer screen (or smartphone, or tablet)

15. • Self Determination Theory (Deci and Ryan) states that there are
three basic psychological needs, which must be met in order to
experience wellbeing
• And that meeting these three basic needs helps to facilitate intrinsic
motivation, they are:
– Autonomy: the ability to regulate our own behaviours in alignment
with our own needs. If we are autonomous we are able to self
regulate our behaviours in response to personal choice as opposed to
external forces and demands.
– Competence: our need to engage in experiences which develop
learning and mastery
– Relatedness: our need to feel connected to others
• ESN could present a great opportunity to achieve all three!
ESN – a force for good?

16. ESN – a force for evil?
• Over a third (34%) of young people have felt depressed
because of something they have seen on a social network site and
one in seven (14%) have been victims of cyber bullying (YouGov).
• A study from the University of Michigan collected data about
Facebook users and how it correlated with their moods. Simply put,
they found that the more avid users were overall more unhappy
than those who used the site less.

17. Table discussion
• What are your views on ESN?
• What are the positives and negatives?
• And what are the implications
for organisations?

18. Your personal
commitments
What next?
You have a choice

19. Thank you
emma@peoplelab.co.uk
07595 465515
@miss_commslab
www.peoplelab.co.uk

20. W O R K S H O P 1
What are the barriers and
opportunities
to embedding an ESN
in your organisations?

21. W O R K S H O P 2
How do we overcome
these barriers and build on the
opportunities?