Companies are implementing customized enterprise social media platforms for employees. Successful social networks generate the most collaborative learning and knowledge, and the highest engagement level.
By Joshua Ferdinand

Build a social networking system for employees, stand back and watch them embrace it with enthusiasm. That is the ideal, but the best laid plans can go astray. A number of companies have learned that lesson and shared their mistakes and successes when developing an enterprise social media network for employees.

The successful networks in place today promote collaborative learning and knowledge, innovation, and engagement. Because employees see value in using the social network, they are motivated to use it to drive innovation, share ideas, advance their knowledge of the enterprise, increase productivity, and manage change.

Lessons learned from real-world cases are founded on two main principles: Social collaboration sy...