Effectiveness in community building

Despite the explosion of social media in the personal lives of many people, a new survey by global professional services company Towers Watson shows that just over half of employers are using social media tools to communicate and build community with employees. Further, among those employers that have embraced social media technology, there is little consensus as to which ones are most effective. They measured how effective companies are at building community among their employees and asked about their social media journey - the progress is shown above. Among the companies who aren’t using social media, the ‘Wait and See’ crowd, one out of five are able to build community among their workers. Most companies get started by using social media to communicate with remote workers: however, the survey shows a dip in their ability to build community, which Towers Watson blame on the lack of a fully developed strategy. For most, the next step – ‘Making Progress’ - involves using social media to influence collaboration or culture. As companies increase their use of social media, they become more disciplined in their efforts and achieve better results.
In the ‘Maxing Out’ phase, community-building effectiveness increases significantly when companies use social media to achieve at least three objectives — for example, team building, sharing feedback with leaders and innovation. Finally, under ‘What’s Next?’, the pros expand their use of social media in areas (e.g., organisational performance) that were traditionally dominated by one-way communication. “Most companies”, states the report, “begin by using social media to communicate with employees who work away from the office — for example, field and home-based workers. The best use social media as part of a broader communication strategy and measure to see if it’s working.” Where does your company fit on this social media community-building journey?

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