4 examples of executive sponsors critical to ESN success

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Posted on June 12th, 2012 by Oleg Kulda.

This is our second blog post in a series about making enterprise social networking a success. It’s all about getting the right executive sponsors on your enterprise social network bus.

Once you’ve clearly defined how enterprise social network can help you meet your corporate needs, be sure that executives are on board. Enterprise networks do not flourish under a command and control management model, but they do require leadership. Senior executives’ sponsorship and support are critical since they offer influence, budget and can generally drive faster user adoption.

Show executives what’s in it for them. Think of the rewards they can reap, both professionally and personally. Build a strong case of how enterprise social networks can solve some of the business problems they face in their unit. Start with executives who are forward-thinking and who support the corporate goals you’ve identified. Remember that it usually takes more than one executive to move an initiative forward.

Here is the list of the most common executive sponsors.

Executive sponsors	What do executives care about?	How can ESN help?	Difficulties to overcome
VP of Internal Corporate Communications	Employee engagement Easy communication across departments and geographies Successful Internal program launches	Drive employee engagement Break down silos and connect employees cross-geography and location	Our needs are met by current intranet platform
VP of Sales	Improve cross-selling Capture and reuse the knowledge of his sales team Find experts fast who can help close deals	Onboard new sales reps fast and keep existing ones productive Drive cross-selling Access expertise quickly	We don’t have time to learn about new tools We use good and old solutions We are happy with email
VP of HR	Improve cross-selling Capture and reuse the knowledge of his sales team Find experts fast who can help close deals Learning and development Talent management Retention rates Alumni networks	Reduce onboarding time Increase retention, referrals and rehires Build high touch relations with alumni	HR alone may not be enough to justify the cost of rolling out
VP of IT	Security and compliance Adding social capabilities Integration with existing systems	Reduce cost of infrastructure Build a social layer on top of systems of record	Integration with all existing systems Compliance and security risks

This is the second blog post in this series. Check out the other posts:

What next? If you would like a trial of IdeaPlane just drop us a line @ sales@ideaplane.com.

Tags: adoption enterprise social network esn social business social software success

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