[This post is also available via podcast here.]  Many businesses and public sector organizations and their executives are under pressure to join the social networking trend. The buzz has become deafening. But as in all new disruptive trends there are thoughtful behaviors that will position your organization to improve its opportunities for success.

 

Networks are simply connections between people in all forms.

 

John Mahoney of Value Networks expresses a simple way to think about the challenge:

 

This is among the frontiers of the relatively new science of networks.” [end quote]

 

The point is that communities, social networks, partner, employee, and customer networks, and citizen engagement are all part of the same challenge - building networks that drive value.

 

What are 5 success factors that will help your organization realize value from network investments on purpose - we call them inflection blocks? These are things that you want to consider before investment in support for your networks. Let me suggest several:

 

Without executive sponsorship the network (community) will be viewed as experimental which will limit buy in by those whose role would change if the network is successful.

 

Network impacts cross lines of business and require executive authority to manage your involvement.

 

There are tremendous benefits and risks in building networks. They represent your brand and your customer and partner perceptions in the market. So getting it right is very important and executives should stay close to network implementations in their inception to understand and address risks as they are discovered.

 

 

Networks are also viewed as meaning change - and they do. But most organizations are simply doing what they have been doing for years - building relationships with their customers, partners, and employees - only better and faster. So rather than presenting community building as change - it might as easily be presented as leveraging existing investments in existing networks that have often taken many years to build.

 

 

Skills of network builders - the ability to accept ambiguity and to concurrently identify opportunity - are not necessarily the same as skills that maximize success in traditional organizations built on linear value chains and hierarchy. It is important for executive teams to identify network participants who enjoy outreach, engagement, who listen and can be empathetic, while at the same time having the ability to think strategically. Those are the people who should be charged with building and supporting network value. Knowing your organization and how your networks flow, and who is responsible for network communication is very important (see the work of Value Networks which has a core discipline in this area of expertise).

 

 

To be successful organizations must be willing to make investments of intellect, professionally produced content, intellectual property, people and finance to help build the total network value. Only by investing in and supporting networks with customers, partners and employees can they maximize network value.

 

 

On a continuum there are 3 possibilities: Toolboxes, Net Native SaaS models, and Enterprise Custom Builds. Toolbox strategies are appropriate for experimental implementations or when cost is the prominent consideration. Enterprise custom builds are appropriate when control is critical and cost is not an issue. They are generally expensive and time consuming and require significant and ongoing investment.

 

Net native SaaS models provide significant advantages of cost and time yet share some of the most important characteristics of custom builds to provide security and reliability. They also provide a flexibility to create a variety of user experiences as communities evolve. SaaS models also provide the opportunity to share in best practice learning with other similarly situated customers. They spread the fixed cost of learning and system delivery, infrastructure, and support among many customers.

 

In implementing technology strategy, successful organizations also have clearly developed business, community, and configuration plans.

 

These are the 5 success factors which in our experience help organizations best plan community participation and design for success.