It’s clear that Web 2.0 communication tools are no fad. Social networks, blogs and cell phone applications won’t vanish overnight, or in two to three years – these communication tools will continue to evolve and become even more prevalent in our personal and business lives than they are today. In the last edition of The Source, we provided a brief overview of Web 2.0 technologies and compelling reasons to leverage these tools to help achieve your organization’s goals. In this issue, we’ll further explore how other companies successfully use these tools, as well as some Web 2.0 tips you can use to engage your worksite employees, prospects and stakeholders.

Engagement = Financial Success
Research shows that engagement is a driving force for successful businesses. Engaged employees are more productive, more profitable, more customer-focused, safer and more likely to withstand temptations to leave the organization.¹ But, employee engagement is difficult to master. 2008 Gallup engagement data estimates that only 30% of an average company’s workforce is engaged. Of the remaining 70% of the workforce; 50% are not engaged and 20% are actively disengaged. In January 2010, The Conference Board released a study on job satisfaction recording the lowest levels in more than 20 years, pointing out that dissatisfaction levels are not just a result of the recession, but a long-term downward trend. Actively disengaged employees erode an organization’s bottom line and the organization’s morale – fueling an unproductive and disengaged culture. Within the U.S. workforce, Gallup estimates that actively disengaged employees cost employers more than $300 billion in lost productivity alone.

Correlation Between Social Media and Financial Success
Web 2.0 offers vehicles to quickly engage participants. An engaged workforce leads to improved productivity and customer service, which drives revenue. A recent study released by enterprise wiki provider Wetpaint and the Altimeter group shows that the brands most engaged in social media are also experiencing higher financial success than their non-engaged peer organizations. Research also shows that companies deeply entrenched in several mediums of Web 2.0 do better than organizations lightly dabbling in all forms of Web 2.0.

Engage Your Worksite Employees
So how can you engage your worksite employees? Listen and participate in the conversation. One key reason for employee dissatisfaction is that employers have not kept pace with how employees communicate – the ways in which they interact, share information and influence others. The goal is to give employees the opportunity to discuss and engage in conversation – in a medium that is easy and feels comfortable to them. Here are actionable ways you can integrate Web 2.0 technologies to engage your worksite employees.
 

Purpose	Web 2.0 Media	Notes
Low-Cost, Quick Wins
Peer-to-peer and team member communications	Instant messaging Text messaging	Set up instant messaging chat rooms for discussion groups Group text messaging also possible
Remote employee communications	Instant messaging Net meetings Podcasts Virtual training	With more employees expected to work remotely, Web 2.0 media provides tools to help keep them engaged
Leadership-to-employee communication	Blogs Micro-blogs (i.e., Twitter)	Successful blogs are built on a foundation of trust and credibility and can be used to feed the grapevine and monitor results. When effective, they function as a two-way communication avenue The optimal blog becomes a forum for leadership perceptions and decisions, enabling discussion and feedback from employees at all levels Employees feel included in decision-making and business strategy implementation, a key element to engagement
Long-Term Investment Ideas
Employee recruitment, onboarding, orientation, and training	Avatars: Web sites with avatars give recruits a virtual experience of the workplace or for a first-day experience Gaming technology and podcasts for employee orientation, education and training	The investment in gaming technology for employee recruitment and orientation can have a significant return, depending on your costs to replace an employee For example, some have estimated the cost to replace registered nurses is about $65,000 and the cost to replace hourly hotel workers ranges between $2,500 and $14,100 per employee2
Employee bonding (sharing the employment experience) Staffing global projects Knowledge exchange	Internal social networks for employees (similar to Facebook)	An estimated 85% of employees work on projects with colleagues from other offices, making social networks a source for staffing

 

Engage Your Prospects and Stakeholders
Aside from engaging your workforce, Web 2.0 tools can also be used to gain knowledge and insight into your customer or client base. According to “Part I: Learn to Listen,” powered by Dell, “Listening to customers, prospects and influencers – and using their feedback to shape business innovation – is the foundation of all successful social media programs.”

With product lifecycles getting shorter, the need to capitalize on customer relationships and anticipate their wants will continue to strengthen. Web 2.0 tools allow you to share knowledge and feedback instantly so you can proactively manage these relationships. Based on Dell’s experience and conversations with small- and medium-sized business owners, Dell recommends the following steps to get started:³

• Discover where people are talking about your brand and your industry online. You can use free tools such as Google Blog search and Technorati to identify blogs and other types of social media and Web 2.0 technologies that are important to you.
• Set up a blog/RSS reader. RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, which is a format for delivering frequently updated online content such as blog entries, podcasts and news to an RSS reader such as Bloglines, Netvibes or Google Reader. This allows you to view updates from Web sites you care about, all in one place.
• Share insights and take action. Develop a process for gathering, analyzing and sharing these insights, and more importantly, finding ways to act on them. For instance, is a customer praising you online? Say thank you by commenting on the customer’s blog or forum post. Is a customer complaining about your company? Reach out and fix the situation.
• Explore advanced listening platforms. The free listening tools suggested above are good, but they each have their limitations. Depending on your company’s specific need, you may also choose to explore more advanced, subscription-based listening platforms such as Radian6.

Web 2.0 tools will continue to evolve and transition into the corporate world. Map out how you can efficiently use these tools to effectively engage and retain your workforce and customer base to drive revenue. Look out for more information on Web 2.0 technology use for business results in future editions of The Source.
 

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¹ Gallup data: Employee Engagement: What’s Your Engagement Ratio? 2008.
² Society of Human Resource Management.
³ Dell: Learn to Listen: Social Media for Small Business.