Social media tools now are present on most corporate intranets, with 61% of companies reporting at least one social media tool available to some or all employees. The most popular Intranet 2.0 tools are blogs (75%), discussion forums (65%) and instant messaging (63%), while social networking for employees and microblogging are on the rise at 43% and 42%, respectively. These are the results of a new social intranet study, released by the International Association of Business Communicators and Prescient Digital Media December 14.
The study was conducted earlier this year and examines social media use on corporate intranets and the magnitude, use and popularity of social media by employees and executives. More than 1,400 respondents participated in the survey, representing organizations of different sizes and a diverse range of industries, from around the world. The results reveal rapid adoption of social media on the corporate intranet in the past year.
“While the popularity of social media tools on corporate intranets is rising, only about one-quarter of frontline employees and executives alike rate their intranet social media as good or very good," says Toby Ward, president of Prescient Digital Media.
The leading need or reason behind Intranet 2.0 implementations is employee collaboration (78%), followed closely by employee engagement (75%). Of organizations that do not have at least one social media tool, 18% cite lack of executive support as the primary barrier to implementation and the same number (18%) cite other, bigger priorities preventing them from implementation.
"Without a proper plan, adequate investment and the requisite change management and communications, most intranet social media initiatives will fail.” says Toby Ward, president of Prescient Digital Media.
According to survey data, 30% of organizations rate their overall satisfaction with intranet social media tools as good or very good; 26% rate these tools as poor or very poor. Only 28% of organizations rate employees’ satisfaction with Intranet 2.0 tools as good or very good and 28% of organizations rate executives’ satisfaction with Intranet 2.0 tools as good or very good.
Other survey findings:
- 79% of organizations with Intranet 2.0 tools have communication staff as regular contributors.
- 57% of organizations have HR staff as regular contributors.
- 96% of intranets have communication information such as news and policies.
- 81% feature standards and compliance information..
- 55% of organizations with Intranet 2.0 tools are using Microsoft SharePoint.
- WordPress and Facebook (employee groups) are becoming popular Intranet 2.0 products and are currently used in 23% and 22% of organizations with at least one social media tool.
