Participatory Media Part 4: Successful Participatory Media Adoption
Here are four recommendations for overcoming resistance to participatory media adoption caused by the social-context shift and effort expenditure detailed in the previous two sections of this series. These essentials will help an organization develop the previously mythical long-term value of Web 2.0 technologies.
1. Participatory media must not be optional but embedded into an organization’s workflow. It is the workflow of a new kind of more deeply networked company infrastructure. According to McKinsey’s September 2009 survey results on How companies are benefiting from Web 2.0:
[C]ompanies reporting business benefits … report high levels of Web 2.0 integration into employee workflows. They most often deploy three or more Web tools, and usage is high throughout these organizations…. Many companies experiment with Web 2.0 technologies, but creating an environment with a critical mass of committed users is more difficult.… [S]uccessful adoption requires that the use of these tools be integrated into the flow of users’ work.
If participatory media is obligatory, then even though the social context shift and extra effort may cause some temporary discomfort at first, employees will move up the learning curve and down the other side, having mastered their new communications skills along with their colleagues.
2. Business leaders must set informal agendas for participation—an organization-specific goal or theme—in which the overall objective is generating meaningful contributions. Encouraging meaningful contributions organized around a loose theme or goal engenders self-initiated innovation, open knowledge sharing, and higher employee satisfaction. Authors of meaningful posts will naturally be credited within the community and given professionally beneficial status. McKinsey reports, that “encouraging continuing use requires approaches other than the traditional financial or performance incentives deployed as motivations tools. In the Web community, status is often built on a reputation for making meaningful contributions” (ibid).
Ling, Beenan and Ludford, et al (2008), too, indicate that participants contribute to social media sites more often when they are reminded of their own uniqueness, shown the personal benefit of participation and shown the benefit that their participation will have on others. This means people tend to contribute most, and get the most out of it themselves, when they contribute out of both self-interest and generosity.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120837967/
Further, setting a loose, informal agenda introduces a set of constraints for participants to interact within and be guided by. This may decrease cognitive load for employees who are trying to feel out appropriate types of contributions and communications styles unaided.
3. Business leaders must lead the participation. It is important for the company’s direction and the success of the participatory media effort that senior staff remains in charge of the overarching theme of a participatory media “conversation,” and that they lead the effort by example. McKinsey reports that, “role modeling—active Web use by executives—has been important for encouraging adoption internally” (McKinsey. op.cit.).
4. Finally, the responsibilities of participatory community management must be assigned and compensation must be arranged. Either these responsibilities must be formally assigned to an individual already on staff, or business leaders must hire a Communications Manager to meet their new needs. Assigning these responsibilities unambiguously and making sure management efforts are compensated for is indispensable for the successful adoption and discovery of Web 2.0′s long-term value.
