Social Media - Perfect Bounce Board

Social Media bug has bitten our brand ( HiDoctor)as well. Finally we have got our act together on the social Media strategy. This has resulted in establishing our presence in:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/HiDoctor4pharma
Facebook: Since we dont have a minimum of 25 fans yet, we don't have custom URL. But one can search for HiDoctor .We will get there in a few days.
Linkedin: Search for HiDoctor.

Perfect Bounce Board

Setting up these pages in the social networks and linking one with the other is the easiest part in the whole process. Now comes the real test for social media presence. What content to generate and how to engage the audience on a regular basis? While it is a known fact that getting into Social Media is a strategy and not a tactical initiative, reality strikes when you get into the nuts of bolts of implementing the strategy.

We set out to generate content for the social media. But to do so we had to establish a theme and a relationship for our presence and to do so we had to firm up our value proposition and our brand position. We had to do this exercise so that,as a brand, we are consistent and clear with what we intend to collaborate with our audience. Once this is done, getting content and ensuring content proliferation through social network is not an arduous Task.

Take a step back... To establish our social media presence, we have to re-visit our discussions on strategy, brand and value proposition.

To me, it is evident that Social Media presence will be a true bounce board for one's brand/company strategy. What's more, your audience will validate and provide feedback on your strategy.

Informal Learning is preferred - Intranet 2.0

This is in continuation to my previous blog on successful Intranet.One of the most important features of the intranet will be continuous learning module. This is aimed at addressing at the Knowledge deficit that exists within an organization.

Continuous learning can be provided to each associates through robust Course Management System ( CMS/LMS)integrated into their Intranet Personal page. The courses provided to the individual can be based on

• Individual performance & aspirations
• Soft skills
• Organization objectives/Business goals
• Project based information
• Technology up-gradation

to name a few. The individual's performance in the various courses can be integrated into their respective performance appraisal. But this blog is not intended to promote the role of Learning Management System in Intranet. It is more to address the need for a  comprehensive route to address Knowledge management in any organization.

The organization's initiative to training associates is a  formal route

Informal learning

Research states that only 20% of an individual's learning is through formal route. Remaining 80% is through informal routes. Informal routes can be through casual discussion,peer-peer discussion, interaction with experts, access to artifacts, blogs, wikis,forums etc. Better still, informal learning is mainly user initiated based on his/her needs and wants to excel at work.

With workforce of an organization spread in different geographies, it is imperative on the part of the organization to not just provide formal course structures for employee knowledge enhancement but create a platform within the organization which will encourage informal learning. Be it peer -peer discussion or sharing of best practices through audiocast, videocast or wikis/discussion forums. 

In essence, the  new age intranet within an organization should be the ideal platform for informal training for knowledge enhancement.

User Initiated informal learning through an organization wide platform - Learning 2.0 thru Intranet 2.0