part_2_blogAnyone who’s rolled out a technology solution knows this: There’s infrastructure, then there’s engagement. And the two are very different. The challenges are more about encouraging and supporting behaviour change than the system itself. Ahead of our new guides on social learning, we share 7 tips for building an audience for social learning.

1. Don’t Lead With Work

It’s often best to try to initiate engagement through non-work related activities: start with more social communities, with storytelling and sharing activities. For example, you could run a competition with prizes, asking people to share ideas and create a shared space around a theme, such as the company’s social club or charity fund-raising events the company may get involved in.

2. Find your Amplifiers

And as the community starts to engage, look for your nodes and amplifiers; the early adopters and people with high reputation – people who are followed and influential. Engage with them, and encourage them to harness team leaders and project managers to drive higher adoption in more business-oriented contexts.

Leaders who already have authority make for great social learning models. Focus on senior leaders and encourage them to step forward, join communities, share their insights. If your CEO is open and authentic, it sets the social learning tone for the whole business.

3. Reach out to the Quiet Ones

As the community starts to engage, reach out to the quiet people. Most people are lurking and consuming, not contributing. So speak to them, in person if you can. Find out what they’re thinking about the community, and what, if anything is holding them back from being more of a contributor. Don’t assume it’s a matter of attitude or technology. Assume they have valid reasons: find out what they are. Then see how you can facilitate them to be successful. How can you support them in being more effective: not how can they adapt to your system.

4. Narrate – Share the Stories

It’s often valuable to have a formal voice, even in social systems. Not the voice that issues edicts and warnings, but the voice that provides commentary. As you see communities forming, growing, developing, narrate this. Share stories of success.

5. Be Clear on Ownership

It’s important, in each community and space, to understand who owns the conversation: inappropriate intervention or moderation will kill engagement. Clarity about ownership is vital. IIf you engage in the same way in every space, you will make all spaces formal and, therefore, less well engaged. But if you just stand back, you will neglect your role in Forming and Guiding. It’s a balance. You don’t want a classroom, or the wild west – but always be clear and transparent about ownership.

6. Moderate Fairly and Consistently

Moderation is a facet of ownership. Moderation needs to be clear, purposeful and, above all, transparent and engaged. Ideally, the community will take ownership itself, but to encourage usage and prove that the community is a safe place to be, you’ll want to a safeguarding role and responsibility, even if it’s very light touch.

7. Make it Safe to Share

When we start to employ collaborative online social spaces, we have a responsibility to ensure nobody is disenfranchised. If you encourage people to share, then they’re not treated with respect, they will leave. There are many ways to be left behind: through lack of technology skills, through lack of permission to contribute, poor communication skills or a lack of understanding of the rules (or rules that change). Common areas to fail are around privacy, permanence and movement. Make sure people understand who’s seeing what they share, and for how long.

Takeaway: Be Social in How You Engage Social Learners

Engagement is about co-creating a social space with your users. So be social in the act of engagement: ask them what spaces they want. How do they want to use the system and how willing are you to engage in that activity. That’s the best way to build trust and encourage participation.