Unsure where gamification can best be used within your company? Still figuring out how to establish a real measurement of employee engagement? Unclear which direction to take with the Yammer/SharePoint roadmap? Contemplating a move to the cloud but haven't thought out your governance strategy? This week's contributors have got you covered.
Top Social Business Article
Gamification isn't necessarily a secret, but companies are still exploring the potential that it can bring to their internal and external strategies. In this piece, Gamification: The Secret Weapon of Employee Engagement, Kris Duggan (@kduggan) gives some advice into the when, the why and the how businesses can use game mechanics in the workplace:
Research has shown that once basic needs are met, additional cash rewards do not help motivate employees. In her research, Ventrice found that when employees were asked to estimate the dollar value of workplace recognition, 57 percent reported that the most meaningful recognition cost the organization nothing."
The Contenders
- Data Driven Employee Engagement from Hyoun Park (@hyounpark)
- 6 Things to Expect from Your Intranet from Oscar Berg (@oscarberg)
- Managing Employees When You Have No Employees from Billy Cripe (@billycripe)
- Gamification is Here and It Means Business from Rajat Paharia (@bunchball)
- Achieving Self-Organized Teams Using Disturbance Strategy from Naga Raju Ede
- Yammer versus SharePoint: What is a Company to Do? from Jennifer Mason (@jennifermason)
- Progress through Technology: Why Germany Needs to Become a Social Business from Stefan Pfeiffer (@digitalnaiv)
- Reflecting on Yammer and Office 365: SharePoint is Definitely Dead from Chris Wright (@partnerpulse)
Top Customer Experience Article
Stephen Fishman (@trivoca) is never afraid to tread where others would not, and this article is no exception. Reporting from the South by Southwest Conference, Stephen found solace in a talk that acknowledged the need for design thinking in APIs, a cause he has supported before, in his Where No UX Professional Has Gone Before.
Learning Opportunities
... even though these are necessary to make progress, neither of these tactics are sufficient to solve the underlying misunderstanding of how design thinking can advance the power of strategic API usage and adoption in the marketplace."
The Contenders
- 5 Ways to Bring Your Content Marketing to Facebook from Jim Belosic (@shortstacklab)
- How to Integrate Social Media Into Your e-Commerce Marketing Strategy from Mark Simpson (@markj_simpson)
- 5 Tips for Creating an SEO Friendly Infographic from Suzanne Ritter (@cab_studios)
- Web CMS Quick Take Review: Concrete 5 from Marianne Kay (@marianne_ua)
- Quality Search Requires Quality People from Gerry McGovern (@gerrymcgovern)
Top Information Management Article
There's been a lot of hoopla about cloud computing and the strategic and financial benefits it can bring. But many details fail to get mentioned, such as data security and governance. Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet) takes on the latter in his How to Maintain a Governance Strategy in the Cloud:
The key to taking advantage of the cloud is to understand and align your business requirements with the cloud in mind. Understand that not every workload can be moved into the cloud, and that most others should be transitioned over time, and in a phased approach, to ensure compliance and data sovereignty issues. Most technology mistakes are made when you do not adequately understand your business requirements, and the risks of taking action (and of inaction)."
The Contenders
- The Perfect Storm - Dealing with an Email Blizzard in the Face of Risk from Charles Ballard (@storagehangover)
- Hotter Than Hadoop and Enterprise Ready: Meet MongoDB 2.4 + MongoDB Enterprise from Virginia Backaitis