If you listen to the choir, using social tools inside the enterprise (commonly referred to as “enterprise 2.0”) is the greatest thing since the toaster. The problem is that there is scant documentation to back up the claim. Yes there are cases available, for example here and here, that provide anecdotal evidence of the power of the social enterprise, but not much has been written that provides a rigorous analysis of why or how it works, from an organizational culture or behavioral perspective.

The glaring weakness in most cases for Enterprise 2.0 is the inability to tie the use of social web initiatives inside the organization to tangible bottom line results. The most common advantages cited include

• improved collaboration
• increased transparency
• increased information sharing and awareness
• personal productivity savings

The problem is that most people, in most organizations, find it difficult to connect the dots between these advantages and organizational efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. One answer to this problem may be Employee Engagement.

There is a lot of well founded research about how an engaged workforce leads to improved financial performance of the organization, for example this Watson Wyatt report. I believe that it is very easy to draw the link between the advantages of enterprise 2.0 and employee engagement. This link gives us, the members of the choir, a much more visible connection to organizational performance … and the basis for a much more viable case.

If we start drawing the connection between the social web and employee engagement, I think more people will start singing along with us.