Enterprise Social Network: Definition
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- An enterprise social network (ESN) is an internal collaborative platform, closed and accessible by invitation only, that borrows the codes of social networks to circulate information between all employees.
- Everyone in the company’s ecosystem can be invited: leaders, managers and employees, white collar and frontline alike, and, depending on the options chosen, external consultants and partners.
- A typical ESN offers a personal profile, a news feed, community groups, a shared document library, and real-time chat or video.
- An ESN is not a professional social network: access is closed rather than open, profiles are visible to members only rather than to the public, and the purpose is internal work rather than personal visibility.
- It is not an intranet either. An intranet publishes to employees; an ESN lets them talk to each other. Digital workplace is the umbrella term that covers both.
The idea of a network is nothing new in professional life: trade fairs, clubs, alumni circles and entrepreneur networks all existed long before the internet. What social platforms changed is the scale and the speed of those exchanges, by running on the same engine as business itself: interpersonal relationships. Putting those relationships back at the heart of how a company operates is exactly what an enterprise social network is for. What remains is to pin down what the term actually covers.
What is an enterprise social network?
An enterprise social network is an internal collaborative platform. By definition, it uses the same codes as a social network and aims to promote communication between all employees.
The enterprise social network (or ESN) is closed. Private. Accessible by invitation only.
All stakeholders in the company’s life can be invited:
- the company’s leaders and managers;
- employees of the company, whatever their hierarchical level and whether they are white collar or frontline workers;
- depending on the chosen options: external consultants, as well as the company’s various partners: customers, suppliers, service providers, partners, subcontractors.
The objective: to allow the company to bring together, on the same platform, its entire ecosystem. That is to say all the stakeholders (internal and external) of its activity.
The ESN is intended to facilitate internal exchanges, and to work more collaboratively. In this respect, it has definite advantages:
- better sharing of resources and information;
- saving time for collaborators when searching for information on a project;
- a strengthened sense of belonging among employees, by connecting them to each other and giving them a voice.
What does an enterprise social network look like?
A collaborative platform incorporating the codes of social networks… In concrete terms, what can we find on an enterprise social network? What does this kind of platform look like?
Unsurprisingly, most of the essential elements of social networks can be found there:
- everyone has a personal profile
- everyone also has a wall (also called a news feed or newsfeed) on which they can access information provided by others, participate in ongoing discussions, or initiate a new exchange
- a system of groups also allows you to exchange by community (e.g. by project, geographical site, business team, area of interest, etc.), to share information or documents, and to interact on shared themes.
- storage space to centralize and organize shared documents
- real-time exchange functionalities via chat, video calls, …
Exchanges can be instant or delayed, and it’s easy to track who’s taking part in a discussion thread. No more endless email loops, in which people invite each other in or disappear.
Finally, the enterprise social network brings an element that is absent from personal social networks: customization. As an ESN is the company’s tool, it can be customized with its colors, its logo, create relevant communities, …
ESN and Professional Social Networks: Don’t get Confused
The wording could be confusing. A definition that makes a clear distinction between enterprise social networks and professional social networks should therefore be reviewed.
Indeed, the enterprise social network is intended for internal use only. Employee profiles are only visible to other members of the internal network, and are in no way public. It is an internal network, by invitation, which only brings together the company’s ecosystem, i.e. internal stakeholders (executives, managers and employees) and external stakeholders (customers, suppliers, service providers, partners and subcontractors).
Professional social networks, on the other hand: LinkedIn or Viadeo in particular, are certainly “professional”, but are intended for personal use.
| Criterion | Enterprise social network | Professional social network |
|---|---|---|
| CriterionAccess | Enterprise social networkClosed, by invitation from the company | Professional social networkOpen, anyone can sign up |
| CriterionScope | Enterprise social networkThe company’s stakeholders, internal and external | Professional social networkAny professional, whoever they work for |
| CriterionProfile visibility | Enterprise social networkLimited to the other members of the network | Professional social networkPublic |
| CriterionPurpose | Enterprise social networkCirculating information and working together internally | Professional social networkMaintaining a personal network and personal visibility |
| CriterionWho sets the rules | Enterprise social networkThe company, which administers and customizes the platform | Professional social networkThe platform vendor |
ESN, intranet, digital workplace: telling the terms apart
Three words are often used for the same thing, and they do not cover the same ground. An intranet is primarily a publishing space: the company posts news, documents and procedures, and employees read them. An enterprise social network is conversational: anyone can start a discussion, and the value comes from what people write to each other, not from what is published to them. Digital workplace is the umbrella term for the whole set of tools an employee uses to work, of which the ESN is one.
The detailed comparison, tool by tool, is here: email, intranet, or collaborative platform: what’s the difference?
In short, the enterprise social network allows the company to adopt the codes of social networks that today take a very important place in our daily lives. The ESN is today a valuable tool to free the inboxes and minds of your employees, and smooth out your internal communication.
Going further
This page sticks to the definition: what an enterprise social network is, what you find on it, and what it is not. Three neighbouring questions are covered in depth elsewhere:
- what an ESN actually changes for teams: 8 advantages of using an enterprise social network;
- how to roll one out and drive adoption: 9 best practices for setting up an enterprise social network;
- which solutions exist on the market: the 12 best enterprise social networks.
Author: Paul Maubareyt
FAQ
An enterprise social network is an internal collaborative platform that uses the same codes as a social network and aims to promote communication between all employees. It is closed, private, and accessible by invitation only.
All stakeholders in the company's life: the company's leaders and managers, employees whatever their hierarchical level and whether they are white collar or frontline workers, and, depending on the options chosen, external consultants and the company's partners such as customers, suppliers, service providers and subcontractors.
Better sharing of resources and information, time saved when searching for information on a project, and a strengthened sense of belonging among employees, by connecting them to each other and giving them a voice.
Most of the essential elements of social networks: a personal profile, a wall or news feed, groups to exchange by community, storage space to centralize and organize shared documents, and real-time exchange through chat and video calls.
The enterprise social network is intended for internal use only, and employee profiles are visible solely to other members of the internal network. LinkedIn or Viadeo are certainly professional, but they are intended for personal use.
Yes, and this is the element that is absent from personal social networks. As the ESN is the company's tool, it can be customized with its colors and its logo, and relevant communities can be created.
