The trends are clear so far in 2010: engagement in our internal online community is increasing. Total page views hit an all-time high in March on top of monthly increases in both January and February. The average number of people logging in each day has increased dramatically in 2010, hitting an all-time high, as well. The number of active members online each month is on an upward slope, also hitting an all-time peak in March. And the number of people creating content hit the second-highest level ever in March, too, at 28% of active members.
Great! So, the question I have is, what's the reason for these positive trends? Just as it's hard to precisely determine why attendance is up at an event, it's hard to have any certainty about the causes of increased wiki engagement. But I'm going to theorize about the drivers, just the same.
Critical Mass
The first factor is likely that our online community has achieved critical mass. Although the term "critical mass" is pretty widely understood, the definition from Wikipedia is still useful:
Critical mass is a sociodynamic term to describe the existence of sufficient momentum in a social system such that the momentum becomes self-sustaining and fuels further growth.
This is exactly what we seem to be seeing in 2010 with our online community. There is enough content in it, and enough people using it, that it has become useful to a significant number of people. As those people use it and add to it, the value increases and "fuels further growth." An empty wiki has nothing but potential value. While ours has tremendous additional potential yet to be realized, it has achieved sufficient value to develop self-sustaining momentum.
Discovery Factor
As more people discover value in the community, they use it more and spread the word to others, leading still more people to use it. Similarly, when people are in the community online they are discovering new ways to use it, and that leads to further engagement.
Familiarity Factor
Over time, more people are learning how to use the Jive SBS technology. As they become comfortable with the technology, perceived barriers to usage recede and willingness to engage increases. Training is obviously an important part of increasing familiarity with the technology.
Experience Factor
It's not always immediately obvious how to use such flexible and adaptable technology. As people gain experience using Jive SBS and see how it can be used, it becomes easier to think of more ways to use it, leading to increased usage overall. More experienced users are more likely to develop new uses.
Surrender to the Inevitable
Another factor may be that people who have been, or remain, reluctant about participating in our online community are realizing that it's time to get on board anyway. It launched about 18 months ago. It is used by every division in the company and our CEO made explicit to all of his direct reports that it "is not an optional." It contains over 26,000 documents, more than 5000 discussions containing nearly 20,000 messages, and nearly 4000 blog posts with more than 5000 comments on them. It's no longer a novel experiment. It's becoming an essential part of how we do business, and as that sinks in more people are engaging.
Absence of Alternatives
Many alternative sources of information have been shut down as essential information has been moved to the online community site. More and more communication takes place there. We are centralizing in a number of ways on Jive SBS as our information and communication platform, and this drives people to use it.
Improved Usability
While it's not a large factor or widespread across the enterprise (yet!), there have been improvements in the way areas use the wiki, which leads to greater usage. The division with the heaviest usage, for example, has invested significant resources in organizing and rationalizing the way they use the tool. They are deriving greater value from it as a result.
Cross-Company Communication and Collaboration
There's a growing level of activity in groups that cut across divisional and geographical boundaries. Sharing of ideas and information among people with common interests is fueling increased wiki usage, whether it's for a specific job function (e.g., ) or related to strategic issues (e.g., ). Far more of this should and will be taking place, but the green shoots of growth are already visible.
Increased Awareness from the User Survey
It's also possible that distributing the User Survey in December 2009 increased people's awareness of our online community, particularly the many ways it can be used and positive outcomes that are possible (since many examples were listed as part of the survey questions). About one-third of all employees completed the survey, and as many as 70% of some divisions' employees completed it. Although the primary objective of the survey was, obviously, to collect feedback from people, another outcome may have been to stimulate further community activity.
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