‘Digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’What differentiates the ‘digital native’ generation, who grew up with the Internet from those who didn’t? Typically, many older workers, or ‘digital immigrants’, talk about their comfort zone. They find comfort in a hierarchical, command and control management structure. They are good communicators, who like to think, plan and do – in that order. They favour a top-down approach and generally like to play safe. Many of our senior managers fit into the digital immigrant generation.Digital natives, on the other hand, prefer a guiding and nurturing environment. They do not want instructions handed down from on-high. They are great communicators and great networkers. But they do it differently. Digital tools and social media are like extensions of themselves. This emerging generation thinks acts and communicates quickly. They 토토사이트 like engagement and like to try things out. They harness their team’s collective experience and skills in order to find solutions. It’s all about communicating. Many of the people now joining the workforce are digital natives.The old way and the new?The old way uses intranets or websites as static sites. Staff can search and find, but have limited ability to contribute. The new way is interactive and collaborative and uses social media such as Social networks (e.g. Facebook), Blogs, Discussion Forums and Wikis.Social media tools definitely add value to employee communications. They can help build relationships, increase collaboration, improve productivity, reduce silos, and build engagement. They also offer an excellent means to share ideas and gather qualitative feedback. So why is social media sometimes so hard to implement as an internal communications tool? Communicators understand the power of social media but their senior managers, who are often digital immigrants, remain wary and unconvinced. Are these the arguments that you are hearing? “It’s not a priority”A CIO magazine’s study, Top Technology Priorities for 2008 found that even IT professionals don’t consider Web 2.0 a priority. They’re focused on network consolidation, outsourcing, CRM, and security. This would seem to back up management’s assertion that Intranet 2.0 needs to take a back seat.The responsePoint out that Web 2.0 tools are already commonplace. Innovative companies are already leveraging the power of these tools. Many social media tools are easy and relatively cheap to implement. They don’t need to compete with major IT plans.Don’t make sweeping claims when you are proposing social media tools. Managers don’t want to hear about social media democratizing the organization. They want to know how business goals will be supported. So use language the CEO will understand and focus on concrete goals where possible.Spot opportunities and start with small simple projects. Provide evidence of success before proposing a wider implementation.Do your homework. Support your proposal for a wider implementation with case studies. IBM, Sun Microsystems and the hundreds of other Fortune 500 companies are already successfully wielding these tools.TipsChoose web 2.0 channels that have been specifically designed for employee communication. Use low cost communications channels that are quick and easy to implement and manage.Use a platform that is easy for IT to implement and has little need for ongoing IT support.Choose a platform that allows access rights to be targeted to specific staff groups. Ensure centralised reporting allows you to easily quantify the value of the web 2.0 channels and demonstrate their strategic communications value to senior managers.Try a free trial or low cost pilot to test concepts out prior to a more compre