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Incentives for the Use of Social Software

In another case study presented in his book, Niall introduces Microsoft’s Academy Mobile, an online learning program that allows people to share audio and video files (podcasts). Here is a small list of incentives Microsoft used to engage its employees.

  1. Rewards for top contributors
  2. Training sessions on ‘How to create podcasts’
  3. Provision of studio facility & technical equipment to record and play podcasts

Here’s the link to a blog post by Jon Ingham, a consultant and researcher on strategic human capital management, who is similarly positive about this implementation story.

However, the question of how to set the right incentives is a tricky one. Please find below a video by David Gurteen, a knowledge management consultant. He is an adversary of incentives as they distort the relation between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

How would you encourage people to use a new system? How do you fuel enthusiasm about innovations within your organization? Please do share your stories.