When did digital become unsexy?

It’s been a strange ‘ol time for digital experiences.  

 The Metaverse hasn’t really taken the world over, Apple has massively reduced production of their Vision Pro, and Theme parks around the world are doing a roaring trade.  

It feels like after the forced online connection during the pandemic, people are passing on digital experiences and instead preferring a return to physical, real-world moments.  

And while the pandemic fuelled some furious digital innovation and created new online experiences, folks have a seeming lack of appetite for them. And who can blame them; the Covid’s reign tipped the scales so heavily into the digital side, forcing rather than nurturing digital community, that a rebellion was bound to happen regardless of all these new ways to connect online.  

But are we burning our digital bridges when these communities can often help us stay connected? And ultimately, isn’t the balance going to have to shift back a bit, for us to create sustained, purposeful communities - at home and at work - to be social, productive and collaborative wherever we are?  

And despite the world recovering from pandemic, wars and heavy political instability, globalisation is still very much a things So then, how *are* your people navigating work across your regions, countries and continents without decent, joined up digital places to work? And who’s in charge in ensuring that both from a channel infrastructure and human behaviour point of view, your people are empowered to make the most of global collaboration, and support your business ambitions?  

 I’d argue a contributing factor to the ‘unsexiness of digital’ is the quality of many of our online interactions.  

 When Covid hit, it was all hands on the digital deck; many businesses cobbled together Teams Channels, Slack Groups and Viva Engage Communities in a bid to connect online, but often using the wrong tool for the job… don’t get me started on departmental WhatsApp chats! The digital experience became somewhat overwhelming and annoying overnight, and the ‘getting by’ mentality put a lot of employees off.  

And from conversations I have with clients, a lot of people are still ‘putting up’ with hastily put together collaborative processes and low digital capability within their teams that continue this rather nightmarish digital trend.  

So, what do you do to put the spark back into your digital places, and make the most of a dispersed workforce – whether working from home, or working from another continent?  

It’s about doing less, but with much more intention and robustness.  

 Strategy  

What is your business doing? And what has your team been tasked with that contributes to that?  

 Stripping back down to the purpose of your team and your business goals - whether that’s growth, retention of talent, expansion into new markets, or innovation and new products - will inform and set a clear strategy for what your digital platforms need to support.  

You see, if you’re laser-focused on what your digital channels need to do to support your work and your ambitions, then it’s easier to pick the right tool for the job, train your people in using the channels, and create measurable goals. This way, you know you’re heading in the right direction and your digital platforms really are adding value, supporting how you work and what you want to achieve.  

In internal communications, this is being clear how your digital infrastructure supports the communications and engagement around important IC topics too.  

If growth is front of mind for your CEO, what digital platforms can help support and share messaging that promotes discussion and understanding of growth, demonstrate how growth effects teams specifically, create relevant, personalised content around growth, and importantly, help IC teams measure if this content is having the desired effect?  

 If its all about retention, then....  

 Channels  

With a clear idea of what you want to do, you can then set about thinking ‘where’ you want to do it. Much like you might pick a meeting room with a flipboard, a coffee point, a cozy couch as physical spaces to facilitate a team get-together, we need to think this way about our digital channels too. “Where - online - should we gather to get the best result, and support our thinking, planning and doing?” 

And in employee experiences; where should my messages, content and business updates ‘be’, online and physically, to support our employee experience goals? How do I expect people to interact with this news, and how can our digital places facilitate conversation, understanding, feedback, critique and praise?  

 Community Management  

We have our strategy, and our online places to gather, so next is figuring out how to drive purpose and foster community in these places, that get the behaviour change we desire.  

 I always think of this role like that of a gardener; we’ve picked the purpose of the garden (to grow fruit, to do sports, to enjoy flowers…) and we’ve divided up our garden into spaces for this… but who’s the gardener that encourages the healthy growth?  

Community Management is often overlooked, but digital communities can get overgrown,  ‘weedy’, or simply not turn out as we wish without some tending… it’s an important resource when we talk about online collaboration or employee experiences online.  

 Bring digital back, purposefully  

 With a clear thread that runs between digital strategy, your online places, and what you want your communities to achieve, you have a fantastic, solid opportunity to create meaningful change and behaviours online that really do support the business, your people, and what you want to achieve together.  

The groundwork doesn’t have to take long, but will set you and your business up for success. A clear plan will also encourage support from your people, and the higher-ups that will be essential in getting these digital hubs off the ground.  

Tony is an Associate Trainer with The Academy and a freelance digital strategist, supporting organisations to develop and grow their digital experiences.  

Tony delivers a range of fantastic training programmes and workshops with the IoIC including a workshop on developing the techniques and ways to build you online community.