Enterprise social networking is dead! Long live unified employee communications platforms!

Echoing the downward spiral of engagement on social media platforms like Facebook, enterprise social networking apps like Workplace fail to provide the centralized hub for communication, collaboration and engagement that today’s complex workforce demands.

As an alternative to Workplace and similar “social media at work” tools, there’s a path forward that promises happier, more productive employees.

What is enterprise social networking?

Enterprise social networks (ESNs) are like Facebook for work, private social media-like platforms for employees to connect through social feeds and discussion threads and by engaging with posts. Remember Yammer? It was one of the first ESNs.

Say an employee posts about an upcoming company event. Everyone connected to the network can join the conversation by commenting on how excited they are or how their department will dominate in various challenges. The incorporation of different threads and posts is designed to increase employee engagement.

Popular enterprise social networking platform examples

Workplace by Meta

Meta designed Workplace and marketed it as “Facebook for work” to allow companies to share organization-wide updates and teams to collaborate in smaller groups. However, Meta announced the retirement of this platform in May 2024, with plans to shutter it completely in September 2025.

Discover how real users rank Simpplr vs. Workplace across a variety of factors on G2.

Workvivo

Meta recommended its Workplace customers transition to Workvivo after the abrupt shutdown notice. Acquired by Zoom, Workvivo touts itself a “modern ESN” that boasts real-time communication tools and analytics. But this enterprise social networking tool’s chat functionalities don’t make up for its weaknesses across the employee experience spectrum.

In the 2023 Gartner® Critical Capabilities for Intranet Packaged Solutions report, Workvivo didn’t break the top three for any critical use cases:

• 4th place: Employee Communications and Engagement

• 9th place: Employee Services

• 8th place: Application Portals

• 5th place: Knowledge Services

• 8th place: Work Management

• 8th place: Frontline Worker Support

“Workvivo is not as strongly equipped for employee services as for other use cases,” according to the report. “Low scores for platform extensibility account for some of its challenges in this role. Workvivo may also be challenged to accommodate the multiexperience support and work and task management requirements for some use cases.”

Take a deeper dive into Simpplr vs. Workvivo.

Slack

Slack is one of the most well-known enterprise social networking platforms on the market, with more than 47 million daily active users across 400,000 organizations. It’s a useful tool for enterprise messaging when integrated into a unified employee communications and experience platform, so users don’t get so frustrated juggling multiple tools, but using Slack for tasks like workflow collaboration can get mucky. And messages can get lost in the feed without a rigorous internal communications targeting strategy.

Microsoft Teams

With 300 million daily active users in 2023, Microsoft Teams is part of the Office 365 suite. Like Slack, it can be useful as an integration but lacks the full functionality needed to meet the communications and collaboration demands of an increasingly complex workforce.

Enterprise social networking: The writing on the wall

When choosing an employee communications platform like an intranet, it’d be wise to reconsider platforms built primarily around the idea of enterprise social networking. Why? The stats don’t lie.

• Facebook engagement rates in 2024 hovered around 6% and median interactions dropped an astounding 80% YoY. If your brand has 100,000 followers, you can expect less than 70 comments and likes on each post.

• TikTok engagement rates plummeted by about 50% in 2024.

• Twitter engagement rates dropped by 20% this year.

• Instagram engagement rates declined by 8%.

Digital fatigue — defined as “being tired and burned out from all the screen time in our lives” — is likely the culprit. After a day packed with video meetings, chats and emails, fewer people want to spend more time online. And then there’s the problem of information overload. We’re so bombarded with the latest news, memes and other shiny things that we simply want to tune out of the digital world to give ourselves a break.

Why wouldn’t social media at work be the same?

Too many employees have too many tools, which fractures their attention and limits their productivity.

Workers interact with an average of 35 apps a day, with nearly 70% of employees toggling between apps 10 times an hour! This leads to what Simpplr Chief People & Experience Officer Miriam Connaughton calls “digital friction” — tech overload-induced stress and frustration that impacts employee satisfaction, productivity, retention and more.

“This technology overload has made unified platforms crucial for organizations aiming to improve the employee experience,” Miriam says.

Long live unified employee communications platforms

With the right platform, social capabilities are just part of a more comprehensive approach to keeping employees connected, informed and inspired wherever and however they work.

One easy-to-use, AI-powered platform to streamline employee communication, engagement and collaboration, Simpplr allows you to create a unified digital HQ where all employees can connect and get everything they need to be successful.

Beyond enterprise social networking, you can extend your internal communications and EX strategy via employee surveys, mobile app, native video, newsletters, digital signage and more.

• Advanced personalization and targeting to cut through the noise with highly relevant comms that reach the right employees in the right channels at the right time

• Multi-channel communication to cover all your bases

• Writing assistance to save time and ensure consistency

• Video communication to increase engagement

• Multi-language support to help you scale and ensure inclusivity

• In-depth insights and analytics so you can measure effectiveness for continuous improvement

Beyond enterprise social networking, from the frontline to the back office

“Simpplr allows us to communicate clearly and consistently to reach every global employee in a way that they feel connected.” ~ Claudia Husemann, Director of Communications, Silicon Labs

And with Simpplr, frontline and desked employees share an equally rich and engaging digital workplace experience:

• Each employee gets a personalized home dashboard within the app, including relevant top-down communication and announcements, must-reads, built-in onboarding workflows, a social feed and intelligent search.

• Simpplr mobile apps provide full functionality — for example, all employees can engage with content, receive alerts, browse albums, upload images, watch and record streaming videos, answer surveys, give and get recognition, receive must-read content, search the employee directory, and update user profiles.

• The AI Assistant provides employees with a single destination to process approvals, retrieve immediate answers to questions, and engage in employee surveys.

• Surveys target and reach the frontline to help improve compliance, assess employee sentiment, and deploy employee engagement surveys.

Unified intranet platforms drive revenue, profitability, productivity, retention and employee well-being

Simpplr’s recent survey of more than 1,000 organizations found significant benefits to having a high-quality intranet. Organizations with well-designed, easy-to-use intranets report substantial improvements across multiple metrics:

What’s more, the survey unveiled that 84% of employees who have a strong intranet have a very positive overall employee experience.

And migrating to Simpplr is easy. With zero failed deployments across more than 1,000 customers, Simpplr stands as the #1 choice for employee communications and experience technology that transcends enterprise social networking.

Learn more key findings from the State of the Intranet and Future of Employee Technology report.

Social proof: Simpplr customers see big results

CooperSurgical

When CooperSurgical modernized their intranet technology with Simpplr, they were able to connect employees within all units, locations, countries and time zones and establish a strong company culture by fostering employee engagement.

• Intranet adoption rate hit 94% across 123 departments in 45 locations

• Supported leadership objectives of “OneCooper” vision with higher engagement scores

• Mobile solution to support frontline employees

“At a global company like ours, it’s important that we ensure employees feel connected to their peers in different regions and parts of the organization through our shared mission,” said Kristel Alliaume, Sr. Director of Integrated Marketing Services.

Larimer County Government

When the Larimer County Government team transitioned to a hybrid work model, they needed an intranet solution so staffers could easily connect, collaborate and communicate — engagement soared when they implemented “The Block.”

• Nearly 64% peak contributor and participant rate (to date)

• Weekly roundups of all news posted on intranet shared via page notification

• Social sites like The Book Club and Pet Park spark connections

• “Psychologically safe culture” includes digital workplace, where staff feel comfortable and empowered to engage with content

“Since our workforce transitioned to a hybrid work model during the pandemic, connection and two-way conversation were consistently asked from staff — and Simpplr became the answer!, said Communications Supervisor Taylor Kidd.

UKG

UKG exceeded intranet engagement and usage benchmarks by taking an “employee-first approach” to keep their global workforce informed, engaged and connected via a seamless experience on one unified platform, “UKG Today.”

• 73% of employees logged in (+7% vs benchmark), 67% viewed content (+15%), 381 pieces of content published (+315)

• 345,938 searches in 2023 – each representing “time saved for employees, helping them find the content, people, and resources they need to be more productive and have greater impact”

• Personalized experience showcases events, pages, posts and notifications on topics that employees have deemed of interest, 6 regional sites with country-specific content

• 46+ community sites to foster culture and connection

• Daily newsletter highlights top 3-5 news stories

• Active leadership sites to support strategy, change management and more

“Our intranet, UKG Today, brings simplicity to our employees through ease of use, tailored content, exemplary user support, and a design that’s beautiful and uncomplicated,” said Cheryl Alto, Lead Communications Specialist.

Upgrade to a comprehensive employee communications and experience platform

See what it means to elevate your employee communications and experience strategy — boosting connection, collaboration and productivity — with a unified, AI-powered solution. Watch a 10-minute demo to get started today. Meta Workplace customer? Get six months free with our special Workplace Migration Program!