What will it take to keep your social enterprise from devolving into "Facebook for the office" - or worse, an electronic ghost town populated by a few conversational tumbleweeds?  Making your social business the vital, thriving hub of innovation, productivity and knowledge sharing is going to depend on the type of community you create. Communities don't just spring up overnight - they take hard work and clear guidance.

Communities are built around social "norms", patterns of acceptable behavior. To make sure your community norms align with business goals and values it's a good idea to start with a set of community guidelines to help employees know what's allowable, what's expected and what's possible.

While the social business is a new frontier, online communities have been around for some time now and worked out a lot of kinks. Yahoo! is a great resource, their Online Community Guidelines are simple, clear and upbeat.

You want your employees to take this vital new technology and run with it. The last thing you want to do with this kind of energy is shut it down. Use your community guidelines to channel your worker's enthusiasm into a new direction forward.
Discover the six steps to launch a social business