The bigger changes for adopting such technology, show speakers say, is around getting end user buy-in.

Nike, the athletic apparel firm, has gone from a "live and learn" approach to its social media strategy where employees were using social media tools on their own, to "purposeful management" of collaboration tools, says Richard Foo, who is heading up the company's efforts. The key to getting buy-in, he says, is creating compelling reasons for employees to want to change their processes. "Make their jobs easier," he says. Answer the question for the users: "What's the value for me?" From a company perspective, the value is in increased collaboration.

Bricklin, the Wells Fargo social collaborator, jokes that he knows his strategy is working when employees use the tools to alert friends of free food in the company kitchen.

FedEx has its own way of encouraging user adoption, says Bryan Barringer, manager of enterprise collaboration implementation for the shipping company. While he doesn't call it gamification, Barringer has set up a series of rewards and incentives for employees to use sharing and collaboration tools. Employees can win badges and be recognized if they complete enough entries into corporate wiki pages or help other employees learn information about a business process.

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