"Historically, companies have had to buy (software) before they try it or view demos, and adoption risk is probably the greatest risk in software. It could be great, but if no one uses it, it doesn't matter. Part of the importance of the freemium, viral business model where any employee can sign up for free is that we get to guarantee a company that their employees will use and choose this software even before (the company) pays for it. We essentially 'de-risk' the purchase by making it freemium. We say, 'They're already using it, they already like it.'"

Open Your Ears

Social media experts preach that . Pisoni's plea for companies to listen to so-called lazy employees is basically the same thing. How can you ask employees to fully invest in your internal social initiatives when your IT department won't listen when those employees complain about the initiatives, or more dramatically, bring in third-party tools of their own?

On the flipside, while nobody knows what tools are needed as well as the person doing the job does, many companies understandably would have some reservations about letting staff churn and burn through official work on unsanctioned software.

What's the middle ground? How did your business decide which social network to use? What do you think when employees find a workaround to company-sanctioned tools?