I get asked all the time "Are there any guidelines I can follow to increase the probability for a successful implementation of corporate social networking solution within my organization?

While there are no hard or fast rules, here are some easy to follow recommendations from some of our customers:

• Understand the business problem you are trying to solve with online social networking software - before you begin.
• Start with a pilot project and don't even think about an enterprise wide deployment. Use the pilot project as a tool to gather lessons learned, best practices, cultural issues, risks etc. we can be used on subsequent CSN deployments. 
• Pick a group, team or department with a well defined business challenge. Make sure they are part of the decision making process - bottom up approach.
• Define your measures of success at the start. This will enable you to defend and promote the solution internally to management and colleagues.
• Culture can quickly kill any project, especially web 2.0 projects. For example, be sure to acknowledge that there are differences between generations (Gen "X" and Gen "Y") and try to accomodate these differences within your solution.  If possible, set up incentives for participation.
• Avoid anonymous users in private online networks. For example, users should not be able to add content anonymously i.e. creating blog posts, adding comments, or uploading documents.
• Corporate governance - set up a code of conduct for your users; ensure that the network adheres to corporate policies, rules, regulations and brand.
• Technology - whatever vendor you choose for your solution, make sure that the technology was built for business. Many consumer tools are immature, insecure and are simple point solutions. Here are some basic technology requirements:
  •  web-based
  • easy to use
  • fast to deploy
  • cost effective
  • secure (https, permissions, auditing, data storage etc.)
  • extensible (integrates easily with front and back office applications)
  • complete suite of integrated  tools - not mash ups (content management, collaboration, social networking)
  • mobile ready

Although this is not a comprehensive list, it gives you a start. Please post your experiences and comments... I would love to hear them.