6 Principles That Lead to Social-Media Success

[Editor's note: This article is adapted from Barry Libert's book, "Social Nation."]

A 2009 study by the Nielsen Co. revealed that employees, partners and customers/donors spent 17 percent of their online time social networking or blogging — and 83 percent more time in online social networks than the year prior. Essentially, these statistics tell us that organizations need to embrace and capture the voices of their staff and donors if they want to innovate and thrive.