The Name of the Thing

The name of your social intranet or social business platform is important. It's what people should be entering into their browser everyday (if not bookmarked or set as their home page).  They should associate certain things with it.  It's a brand.  Don't be fooled into thinking it's anything else.

There's a philosophy out there that says the name of a thing (or person) has a huge influence on the nature of that thing.  My husband looked into it when we couldn't figure out why our amazingly beautiful cat, Zella, was so hostile.  She loved my husband, put up with me, and hissed and clawed at everyone else.  So one day my husband decided to look up what the name Zella meant and found out it was a German derivative for "the hostile one".  The name fit.  If he had only named her Fluffy or Rainbow we would have had a very different cat.


My point is that real thought should be put into the name of your social intranet.  Your end-users will associate negative or positive connotations you may have not thought through if you make the naming decision too quickly.  Some names I've seen used at multiple companies are "Connect", "Engage", "The Hub", "MyCompany", "OneCompany", and "The Mix".  The interesting thing about The Mix is one consumer products good company and one medical devices company both used that name.  The fun thing is they could both use slogans like "Mix it Up" or "Are you in the Mix?".  

Try to find something that plays off your company name, culture, or corporate mission.  You want to grab the hearts and minds of the end-user.  When I was at my last company I ran an idea campaign to crowdsource the name.  We ended up with Hal (a "2001: A Space Odyssey" reference for all of you non-geeks out there) as our new intranet name.  It was perfect.  It exemplified our company culture and by crowdsourcing the name got a lot more people invested in the name and the new intranet.  At my current company our intranet is called Brewspace.  It's another great play off the culture but also plays into the concepts of innovation and collaboration with the thought of brewing up ideas.

So please don't make your social intranet name an afterthought.  If you don't have a brain that works that way (mine doesn't) bring in some brains that do.  Or crowdsource it.  You want a name that will inspire people to work differently.

Do you have an awesome name for your social intranet?  Please share it in the comments.  (And for the rest of you there is no shame in cloning greatness.)

  This post was written in memory of Zella, the beautiful and hostile cat, whom we lost this week.