If the phrase “perks for social media influence” makes you think of Klout and its free Axe Body Spray, you’ll be surprised to hear what business cloud services firm Salesforce is handing out to influencers. Daniel Debow, an executive at Salesforce, said today at Quartz’s Next Billion eventthat on the company’s internal social media platform, called Chatter, influencers, who are called Chatterati, are rewarded for their influence and high follower counts with trips to Salesforce’s executive retreats. The idea is that social media within companies help surface good ideas no matter who came up with them, and sending even low-level employees to events where they can speak directly with leaders helps democratize decision making in a company.
Another possibility is that these systems will one day lead to perverse incentives for employees to waste time on a company’s internal social media platform. But Debow says that hasn’t happened yet. Because Chatter leads to more transparency, it’s easy to tell who is a blowhard and who is really adding value at a company.