Your company built a Facebook page to nab job hunters, created a blog to promote products and services, and started a customer service forum on your website. Now what?
For many businesses, the next step is bringing social networking technologies inside the company firewall. As companies grow accustomed to using MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking sites, many are using Web 2.0 tools in house to improve how employees communicate, work together, or move through the corporate ranks. “For Gen Y, it’s a tool they’ve grown up using to connect with people, so when they go into an organization, they’re demanding the same kind of tools to foster connectivity,” says Diane Pardee, chief marketing officer at SelectMinds, a social networking platform vendor.
Enterprise heavyweights Microsoft and Cisco Systems as well as specialists like SelectMinds, Visible Path, and Leverage Software offer enterprise social networking platforms, and more products are debuting all the time. They’re competing in an applications market that’s still tiny but is expected to grow to $428.3 million by 2009, according to a report published earlier this fall by IDC, the technology researcher. “Social networking is the new must-have communication application and is being used for both marketing and operational efficiency,” says IDC research manager Rachel Happe, in a written statement.
Keeping employees happy
Faced with a shortage of knowledge workers, companies are doing everything they can to find and hold onto people, and one way to do that is to make them feel connected at work. What’s more, companies with virtual offices or multiple locations need to make it easier for workers to share knowledge. Enter social networks. Think Facebook, but instead of profiles that list people’s friends, bands and movies, an employee’s profile on a company network might include jobs held, current projects, proficiencies, special interests, bookmarks, and a list of their work partners and friends.
Some businesses set up mini-networks within networks to help out specific employee groups such as sales team, mentor partners, or women. Networks are also a great way to keep in touch with employees who retire, go on family leave or quit for a different job, because you never know when someone might want to come back. “Maintaining relationships for life is very important,” says Pardee, of SelectMinds. “From the time someone’s an intern making them part of the company’s social network so they can be in touch makes it more likely they’ll be recruited back into the organization.”
Start out simple
Many social networking applications are offered as software-as-a-service solutions, so the requirements of getting started can be minimal. But if even that sounds daunting, or if a business isn’t sure a full-blown enterprise social network is right for them, there are ways to adopt social media that don’t take a lot of time, effort, or money.
For example, if a company uses Microsoft’s intranet platform they could try that technology’s SharePoint feature for Web-based collaboration if they aren’t already, says Tac Anderson, Web 2.0 strategic lead at HP’s LaserJet business group in Boise, Idaho, and a long-time social networking industry tracker. Or start an internal company blog, says Anderson, who blogs about social networking at NewCommBiz.com. “If you have a relationship with a Web developer or IT professional and you’re happy with them, this is work that they could do,” he says.
For companies considering out-of-the-box solutions, Anderson recommends reading product reviews on the blog TechCrunch.
