What will be the impact, if any, of social networking in the enterprise?
Social networks have been amazing and powerful tools to get in touch to professionals around the world looking for new job opportunities, entrepreneurs avid to engage in new business opportunities, professionals who want achieve knowledge regarding the latest business trends, and people who are looking to have fun.
In most of the enterprises, the usage of social networks like Linkedin, Xing or Facebook is a practice that still is not well accepted in the corporate context when it is seen as a mere distraction with little or no value for the business.
In a corporate context highly competitive and volatile where knowledge sharing in cultures driven by innovation and customized workplaces that use Technology to propitiate effective collaboration, I can envision a business scenario where social networks with professional value like Linkedin, will be advantageously utilized in delivering business agility to achieve the business goals.
From your professional perspective what kind of impact do you foresee in the next generation of social networks applied to the enterprise?. Do you know from successful initiatives of applying social networks in the enterprise?
As always your responses will be appreciated and recognized.
Octavio
Good Answers (8)
Jon W. H
Host at PI Window on Business Show
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A very interesting question Octavio, and one in which the initial approach is to first understand the current transition from the Web 2.0 platform to Web 3.0, and ultimately the establishment of Web 4.0. The latter is where true business transformation will take place.
As a means of providing insight into the above, the following is a discussion that originated in the Web 2.0: The Organization of The Future Forum on Viadeo (another of the numerous social networks similar to the ones to which you had referred).
Opening Comment (Craig Brown, MTS Allstream)
Last week the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, gave a keynote address at the Linked Data Planet conference in New York.
Since bringing us Web 1.0 he's been busy working on his next vision - Web 3.0, commonly referred to as the Semantic Web. The Semantic Web extends the World Wide Web such that the semantics of information and services on the Web is defined. In the Semantic Web a computer understands the meaning and context of words. For example, a Google search based on this principle would understand the question, understand and analyze all knowledge available, and link the two.
From a technical and standards perspective, central to making the Semantic Web possible is keeping information free and available to use in the Linked Data format. Said Berners-Lee, "We all want to do stuff with data. Let's get it on the Web and do stuff with it, and have one standard for doing that. Linked data is a very simple set of rules of putting [this data] on the Web."
There is a dedicated team at the World Wide Web consortium (W3C) working to standardize this framework that if brought to its full potential promises changes in how we use information that are just as revolutionary as we're experiencing with Web 2.0
My Response
I reviewed the above post by Craig Brown on June 27th and found it interesting.
However, Web 3.0 is in reality the bridge to Web 4.0. And it is Web 4.0 that is critical to sustainable business success for the very reason that it represents the transition from a collective interface to a viable intelligent engagement mechanism capable of assembling and managing seemingly disparate streams of information into a collective outcome that has real-world applicability.
Think of it this way, what is the common strand between Kodak's digital imaging marketing strategy, Higher Education supplier engagement programs and the development of regionalized Clusters? (Note: the link cannot be ascertained through the correlation of common words.)
Of even greater importance, how does the collective outcome of these individual elements impact you or your organization? Note: an added twist is that the collective outcome will likely be different for each individual.
Web 4.0 would tell you this within a matter of seconds.
What Berners-Lee is talking about with his Semantic Web is just the initial steps toward recognizing the key elements of strand commonality. Almost like reaching the conclusion that the world isn't flat but round, but still not clearly understanding its compostion.
The Semantic methodology is limited and has a high potential for being unreliable as it focuses on word similarity thereby making the assumption that this is indicative of a relational element. Extensive real-world testing has proven that this is not the case.
That said it is a step, be it a small one in the right direction. Because the world, after all, is not flat.
Response Comment (Craig Brown, MTS Allstream)
Hi Jon, thanks for your comment - very insightful. I do agree that the ultimate development of the semantic web will have to include more than word similarity and context before we reach our ultimate, desired outcome - the Web 4.0 as you describe (incidentally I think that's the first time I've seen that term before!).
Links:
- http://procureinsights.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/similarity-hueristics-itera...
- http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3753646/Sir+Tim+Talks+Up+L...
- http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/
Clarification added July 31, 2008:
As a point of interest, here is an article that I have written and is available through one of my syndication partners expanded on the concepts presented above: http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/
Andrew F
Snr. Business Strategy, Marketing and Business Development executive
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I would not limit your thoughts to Social networks, I would include all the Web 2.0 trends that you see in the consumer space to work great for enterprise 2.0 as well.
Some current ones that come to mind... Proctor & Gamble... started multiple social networks, Capessa (sp) is based around woman's health issues, and is a GREAT "soft-sell" for P&G's Tampon business.
Cisco (which will be one of the more aggressive vendors of Web 2.0 technology) has already created brand new products (I believe 4 so far) as a DIRECT result of their social network by- getting people talking,discussing and most of all *Collaborating* ...
Links:
J O
Senior Security Architect/Engineer at E-Fensive Security Strategies
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Online social networking - sites such as those mentioned - in all honesty have no place in the enterprise to be downright honest.
While there are many workplaces that allow the use, there are plenty of security risks involved with social networking that rarely go checked. As an attacker, what better way to glean information about a corporate infrastructure then to jump onto a site such as LinkedIn, Facebook, etc., these are things many users, network/security admins overlook. Its too easy to create dozens of fake profiles and undertake targetted attacks against a company. With this said, here is an example scenario...
John Q. Donut wants to steal (corporate espionage) some information against his competitor. He's tried all technical attack vectors against the computing infrastructure and failed. He proceeds to create a fake LinkedIn account using an attractive photo (male or female doesn't really matter). He adds friends here and there, some will not allow him to be link in, others will. He creates a dozen more accounts like this and writes up recommendations for his attractive account making it more believable.
He registers somethingNice2lookat.com and posts it as his home page in hopes his victims will click the link to his homepage. On his homepage, its a loaded cocktail filled with malware and spamware. All he needs is for ONE visitor's machine to become infected and he has his foot in the door. Happens a lot more then people think (LINK 1)
So getting out of the technical/security factors... Why should an HR department give a green light for its employees to go fishing for an opportunity to work elsewhere. I won't get into those politics, but seriously... What, if anything outside of a minor method to connect and waste time do you perceive these sites to do. I'm almost positive the ratio of wasted money to gained resources is overwhelming...
So we take SampleCompany, 10k employees. 1000 registered on LinkedIn or Facebook. Each user spends say 2 hours per week on these sites. Lets average a salary of say 25k which is really low and do some math... At about $12.02 an hour which is insanely low, the company is losing about $24,038 per week in productivity time.
If we use some realistic numbers, I quote: "In terms of LinkedIn’s users, "[t]he average income is $140,000," Hansell related" (LINK 2) So how about we make this number, 75,000 per year to lowball things... This would place the average LinkedIn user at $36.05 an hour, it works out to about $72,115.38 per week in lost productivity time. $3,750,000.00 per year give or take.
Now I don't know about you, but I'd like to hear from someone in a company who has either saved this much, or made this much from "Linking In" The same argument can be made for Instant Messaging as well. It all depends on how you look at it.
Links:
Jenna P
Co-Founder at Socialnetnet
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I honestly believe that social networking sites are just the beginning of changing how we use the Internet. I like to see social networking as a way to learn from others that you may not normally connect with on a regular basis.
How a person may use social networking is going to differ per individual, so I think it is hard to determine what someone's motivation is. Either way, if a person wants to use social networking for job hunting or self promotion, there is not much a company can do to stop them. It's like the teenager who finds a way to get out past curfew even though the parents said no!
If companies plan and promote social networking in a way that supports their corporate objectives, it can be a powerful part of the culture. Like anything else, it all depends on the clear definition of why this is being done and how it is applied. Educating people appropriately can also help them to avoid pitfalls of misuse and mitigate possible security issues.
Octavio,
There are two contexts in which we view your question; 1) the use of social networking/media/Web 2.0 capabilities internally for employee productivity, and 2) the use adoption of them by our customers and prospects to allow new and innovative marketing, sales and support channels for us.
My role is focused more on the latter and I can say that this area is exciting but we often struggle with using consumer oriented tools and resources for enterprise business practices. We love that they're free, but they weren't purpose built for enterprises.
It's hard to manage our customer's identity across all the various social properties they might belong to (although there have been lots of announcements lately that promise to make this easier). Security is often an issue. The ability to build and manage groups and have other settings so that messaging isn't broadcast in an all-or-nothing way is lacking. Stability of some of these platforms is an issue as well.
Perhaps the biggest outcome of social networking will be how businesses reorient around customers and their needs. The recognition is dawning that enterprise sales and marketing is no longer directive, it's supportive and collaborative. Accountability for customers rather than internal budget holders will be a huge but necessary shift for marketing in the next decade.
As for mandates or policies about restricting access to social resources as some here suggest, I personally think carrots work better than sticks. We encourage employees to be fluent in social networks as we strongly believe they are slowly morphing into the business lexicon. They help remote teams bond and communicate. And while they might be a distraction during the learning phase, we find that employees are incredibly inventive about using them to enhance rather than detract from their productivity.
I hope that helps.
Brian Ellefritz
Cisco Systems
Dianne W
Kangen Water Distributor
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Social networking has and will have an even greater effect upon MY enterprise as time goes on. As I lay the groundwork of asking and answering questions, maintaining my profiles, linking to and from my websites, pulling in comments from all sides...I'm becoming more visible online. I'm socializing with real live individuals, building keyword links as we talk about a variety of business related topics.
When the average person, from across the pond, wants to research a matter that is dear to my heart or close to my pocketbook, and I've talked about it online, the average researcher will find me somehow. The more I socialize, the more opportunities I have to add to my web of keywords and links.
The wonderful thing is that I work for myself, not for a corporation formed by others. I'm highly motivated to build my own network and draw a jillion people toward ME, my interests, my expertise, my work.
Socializing online has important impact on MY enterprise.
Dianne
I am responding from a non-profit perspective, but I'm sure there are plenty of crossover applications. I use socail networking to maintain connections among the members of my community. We do not have the resources to create our own, so we must utilize what is already available (and free). Social networks are becoming for me the phone tree and mass instant messenger of the 21st Century. They are a great place to practice permission marketing as well as a place to maintain contact with your members (substitute clients or customers here if you are in a business setting).
My goal is to help people think about the organization 3-4 times a week rather than the traditional 1 hour on Sunday (we are a church in America). In doing this I strengthen their allegiance to the community as well as maintain "raving fans" who tell everyone else about the amazing experience they have at our church.
My greatest fear in this is that the number of social networking sites and groups is quickly becoming overwhelming and my people will not want one more group to keep up with. Then we are right back to where we were before social networking sites started.
Michel B
Managing Partner at Fisher Rock Consulting
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One specific application of web 2.0-type social networking that has been garnering more and more attention is employee onboarding. A handful of IT companies are already offering custom corporate social networking applications to help speed up the integration of new employees. However, it is unclear to what extent these firms and their clients are mining the data behind these applications and generating new insight about patterms of early employee socialization. I think this is a great opportunity for IT and HR professionals to partner with social and organizational scientists.
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Kenneth L
Retired Aerospace Contracts Manager and SCORE Volunteer
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Social networking in general is going to burn out before long. Everyone is getting into it for various reasons and the average Joe out there is getting inundated with groups, sub-groups, invitations and networking to the point where he is tuning out.
