Are social media and social networks destined to change life behind the firewall?  Inside the walls of the corporate world?

If you spend any time on the Internet, it is difficult not to notice the recent explosion in both number and notoriety of these technologies.  The consumer-focused social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and YouTube are exploding – and perhaps more importantly – as they become more ubiquitous, they are fundamentally resetting the expectations of how computers can support and augment person-to-person communication and collaboration. 

But will they have value for corporations?  Will they be platforms for renewal and transformation?  Or just collosal time sinks?

The potential is clearly there for both outcomes.  As with any tool or technology, the value proposition is not in the tool but in how that tool is applied. 

The key is to avoid focusing on the technologies in isolation.  Avoid the temptation to implement social software tools simply for their own sake.  No, not every company needs a Facebook-like company directory.  But having such a directory – thoughtfully implemented - can dramatically amplify the organization’s learning and talent management efforts by increasing the density of connections within the organization, strengthening bonds, increasing engagement, and facilitating knowledge sharing.  To reach that potential, first examine the organization’s business goals; then analyze how human interaction and collaboration support those goals.  Finally, develop a strategy to leverage a social software platform to enhance that interaction and collaboration. 

Achieving both sustained participation and measurable business impact from that participation requires a clear sense of purpose.  A good place to start is to identify the purposes for which employees already collaborate, share knowledge, and build networks.  Employees utilize their own networks every day to solve business problems, learn new skills, increase their influence, or find a mentor.  In our research so far, we’ve found organizations very successfully using social networking platforms for:

• Expertise Finding: IBM
• Communities of Practice: Defense Acquisition University
• Blending (Pre or Post) with Formal Learning Programs: Symantec
• Peer to Peer Learning / Mentoring: Computer Associates
• Bottom-up Knowledge Management: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
• Performance Support: Proctor & Gamble
• Fostering Corporate Identity: Wachovia
• Succession Planning: Government of Canada
• Recruiting: Central Intelligence Agency
• Extended Employee (Alumni, Retirees, Interns) Relations: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
• Strategic Onboarding: RWD
• Product Development and Innovation: Dell
• Customer Outreach: Zappos

In all the examples, the human networks themselves are nothing new.  What is new is the degree to which today’s social software help to break down physical barriers, allowing for increased utility and accessibility between people and supporting community growth. 

Take onboarding programs as an example.  Social networks support building connections between new and existing employees, including connections to the “must-know” people within the organization. Building these internal networks is the most pivotal benefit of an onboarding program.  They are critical for new employees to gain access to information, develop trust among peers, build a common vocabulary, and eventually understand the “inner workings” and context of an organization.  Yet for a social software platform to be of true benefit, the organization should ideally focus on building an effective onboarding program first; then enhance that program with a social networking platform. 

For more information, including specific examples, see my just-published primer:  Social Networks for Enterprise Learning and Talent Management.

Is your organization using a social networking or collaboration platform?  Please share in the comments.  If you are supporting one or more of the use-cases listed above, please say so.   If you are doing something else, note that as well.  We’ll use this post as an informal poll.  Over the next few weeks, we will spend some time on each use-case individually.

- David