Is social networking just getting warmed up?

Pretty much every seasoned web user has an account with at least one of the popular social networks, like MySpace, Facebook, Hi5 and LinkedIn.

There are countless more such networks and the trend seems to be reaching every niche one can possibly imagine.

It’s a good thing because the more people work together, the faster we can achieve great things but then again, not all social networks vye to reinvent a better world as most of them are just endless streams of largely useless chatter where people interact without actually attempting to truly connect.

Not all communications have to be meaningful to be interesting for those engaging in it but it can seem like a lot of lost energy to fuel such large networks that basically amount to nothing. But that’s irrelevant, in a way, because millions of people still stampede towards these “rate me if you like me” type of social networks so in itself, there has to be a genuine need underneath all that digital noise.

So people, from the world over, are assisting to the rise of the social networks.

In and of itself, that’s big but is this a prelude to something even bigger or is social networking as we know it as good as it’s going to get?

That’s an excellent question and while nobody can say for sure, the featureset of a typical social network pretty much engulfs everything else with Twitter-like streams, blogs, forums, friend rings and chats, all packed into a single web destination which feels coherent to the user. So, featurewise, social networks pack quite a punch. Not all the features are as developed as “single application scripts” but to the user, that seems to matter very little as all they see is the feature itself and not the technology supporting it.

Social networking has everything to do with the cloud where the size and speed of hosting appears to be somewhat infinite, from a user’s standpoint. It’s probably the web 2.0 most compelling spinoff since a social network is often the place where people finally settle after looking at all sorts of other web services.

And since online social networking is generally free, millions of people just open up an account figuring it’s a good deal. Over time, some build up very rich offerings in their “social realm” and others never return after signing-up. The social networks nevertheless connect hundreds of millions of people daily for business and pleasure.

Among the niche-type social networks to watch out for, the following cities now have their own job-centric social networks: Miami, Daytona Beach, Tampa Bay, Detroit, Toronto and Montreal (with more cities to come). It’s an excellent idea as employers and workers are always looking for new ways to connect, locally.

As you can see, social networks will continue to evolve and amaze those who watch them thrive in all sorts of directions, with more power, more storage and more features than ever before.

For all these reasons and many more, it may seem like social networks have reached a plateau but in reality, they may just be warming up for a highly networked future.

Tags: social networks, social networking, online networks, people, connect, connections, online friends, myspace, facebook, hi5, linkedin, networked, jobs, business, niche networks, members, free

What social networking vendors offer, for businesses…

The social networking scene has taken the web by storm as Blogger, Wikipedia, Facebook, MySpace and countless others expand peoples’ reach way beyond their physical community to realms that span across cyberspace.

It so easy.

People create a profile and voilà !

They’re set to share content, ideas and opinions.

Social networking, especially for those who know their way around, is insanely cool. It’s no surprise that so many organizations are looking to setup their own, internally. Once a business social network is up and running, if it’s done right, employees and managers can connect among themselves with ease.

One theory, with regards to business social networks, is that good ideas get validated and bad ideas get discarded more quickly, which leads to faster product development — but it’s just a theory.

In general, companies will benefit, in various ways, from the content that’s being created, shared, added upon and archived for later use.

Any company can make social networking yield benefits but like most new things, it would be foolish to attempt to qualify its financial bottomline usefulness with hard metrics. For the time being, it’s more a matter of getting in early than trying to catch up, later on.

So assuming you’re ready to launch your internal social network, which solution should you choose? Well, that’s for the IT guys to decide but to get the ball rolling, consider the following vendors…

• Drupal
  • Open source.
  • Great at community-driven sites.
  • Blogs and profiles.
• IBM Lotus Connections
  • Paid software.
  • Helps you execute tasks more quickly by using dynamic networks of coworkers, partners and customers
  • Blogs, profiles, social bookmarks, communities and more.
• Jive Software
  • Licensed software or hosted SaaS.
  • Integrates the “enterprise 2.0″ capabilities of collaboration software, community software and social networking software.
  • Wikis, blogs, profiles, social bookmarks, tags, discussions and more.
• MS-SharePoint
  • Paid server software, MS SaaS or hosted by 3rd parties.
  • In its own words: connecting people, process and information.
  • Wikis, blogs, profiles and communities.
• NewsGator
  • Paid software. Extends MS-SharePoint.
  • Empower employees, customers and partners to collaborate, communicate, and innovate in order to create business value through social computing.
  • SharePoint add-ons for tags, tag clouds, expert search, discussions and more.
• Scuttle
  • Open source.
  • Light on the more advanced features but does social bookmarking like it should.
  • Social bookmarking.
• Socialtext
  • Paid hosted service or on-location server appliance.
  • Used for all employees to get a collective view of what’s going on and share content.
  • Wikis, blogs, profiles, social bookmarks and microblogging.
• Telligent
  • Lease the software or buy perpetual licenses.
  • Designed for high-volume communities where performance and up-time are critical.
  • Wikis, blogs, profiles, groups and communities, social analytics and more.

And as you continue searching for vendors, expect to find lots of other worthwhile finds. Keep in mind that the big software firms are currently being swarmed by waves of smaller firms offering solid codesets and eye-pleasing visuals so expect the heated competition to go on, for a while.

In case you were just thinking about this…

Yes, open source has an advantage over most paid and hosted solutions: it’s free!

It’s also instantly available through a simple download and there’s no licensing fee, whatsoever. If you can make up for a little less “business-class support”, open source scripts will likely end up being your first and all-time best choice. Keep in mind open source projects evolve all the time and all those upcoming updates will also be… free. Which is nice.

And don’t forget that open source projects usually come with mountains of useful plug-ins which add bleeding edge features to your core script. Plus the fact you can dive right into your code and tweak just about anything you want. No encryption here.

But perhaps open source is not your thing.

If that’s your case, paid scripts (or software) or hosted solutions is where you’ll most likely end up as very few organizations develop their own social networking engine from scratch.

With such solutions, the deeper your pockets, the more features you’ll get.

And you’re not too picky, customizationwise, you’ll be up and running rather quickly. Software as a service (or “Saas”) is where many mid-sized companies like to do business because everything’s hosted externally. There can be some cost saving at first but as the content volume grows, it can inflate the rent to the point where it’s not that much of a deal anymore so watch out for that. Do your mathematical projections before you sign-up.

Paid software is generally hosted in-house and it’s generally yours for life but remember that the upgrades might cost you a lot of dough, over and above all the other technical maintenance cost. Again, do your mathematical projections before rearranging your server room to accomodate a business social networking software solution.

If you still feel anxious about deploying a social network in your enterprise, seek help from the vendors themselves or from local IT firms which specialize in web 2.0 stuff.

All in all, if your organization is still unsure about wether it’s worth it to have an internal social network, consider that employees will get access to blogs, wikis and tools that let them communicate, collaborate and share information.

The real bottom-line question might be, how much is it worth, to your enterprise, to have its employees using applications it controls and manages? Once that question is answered, everything else aligns itself accordingly.

Tags: social networking, social networks, internal networks, company social network, enterprise, business, social networking vendors, ibm, lotus, jive, sharepoint, saas, hosted solutions, paid software, .net, microsoft, blogs, wikis, search, information, connect, share, content, server

Social networking in business

Networking isn’t new.

Social networking is the online equivalent of a offline meeting where, among other things, geography and schedules wouldn’t matter. Now, that’s a weird concept for some C-level dinosaurs but for the tech-savvy managers moving up, it makes perfect sense.

At the very foundation of networking, there are two things: humans and communications.

In a business setting, a basic goal would be for ideas to be clearly communicated, among all “humans”, in the organization. A more advanced goal would be for those ideas to mature and turn into “value”, one way or another.

Blogs and wikis haven’t replaced email messages and chatting but they’ve definitely added shared spaces where project data (and ideas) can more easily pollinate, more often than not, in ways that were largely unpredictable. Putting the information “out there”, for an entire team (or company) to see is a powerful way to leverage teamwork.

Social networking for businesses see communities of interest spring up around subject matters rather than organizational hierarchies. If you’ve been in business for a while, you’re well aware that the best ideas don’t necessarily come from the “top brass”. Networking at all levels of a company smashes the invisible glass walls which have the bad habit of strangling innovation, big time.

Generally speaking, social applications provide business value by letting people add context to information stores which, in turn, helps others identify what’s useful to them — it also makes search results that much more relevant.

Social bookmarks are a nice example of this since team members can share the web resources they like and learn from others about web destinations that have been overlooked. After a while, the bookmark list becomes a real time saver.

Naturally, enterprise social networking helps people find and connect with co-workers through user profiles, expert search and social graphs that map out any employee’s connections throughout the organization. This, in and of itself, makes for a strong argument for social networking, in the modern workplace.

Finding co-workers with domain-specific knowledge, in just a few clicks, can really propel any organization to a whole new level of communications, productivity, teamwork and of course, profitability.

Some organizations are obsessed with the “dangers of wasting time” wrongly associated with social networking. But that’s very bad management since social networking is a communications enabler and as such, it’s built to help channel information to the right people, wherever the people may be in the organizational chart.

If you’re just starting out in the social networking for business “adventure”, make sure to take a look at the quality open source scripts that are available to structure your data into blogs, forums, wikis or just about any other way you wish.

Tags: social networking, enterprise, business, work, workplace, colleagues, co-workers, employees, team members, managers, c-level, executives, decisions, ideas, communications, information, organization, open source, blogs, wikis

How to deal with social networks at the office

Given the abundance of social networks such as LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Orkut and Ning, a growing crowd of companies have adopted “reasonable internet use” policies.

Such policies generally award personal time to surf the web, along with the strickly professional tasks. This clears the air about the occasional use of information systems use for stuff which is important to the employee while not being directly linked to his work directives, per se.

Within this mix of “personal vs business” use of the internet, at the office, lies the social networking grey zone, of sorts.

While networking with mostly personal contacts may not directly ring in new sales or realize specific business objectives, it remains, nonetheless, another path towards business growth, if used strategically. This aspect should never be underplayed by managers as it’s a reflection of a rising trend to look online for counsel, help and information on just about all matters.

For instance, if a machining shop’s employees are offered financial incentives to help find qualified new employees for the company, the recruitment process’ cost can be slashed from thousands to mere hundreds of dollars, not to mention the much shorter delays before qualified profiles arrive on the HR manager’s desk.

Another example. Company image. Having employees provide free help (within reasonable limits) to a highly visible cause (or Facebook group) will likely establish the brand in a new light for those who find it there. Think of all those Facebook groups with millions of active members where a company employee could provide a much needed “answer” accompanied with a free consultation offer for all those who require it — the outcome can be downright spectacular… and wildly lucrative.

Yet another scenario would be one where an employee finds a stream of information of low values to just about everybody else but inversely, of very high value to him because it helps within his line of work. For example, if a company sells winter shelters, it would be awesome to have live temperature feeds alongside historical temperatures for the markets they serve. That way, the sales periods (and marketing campaigns) can be precisely aligned with “on the ground” needs, as they arise (or are about to).

We could go on for quite a while regarding the many ways in which social networking activities can provide added value to just about any company but as in anything, employees need to find a viable balance between their tasks, while making sure they keep up with their work responsibilities.

From the bosses’ perspective, if someone is doing what’s expected and doing it reasonably well, there’s no basis for further investigation or complaint.

Pointing out the obvious, making sure people aren’t engaging in gross negligence or addictive, risky and unethical behavior in using social networks —or any other popular web site or service— is probably the bosses’ most important task because that’s where “the problems” are likely to arise from.

Terrorizing all employees with some drastic (lawyer formulated) net use policy is supremely counter-productive and might end up costing the company dearly in lower employee morale, abysmal productivity and a sense of general resentment against such a radical cutoff with the way business is carried about, elsewhere.

As social networks grow up to become all sorts of things to all sorts of people, including business-minded people, companies where acceptance, within a “reasonable use” comfort zone, trumps over internet monitoring paranoia (by the bosses) are likely to reap substantial benefits from their progressive stance on the web’s latest and greatest offerings.

Tags: social networks, social networking, working, at the office, networking with people, meeting, e-meeting, meeting up with new people, business leads, business contacts, companies, internet monitoring, business opportunities, reasonable internet use, lawyers, policies, net usage policy, popular web sites

Social networking opportunities in the workplace

When the web emerged as a much faster alternative to find information than, say, paper-based archives, employers had no other choice than to provide their employees with access to this vast information network.

Spin doctored by the accountants and other flavors of bean counting nuts, employees started metering the time spent by employees online. That led to the enforcement of ridiculous “web access policies” which severely limited an employee’s options, when searching for information, online.

As such, while employers saw a drop in web access within the workforce, that was accompanied by waves of frustration, protest and a nasty combination of lower productivity and morale.

Once again, the bean counters had destroyed a model which wasn’t perfect but which had proved its merit.

Over time, smart bosses evolved from the backward thinking accounting logic to a progressive marketing logic where more windows to the world, if used to their full potential, mean many more opportunities for growth.

This is where social networking comes in.

Networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Orkut (to name only those) have changed the way people keep in touch.

Forget that afterhour lunch with the local chamber of commerce. In most cases, such gatherings now represent the epitome in unproductive use of one’s time. Hanging out at these meetings, luncheons and conferences serves little to no purpose, other than to blabber useless sales lines to generally untargeted “contacts” who, more often than not, simply throw away their stack of “acquired” business cards, after the event.

In other words, the world of human networking has changed and the companies which fail to look online for new leads risk missing out on all sorts of opportunities.

Employers who understand that finding motivated customers online is both faster and cheaper than in any other “traditional” way have unlocked all web access, including the much discussed social networks.

In the end, if companies focus on managing outcomes and goals rather than attempting to manage people’s time, everything feels more “natural” and the business can grow out of the severely limiting accounting rules which are designed to stiffle anything which thrives, instead of encouraging it.

Bosses with limited insight on how business happens will continue to downplay the importance of the web but these proverbial dinosaurs are being phased out and replaced with people who know one paying customer a day is better than ten “leads” which take forever to “convert” — if ever.

Tags: social networking, web access, online searches, e-business, e-commerce, doing business online, finding new customers online, networks of business people, chambers of commerce, meetings, e-meetings, social mixers, business cards

More opportunities for Web 2.0 workers

Enterprises are now expecting IT pros to leverage technologies such as blogs, social networks, mashups, wikis and RSS.

While Web 1.0 is set to be part of the digital landscape for a long while, the market has clearly shifted to Web 2.0 methods of interfacing with the users who, using the latest technologies, have much more control over the general flow of data.

The number of companies calling on Web 2.0 technologies to address problems facing their information systems is on the rise and IT workers should act accordingly by offering at least part of the skill set that the job market requires.

To date, most IT departments have resisted Web 2.0 tools, viewing them more as consumer-grade solutions which represent less interest than their other investments but 2008 might be the year all that could change.

According to Robert Half Technology, CIOs anticipate a 15% increase this year in the need for IT workers with Web 2.0 application development skills.

Web 2.0 technologies deliver considerable value for the money they cost so it’s no surprise that more businesses turn to “profoundly user-centric” methods of conveying “the right data to the right people”, in a way end-users are most likely to appreciate.

Enterprise inroads for Web 2.0 skills might first occur where information worker problems remain unresolved, such as help desk ticket resolution, IT project management, document tracking and email.

Also, wherever knowledge workers abound, expect IT departments to be hunting for talent capable of adding value to the company through the smart implementation of blogs, wikis and even RSS feeds.

Tags: web 2.0, blogs, social networking, mashups, wikis, rss, it, jobs, hiring

Gather gets people talking

Going online to (1) connect with friends and strangers, (2) post your very own content and (3) learn from others’ experiences is nothing new, for most of the savvy webologists out there, like you, who can probably safely argue that you’ve “been there, done that”.

Yet, there comes a time when we just need to vent off about the news or something happening in our lives and the global immaturity level of MySpace being a frustrating turn-off for anything remotely intelligent, we’re left wondering where our smarter musings could find a friendly echo. Such a place exists (fortunately) and it’s appropriately called Gather.

Based in Boston, Thomas A. Gerace has founded a different kind of social networking community where anything that matters can be discussed. Sharing a poem, a recipe, an opinion, a manifesto or even geniune news will likely score you valuable feedback from rather well informed members of this huge community.

This makes the effort of actually posting good messages worthwhile and over time, you’ll be building up a nice library of articles (or images) that others can learn from. Needless to say, get many more chances of learning useful stuff using Gather than most MySpace-type communities.

Gather does a good job at keeping its members busy with ongoing writing contests, trips and money rewards to whoever participates, in the community. Nobody gets to make millions but the little extra pocket change may put a smile on your face.

It’s entirely free to join and use. There appears to be no limit on the amount of data you can post to Gather although quality content will be much better for your karma. While there has been a huge influx of new members lately, Gather’s server farm seems to be taking the load quite gracefully, which adds to the overall user experience.

The best way to start making a name for yourself is to post your first story and wait for the other members to answer you. When they do, request to be friends with them. Also remember to join a few groups and before you know it, you’ll be a happy Gather member too!

Are you curious to see how I’ve used Gather, over the past few months? Just head to my Gather page and request a “friend” link ; )

Tags: gather, social networking, friends, sharing