Social networking can improve productivity
Among the many communications tools businesses are leveraging today, one that is catching attention is social networking. We can no longer describe social networking as emerging, as vehicles such as Facebook and LinkedIn are commonplace and boast millions of members. However, the uptake of social networking by businesses has been much slower than in the broader public arena.
Caution is certainly understandable, as managers worry about employees becoming less productive because of distraction by social networking tools. Other concerns arise in areas such as liability and the risk of exposing proprietary information. Nevertheless, there have been strong cases made that these concerns are quite manageable, and that by not embracing social networking, businesses are losing an opportunity to make their employees more productive and their enterprise more profitable.
Tearing down silos
Ultimately, while there are legitimate questions about social networks' effectiveness, the tools' potential positive impact includes enhancing information sharing and team building, while tearing down silos and levelling hierarchical structures within a business. Not surprisingly, because of its short history in workplaces, there is not an overwhelming amount of research into the impact of social networking on businesses. Some studies are now being published, however, with rather interesting results. One study for AT&T surveyed 2,500 people in five European countries - Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Sixty-five percent said their companies had adopted social networking as part of their workplace culture. The study indicated the use of social networking tools in everyday working life led to an increase in efficiency. Consider these additional findings:
- 65% of employees said social networking sites have made them more efficient.
- 63% said these networking tools have enabled them to achieve things that would not otherwise have been possible.
- 46% said the sites have generated ideas and creative solutions for them personally.
The same study identified the top five social networking tools in the workplace. These are: companies' own collaboration sites on intranets (39%); internal forums within the company (20%); company-produced video material shared on intranets (16%); online social networks, such as LinkedIn and Facebook (15%); external collaboration sites on the web, and internal blogging sites (both 11%). A recent MIT study of an individual organization revealed that employees with the most extensive personal networks were 7% more productive than their colleagues. It is important to note, however, that employees who had the most cohesive face-to-face networks were 30% more productive. The lesson is not to look at social networking in isolation but as part of a broader communications environment.
Wikis and mash-ups
Those businesses that are now engaged in enterprise social networking (ESN), which involves more business-intense applications of the communications vehicle, are going far beyond the general consumer experience. ESN is taking businesses into new territory with applications such as shared workspaces, collaboration, micro-blogging and new scalable architecture for social software, such as cloud computing. Many businesses are pushing their ESNs to deliver even more applications, such as wikis (group-edited websites similar to Wikipedia), mash-ups (combining data or functions from two or more sources into a single integrated application), online meetings and syndicated feeds. These applications can be shaped to vastly enhance communications and, therefore, employee productivity.
As you consider adopting social networking as a business development strategy, consider that Facebook now boasts more than 90 million users, more than half of whom are 25 or older. LinkedIn has close to 23 million users whose average age is 41, and it is growing faster than Facebook. These social networking tools offer a way to connect with clients and prospective customers outside of the standard email system, and these sites have the additional advantage of keeping employees up to date on events, trends and opportunities.
Particularly important in today's economy is the fact that social networking tools intended for internal business use are inexpensive, easy to implement, and require little employee training. Social networking tools are turning out to be a way of capturing value that already exists within a business at a relatively low cost. With its experience in providing collaborative tools for enterprises, Allstream can help businesses utilize their technology to implement suitable, productive social networking applications.
Social networks have been described as a powerful way to "tap into the wisdom of crowds." Another observer, a business development director for a Calgary-based partner of Microsoft, was unequivocal in his assessment of the importance of social networks to businesses. He noted that companies that embrace social networking will win in the long term. Further, he added, from a technology standpoint, the marketplace is only seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of how social networking affects businesses.
Social networking can offer dynamic, robust features that enhance online communications. Naturally, care should be taken in determining which networking features are best suited for your business, but at the end of the day, prevailing wisdom suggests businesses realize that exploring the potential of social networking is an investment in their future.
