Social networking in the workplace - Point

Insightful analysis by consultants Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler, plus links to the latest WAN news headlines

Social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, are rapidly becoming the latest form of communications in network-centric social communications. But the question is where these types of services will fit in the business networking that's the backbone of most workplaces today? This week we'll look at this question from two perspectives, starting with the reasons that social networks are emerging as a key component of a healthy working environment.

12 tips for safe social networking

In many ways, this is simply a replay of the discussions that we had several years ago concerning instant messaging. While IM started as a social "waste of time and resources," it quickly evolved to being a part of normal business communications and now is an integral component of unified communications. And today's social networks are a simple extension/enhancement of IM and other essential communications tools.

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Social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, are rapidly becoming the latest form of communications in network-centric social communications. But the question is where these types of services will fit in the business networking that's the backbone of most workplaces today? This week we'll look at this question from two perspectives, starting with the reasons that social networks are emerging as a key component of a healthy working environment.

12 tips for safe social networking

In many ways, this is simply a replay of the discussions that we had several years ago concerning instant messaging. While IM started as a social "waste of time and resources," it quickly evolved to being a part of normal business communications and now is an integral component of unified communications. And today's social networks are a simple extension/enhancement of IM and other essential communications tools.

One way that Twitter is most useful, for example, is in staying in touch with a large workgroup and communicating with that group to an extent that would otherwise be impossible. For instance, in an April 22 interview at "Marketplace", Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior noted that "[Twitter] does things indirectly to support some of the top leadership, some of the innovative ideas that Cisco is considering. I propose questions, I ask people for their input. And I get a lot of ideas back from people."

And the more personal side of networking with services like Facebook allow a distributed workforce to stay connected. In many ways, the "conversations" on Facebook can be considered the "virtual water-cooler" of the 21st century. We are moving increasingly to telecommuters for reasons from business continuity to green initiatives to employee satisfaction. Social networks allow the workforce to stay connected as a community.

And there's the outreach to colleagues and customers who are not a part of day-to-day personal interaction. The relationships that can be maintained to a certain extent in an era of fewer and fewer personal interactions can keep you "Linked In."

So we think that the acceptance and integration of social networking into the workplace is not only acceptable, but it's also a mandatory strategic move.

We'd like to hear from you on this. In particular, we invite you to participate in our current research by accessing our survey.

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Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Jim Metzler is vice president of Ashton, Metzler & Associates.