Many businesses have already realised the benefits of Web 2.0
technologies such as blogs and wikis and are now looking to
strengthen their communications with social networking, but many
are confused about how it can be best applied in a business
environment and the advantages it will bring to their company,
writes Jean Ferré, chief executive at Sinequa.
Yet social networks can offer real
advantages for businesses, from making collaboration more
efficient to maximising the value of undocumented knowledge and
experience held in employees' heads. For these benefits to be
realised, social networks must be searchable so that information is
visible and related to the rest of the enterprise's content.
The emergence of social networking has equipped many employees
with social networking skills, learned from regular use of Web 2.0
sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. This largely unemployed skill
means companies are now well positioned to take advantage of social
networking technology and enjoy the benefits it can bring.
Collaboration can be made more efficient as social networking
makes it possible for employees to work together on projects in
real time, as well as stay up to date with developments and changes
made by colleagues in different time zones around the world.
Knowledge is the life-blood of all businesses, and is arguably
one of the few business assets that will not depreciate in value
during a recession. Social networks can maximise the value of this
asset by making it possible for employees to connect to and share
knowledge. To harness the most value from this knowledge, the
information needs to be relevant and employees must be able to
access it.
Enterprise Search software can facilitate this by connecting
employees to the knowledge held on a company's network and by their
colleagues. By making this information searchable, social networks
can become a more professional environment, because employees are
likely to communicate professionally when they know that their
bosses and other colleagues can easily access the content they have
created, and can relate it to content created in a specific
application.
Encouraging employees to produce more professional content will
ensure that information is more relevant, making a social network
more valuable to the company. This can make it easier for staff to
access the information they need, because users are able to
pinpoint the most relevant people associated with a specific topic,
then benefit from their expertise. Using information gained by
tracking who has edited wikis, blogs or user profiles held within
the social network can further improve the business value of social
networking tools.
Social software was recently listed as one of
Gartner's top 10 strategic technologies for 2009, which
encompasses a wide range of technologies, such as social
networking, social collaboration, social media and social
validation. Gartner suggests companies should adopt social software
to take advantage of the benefits it can bring by improving
collaboration and conversation. But to maximise these benefits and
generate faster return on investment, social networking must be
accompanied by Enterprise Search to make information access and
collaboration more efficient.
Businesses should not fear what will happen if they implement a
social network, but what will happen if they don't.