Are social networks about to change the face of employee communication as we know it?

Is the same technology that underpins the success of MySpace and Facebook with teenagers about to have the same impact on organisational communication and knowledge sharing within large corporates?

Earlier this week the New York Times revealed that IBM plans to launch a range of social software tools for the corporate market called Lotus Connections.

As the NY Times goes on to explain:

"Lotus Connections has five components — activities, communities, dogear (a bookmarking system), profiles and blogs — aimed at helping experts within a company connect and build new relationships based on their individual needs."

This is the first business-grade application that will bring the much-loved tools of teenagers into the corporate world, knitting together blogs, feeds, communities, networking tools like profiles, and bookmarks into one easy to use package. And whilst most corporate intranets already incorporate much of this functionality, by knitting it all together in one platform, it's likely that Lotus Connections will facilitate better collaboration between remote teams and establish peer networks based around shared interests and skill-sets.

Lotus Connections is expected to launch in the first half of 2007.

It looks increasingly likely that as the teenagers of today enter the workforce of tomorrow business will be able to offer them the business-grade equivalent of the tools they know and love.

So what does this all mean for internal communicators? Is this just another 'channel to manage', or does it change everything and force communicators to adapt their methods to embrace social networking?

Comments

[Debbie Weil]

Robin,

This is a fascinating phenomenon -- the adoption of social media tools by big business. I can only imagine that they will vastly improve both employee efficiency and satisfaction. Should be great news to internal communicators... and of course a great opportunity to educate, etc.!

[Lee Smith]

Robin

Once companies like IBM/Lotus and Microsoft start to incorporate social media tools into their software, you know things are going to change. Big time.

Lotus Connections sounds like a great piece of software. It's also interesting to note that Vista, the new Microsoft operating system, features RSS (not so much a social media tool as the fuel that drives it).

I predict that within a few years the sort of tools that have made MySpace and YouTube so incredibly popular will begin to take hold inside organisations.

Those organisations that are brave enough will be able to really leverage this technology - to share knowledge, to engage employees, to drive performance, to connect with the marketplace.

Others will no doubt fear it and will attempt to control or stifle the conversation.

I'm a believer. I think developments like this will have a profound, lasting and generally positive impact on the way we communicate inside organisations.

For me, it's much, much more than another channel to grapple with.

Lee

[Amr Elrawi]

I believe that this is the normal evolution for the Internal Communications role it won't be any more only about being the communication hub rather about regulating communications within the organization, we got to be smart

[Russell]

About to change? From where I'm sitting it's already happening, and fast!

[Russell]

btw, see also the Fastforward blog for some great discussions on 2.0 related stuff.

This article from James Robertson about '5 tips for gaining adoption of enterprise 2.0' is also very relevant to internal comms:

http://fastforwardblog.com/2007/01/28/tips-for-gaining-adoption-1/

[Alex Manchester]

Hi Russell,

James Robertson's post is excellent and echoes what I've read from some other enterprise people.

We recently published our first Social Media Newsletter e-zine with some enterprise adoption tips from Richard Dennison at BT. You can read it here.

Alex

[Russell Pearson]

Cisco to acquire Five Across. I think this news shifts the debate into a higher gear:

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2007/corp_020807.html?CMP=ILC-001