by Jana Branch
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Instead of seeing social networks as a drain, smart companies are harnessing business-specific networks for more productivity and a faster path to innovative collaborations. Call it the new era of “social business.”
- Salesforce.com’s Chatter has been adopted by more than 85% of its 92,300 customers (Fortune, 25 February 2011). Cisco, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and IBM have their own solutions in the works. Biggies like Groupon, Deloitte, eBay and Cargill have signed up with Yammer.
- The translation of Facebook to office space isn’t without problems. Companies stuck in a 20th century organizational structure will feel their foundations shake as hierarchies get flatter, walls come down and lines of authority shift. Executives and managers are nervous, but wise ones know there’s no stopping the tide.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS
- Social networks are in a Napster moment. Either companies will adapt Millennials’ and Xers’ favorite communication means for the workplace or they can watch their employees game the system anyway.
- The lines between work and the rest of life continue to blur. Tools that power life outside the workplace have the same power to transform it inside.
RESOURCES
