CorpComms Magazine

Social networking tools have taken the world by storm, albeit the crack of thunder is a relatively quiet one, experienced online. Few people can now claim not to at least know the name of social networking sites, such as Facebook which claims a membership of more than 90 million active users.

For many companies, however, the growth of the social network has been nothing short of an irritation. A recent survey, conducted by Chicago-based human resources consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, revealed that as many as 22 per cent of companies block sites such as Facebook and MySpace in the workplace, believing them to be a drain on productivity and an excuse for idleness. However, the same survey also found an interesting new wave of thought - eight per cent of the firms polled actually encourage the sites, viewing them as a means to help employees to network, market their products and reach colleagues.

In fact, this corporate take-up of a broader social trend is going further, with some companies setting up their own social networks to encourage global connectivity, knowledge sharing and even to support recruitment efforts.

For David Gurteen, founder of the Gurteen Knowledge Community and a well-known UK consultant, the corporate world is only just waking up to the potential benefits of social networking. 'More and more businesses are using blogs and wikis to connect information and people more widely. And some firms are putting together applications that look and feel like Facebook, but for their professional networkers,' he says. 'The challenge for some, however, has been the idea of investing in something that is difficult to measure. You can't do a traditional return on investment on these tools. Chances are that by using wikis to collaborate, your business is going to start doing things more efficiently. But how are you going to measure that?'

BUSINESS CONTACTS

The recent and phenomenal growth of professional networking site LinkedIn may be enough, however, to convince many in the business world to further embrace the possibilities of social networking. Launched in May 2003, the site has expanded exponentially, with recent Nielsen statistics suggesting a year-on-year growth that outstrips even Facebook - 189 per cent growth in the year to October 2007, compared with Facebook's 125 per cent growth for the same period.

'This is a purpose-driven network,' says Cristina Hoole, European marketing and PR director at LinkedIn. 'Professionals use it on a simple level to connect - but also to exchange knowledge and do business. They get real value from it and that's why they come back.'

The site's revenue model works by offering enhanced fee-paying subscriptions, targeted advertising and enterprise solutions. But in keeping with other networking sites, LinkedIn's huge success comes from offering free memberships, through which a professional can set up a personal profile and start building business connections right away. In addition, networkers can ask questions of other members to gain information and share knowledge.

'People are using the site to get free, expert advice from other members. And they can cross-reference the quality of that advice by checking member profiles,' says Hoole. Recent innovations on the site are also aimed at increasing value - for example, a partnership with The New York Times means that members can now get targeted news feeds that also highlight how they are connected with those mentioned in the articles.

For professional individuals, the LinkedIn approach has proved particularly popular, especially in these times of economic uncertainty - for instance, Hoole says networking on the site among financial services professionals has increased markedly in recent months, as they look to 'make the right decisions in difficult times'.

For some companies, however, there are new opportunities in social networking that go beyond the individual. And they are starting to build their own dedicated networks to link current and former employees, as well as staff who may be increasingly located in different offices across the globe.

Selectminds, for example, specialises in corporate social networking, working with clients such as Wall Street giant JP Morgan and Dow Chemical to deliver bespoke sites that are targeted to their specific industry.

ALUMNI-ATING

'When we launched eight years ago, the idea was to build corporate alumni networks for recruitment purposes,' says Ann Berkowitch, Selectminds' co-founder and chief executive. 'But it has become much more than that, with organisations using such sites for business development, as well as internal knowledge sharing, 'onboarding' processes for new joiners, or simple social networking.'

Berkowitch thinks the sites work because they offer corporates the ability to directly link with their employees, providing benefits such as talent retention or even new client wins from alumni members. But the sites also offer the sensitive corporate a level of manageability and control that they may perceive as lacking on the more public sites. 'We enable networks that are closed and private,' says Berkowitch. 'The JP Morgan alumni site for instance only includes either current or former employees. Any information applied to the profiles has to include your first and last name - you cannot be anonymous. And that really has an enormous policing effect.'

One company that has taken early advantage of such social networking developments is American law firm Goodwin Procter, which two years ago launched its own networking site to connect the firm's alumni with current staff.

'When we first launched the site, the value proposition was to link to, and remain connected with, our alumni. This has already brought us benefits - in gaining new client referrals for the firm, for example,' says Scott Westfahl, director of professional development at Goodwin Procter. But the site also goes much further, providing a means for the firm to build a reputation for genuinely caring about the career development of its staff. 'We knew that our lawyers were being called by headhunters all the time. We just decided we would rather head that up ourselves. So we decided that we would use the network to support those people thinking of leaving the firm for a dream job elsewhere. We have job postings on the site but the network is also an important means to convey the message that we offer cutting-edge legal work and great career opportunities, without you needing to spend your whole life here,' says Westfahl.

The Goodwin Procter site currently includes personal profiles, as well as a directory of alumni, job postings, news from around the firm and relevant event updates. But beyond the varied content, Westfahl agrees with Gurteen, Hoole and Berkowitch that these sites are so powerful because of the social element, which he says is the key reason people return. For Berkowitch, the social aspect of such networks means that they intuitively make sense. 'This is about turbo-charging existing behaviour,' she says. 'Professionals have always networked with clients over lunch or a game of golf. This is just another means of exchanging ideas in a friendly, sociable environment that people understand instinctively. That's why social networking sites have so quickly proved such a big thing.'

While companies may initially have been hesitant to embrace the possibilities in social networking, it seems professional networking sites are likely to grow on a massive scale in future years. The availability of simple technology combined with the socially addictive qualities of such networks - as already proven by sites such as Facebook - offers companies an unrivalled means of connecting with their employees.

Such sites also offer professionals the means to share ideas and knowledge with peers no matter where they are located across the globe, and in a real-time environment that has only recently become possible. People are starting to realise these developments may well change everything about the way in which we live and work - and that we may only just have embarked on a social networking path that could take us anywhere. 

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