Virtually all our clients have social media marketing strategies targeting customers and partners in place, and now an increasing number are developing and implementing social strategies for inside the firewall. In this issue of the ThoughtMatrix newsletter, we explore what factors drive these initiatives, what makes the fate of enterprise social networking different than the knowledge management initiatives of the past and the platforms and solutions we are evaluating for clients.

Why social media in the enterprise, and why now?

Like email and most recently smart phones, some technologies penetrate the enterprise as the users themselves bring them in without the support of IT or other sanctioned corporate managers. As most product marketing managers can attest, it's far more difficult to introduce a product that requires a change in user behavior than utilize current behavior.

Just 24 months ago, social networking was considered the domain of a specific demographic — mostly younger adults and youth. Now, it has proliferated through all ages and all fields. From C-Level executives using public networks (such as LinkedIn), private networks (such as ExpertCEO) to customer support representatives scouring Facebook and Twitter for consumer sentiment, we have all fully adopted social networking in some fashion.

With social networking as the new norm, introducing solutions inside the firewall to help employees and partners collaborate is much easier and more promising long term. Simply put... employees are actually interested in using social networking; thereby increasing the likelihood of adoption and decreasing the time, budget and resources required for training and education.

Employees know their peers possess invaluable knowledge, but finding and vetting their knowledge via email and phone calls is inefficient at best. In large enterprises, employees began using public networks, like Facebook, to create private groups and communities to share knowledge. These initiatives are not usually sanctioned by corporate compliance or security. In fact, some compliance executives have been requesting employees cease using and participating in public networks.

At the same time, corporate leaders began recognizing the value of the organic knowledge that exist in these forums and looked for ways to harness measure and act on the information.

Will enterprise social networking experience the same fate as knowledge management?

We believe that social networking will succeed, where knowledge management has fallen short. Three key contributing factors that drive social networking include:

1. Employees welcome the use of social networking. Most employees are already familiar with the concept, dramatically reducing the learning curve.
2. Enterprises can start with smaller and contained initiatives. Some projects can be implemented within weeks (or even days), allowing the enterprise to learn and adjust without committing significant budgets up front.
3. Communities will develop and grow organically by the employees themselves. As employees become involved with forming and evolving communities, they take ownership; thereby increasing commitment to ensure success. The social networking phenomenon is largely based on the masses creating the value rather than a top-down approach.

What are the benefits enterprises expect to realize from their social networking initiatives?

Unlike most knowledge management initiatives, employees will identify and reap many of the key benefits, which, in turn, generate a return for the enterprise:

Enterprise Benefits:

• Reduced cycle times
• Increased business efficiency
• Stronger employee contribution
• Lower training and development costs

Employee Benefits:

1. Reduced time spent searching for information – Employees can spend as much as 2 hours per day searching for information. Half this information is not relevant, thereby creating additional inefficiencies and staff frustration.
2. Increased information relevancy – In most cases, other employees have the particular information their peers seek and are the best suited to support them. By understanding the context of the information, more relevant information is provided as opposed to normalized and disconnected third party data that often exists in knowledge repositories and traditional Intranets.
3. Immediate knowledge of key information – With the use of real time groups, micro-blogs and other technologies, employees are often only seconds from finding a qualified source of information.
4. Reduced email volume and interruptions – Email still has its place, but it is not the best tool to index and manage information, however many employees house valuable information in their email boxes. Employees warehouse this information in case they need it for a later date. This approach is inefficient for the individual and provides zero value for the rest of the organization.

Who are the players in enterprise social networking to watch?

According to a recent Gartner study (October 2009), over 90 commercial and viable social media platforms and solutions exist in the market. Gartner further narrows the potential vendors to those with products specifically dedicated to enterprise social networking, resulting in 36 providers. ThoughtMatrix has been evaluating vendors for our clients, with the following solutions showing some great promise in helping enterprises adopt social networking behind the firewall:

Commercial Applications:

• Telligent – One of the more flexible enterprise-grade solutions.
• IGLOO – Serving all enterprises, but specializing in Government, Healthcare and Associations.
• Ramius – Offers a licensed solution and a hosted white label model.
• Lithium – With its core strength in customer support systems, they are now creating strong communities for the CSR.
• Jive Software – A Gartner MQ "Leader" choice and the choice of many Fortune 500 companies, Jive has one of the most complete offerings in the industry.

Open Source Applications

• PHPizabi – Technically not just focused on enterprise 2.0, but gaining ground as a stable open source solution for groups and departments.
• Elgg – Provides solutions for inside and outside the firewall, but proving to be saleable enough for larger enterprise deployments.
• Boonex (Dolphin 7) – The "kitchen sink" of the open source space, Boonex is challenging all open source providers on a feature-to-feature basis. While others rely on community plug-ins and scripts, Boonex strives for a complete "in-the-box" solution.
• Drupal – Introduced as a community platform that has gained enormous traction as a preferred OS content management system, Drupal has the largest community of developers and third party add-on providers.