It might not seem to be a very realistic idea now, but Facebook has the capabilities to be considered as the next Enterprise 2.0 tool for networking and collaboration. With more than 90 million users, Facebook is considered as one of the most popular internet sites for Generation Y-ers. Yet, this amazing social networking tool has been blocked in most of the organizations. Reasons- people waste time with non-business related activities.
If building trust and relationships are considered the most vital factor for successful Knowledge Management program, then I would pick up Facebook as my favorite Enterprise 2.0 tool. The best way to build social relationships among employees is to provide informal social gatherings- either online or offline. Dinner parties or sports events are considered great networking events for employees to get to know each other.
Why not we provide them an online platform, which offers the same ‘informal environment’?
You want to know about the very recent status of your peer or his/her mood at work? Want to send him an instant messege or an email? Invite him to an event? Share a news, story that you have read somewhere in the internet? Want to know who are his buddies in the company with whom he frequently communicates? Want to check out some of his recent pictures? Want to give him a birthday surprise?- add him as your facebook friend.
But how to embed facebook in the enterprise IT environment?
I like this case study of Serena, a software company from the USA. Serena customized some applications of facebook to be suited into their environment and that’s the key- Customize!
• Create your own Enterprise Facebook page/group.
• Invite staff to join there (staff can still maintain their own personal facebook account for their non-office contacts) and encourage them to add their photos and other personal details ( this might work as your corporate Yellow page)
• Provide a very brief guideline on the do’s and don’ts to observe using the facebook application.
• Add or block some facebook application if necessary
• That’s all. Let people use it. Observe their behaviors from a distance.
We want collaboration to the highest extent. So why not try out something more fun and easier than an enterprisewide portal/intranet?
7 responses so far ↓
1 Chang // Aug 25, 2008 at 5:31 am
I reckon Facebook could also be considered as a business tools in enterprises. As Naguid mentioned, dinner parties and social events were organised using Facebook and it is proven to be a huge success.
The success is probably because of the extensive user outreach in Facebook. Imagine your friend recommending this to you and you recommend this to your other friends, so on and forth. It is an excellent form of marketing and advertising in some ways, plus it is cheap too. Perhaps one example I could think of for organisations are to advertise and promote new job vacancies in Facebook. I mean at the end of the day, what matter most is the message being sent across.
Cheers!
2 FutureGov » Useful links » links for 2008-08-28 // Aug 28, 2008 at 9:00 am
[…] Facebook to join Enterprise 2.0 ! As a corporate collaboration space (hmm can't see many big organisations jumping at it somehow…) (tags: facebook enterprise2.0 organisations) […]
3 Hulwana // Sep 21, 2008 at 1:38 am
Organizations which had banned Facebook and other social networking websites normally already have their own suit s of collaborative tools in-house which are more attuned to their business needs.
They view Facebook etc as non-work related and time wasting, especially when staff are more keen on updating their profiles there, or simply donning on inefficient activities such as posting vidoe clips etc.
Sometimes, these websites can be a threat to their security system when it comes to overwhelming spamming, virus attacks etc.
These organizations at times, also banned staff from using even their work id or make reference to where they are working in those social networking sites, as a form of privacy control.
4 Ireen Sultana // Oct 16, 2008 at 7:20 am
I am not facebook addicted that much. Still I do find it interesting but can not accept it as a symbol of trust and relationship in a real meaning. It is easy to enlist 100+ friends so fast just by ACCEPTing a friend add request; an add request may not be from a very familiar one . So,if you are not smart enough this can hamper your privacy later on.
Yes, facebook is an awesome tool to spread a news within a sec to worldwide. This can give you a scope to share an urgency as well as a scam. Definitely this is not facebook’s fault but the user’s.
Creating groups for own org to stay tuned with the staffs, colleagues a bit informally is obviously a nice idea only if the colleagues participate with that entertaining spirits.
we have few groups for our org- local, zonal, department wise. Staffs joining there too and rarely any notification coming up from them!!! What could be the reason? Is it like, they don’t feel comfort to be informal where ever they found an official touch! or we take facebook just to follow up others STATUS message only!
5 Bill Makwani // Oct 22, 2008 at 8:29 am
Serena software just did this to create publicity! They use other tools internally to actually work together, so what’s the point of their story? It has no substance…
6 Naguib // Oct 23, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Bill,
I don’t know much of Serena’s internal story. May be you can share more with us on how they collaborate.
7 NASA's Spacebook! // Jun 26, 2009 at 6:52 am
[…] NASA once again shows how aggressive they are in terms of adopting to new tools and technologies. As one of the best practice KM organizations, NASA now launched their own facebook, called, Spacebook! I wrote about using Facebook as an Enterprise 2.0 tool in August 2008 here. […]
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