Social media at work
While social networks for personal use are all the rage at the moment, one area that isn’t talked about so much is the use of social media within organisations, as a way of communicating and collaborating with colleagues. It may not be as sexy, but I think that this will be an important next step for socia media. It will undoubtedly take a long time to affect change within a corporate structure, but I think that brands now have to create more fluid, dynamic processes to constantly be in a position to take advantage of new technologies.
As we expect more companies to become transparent online and engage with customers through social media tools, I believe this has to come from within. By adopting social media tools designed for businesses, companies can not only increase productivity and create more of a dialogue between employees, but grow their personal experience of how social media functions.
I’ve put together a few social media tools that I believe companies should be reviewing and trialling :
Yammer
Yammer is essentially ‘Twitter for businesses’, allowing you to have private conversations with a group of colleagues (users in your group have to personally invited). According to their site Yammer is used by over 50,000 companies worldwide and, having used it personally, I think it is a great tool and an easy way to communicate with colleagues more instantly than email. It also provides an easy intergration for those who are already comfortable using Twitter. There’s some really nice functionality such as an iphone app, groups, bookmarks and RSS. I’d suggest giving it a try and using it for at least a week to see the full potential. Everything is kept private
Google Wave
Google wave was not strictly designed as a tool to collaborate with colleagues, but it’s becoming obvious that this is one of its most useful applications. For those of you that don’t yet have an invite, Google wave allows you to create groups to start new conversations, bring more people into ‘waves’ midway through a conversation. You can also easily add files and links, which are traceable and incredibly easy to find. You can also add gadgets such as maps and polls, which is a great way of adding functionality to conversations while keeping everything on the same interface.
Basecamp
Basecamp is a 37 signals application and a good way of not only communicating with colleagues, but also with clients or suppliers. Basecamp allows you to create files, send messages, create timelines and a whole host of other useful applications. It’s not strictly a social media application, but the functionality of the site has many elements of socia media and real-time and is a seamless way to communicate with people outside of email and create collaborative projects.
Huddle
In a nutshell, huddle is very similar to basecamp as an online workspace where you can manage and share projects. Like basecamp, it is a paid-for service, but with very attractive options for small businesses.
Delicious
Delicious is a social bookmarking tool and is something that every company should consider using as a way of sharing interesting and relevant content found on the web. You can create a company account that everyone can subscribe to and add their own content. It’s certainly a more effective way of sharing information than simply emailing links. You should also use tagging correctly, so you can filter by content that may apply to only certain areas of the business i.e. ‘marketing news’ ‘industry reports ‘ .
It’s sort of an obvious one so we won’t write about it too much! Everyone in your company should have a registered profile on LinkedIn and you should encourage employees to use it regularly to communicate news of your company and network with others. It is a good way to add a face to your company. In particular if you’re an agency, it’s likely that potential clients will do a bit of research on you online, so make sure all profiles are up to date!
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