Perhaps your eyes crossed at the term “business social networking.” Business is business and social is social, no?
Well, yes and no. There’s a new movement in the business world (small and large business!): it’s social networking FOR the business. Every good business person realizes that a business is not efficient nor consumer-friendly when it is not truly working together as a team. A splintered business not only costs time and money, but it costs customers, too. The business world is extremely competitive, and consumers still want good, speedy service. A good business will meet that need. MSNBC has a great article about the rise of social networking in business environments.
Unfortunately, many businesses become tangled up in bureaucratic tape and managerial fiats. It’s very interesting to see a movement that embraces social networking within the business FOR the business. For example, let’s say a client requests a discount on goods or services. He asks the customer representative for this benefit. The customer representative does not have authority to offer a discount, and must go through the long chain of command to request it. (Anyone who has been “on hold” on the phone knows how long this process can take– often, the customer rep must file requests with accounting, inventory, and managers before obtaining a yay or nay for the client). Social networking within the business connects all these departments using typical social networking tools (such as Seismic or a desktop app) to obtain data very rapidly.
I find this interesting because, in the past and even now in many businesses, social networking is taboo at the office. It’s used for frittering away time, reducing productivity and increasing costs. But through the use of enterprise activity streams and other means, data and ideas flow freely from one department to another. And when a customer has his needs met in a timely and courteous fashion, that customer is much more likely to become a devoted client, even if it means paying a little more for the exceptional service.
Well, there’s certainly much more to business social networking than I mentioned here. Mine is a very simplified, condensed example of the incredible increase and power of social networking. If you want to learn more, or surf around for additional teamwork tips , check out the websites in the links.
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