Private Social Networks for Internal Communications

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I know what you’re thinking.  Private social networks for internal communications are stupid.  

Be open. Right?

But there are plenty of situations where internal social networks make a lot of sense.

Think about it.  

Today, we use activity streams on social networks for marketing, sales and customer service.  

But there’s nothing private about Facebook, and if you could social network with your coworkers and business partners privately, you could do more with less.

But how do businesses social network privately?

How do you get your own private Facebook?

In his last month’s keynote at Dell’s B2B Social Media Huddle in London, Brian Solis said that he never shares information that gives him a competitive edge.  

So, what do you do if you want to use activity streams for collaborating with your coworkers and share proprietary information?  Email is great for person-to-person communications, but it’s a lousy collaboration tool.  

Is there a safe way to build your private social network?  

Google Wave was an early (now defunct) attempt at private social networking, but it was before its time.

Salesforce.com introduced Chatter, its exclusive social networking service, as an extension of its SaaS CRM platform.  It made its private social networking service free.

To listeners of this podcast, it will come as no surprise that access to a safe activity stream in a private social network behind a firewall can bring new efficiencies and added productivity to the workplace.

Internal Communications Tips

In this episode Robin Daniels, VP of Product Marketing, Chatter talks about…

• The results of their latest customer survey
  • 28% fewer meetings
  • 32% less email
  • 50% said they could find information faster
• Why Google aborted Wave
• The Salesforce Chatter Community Etiquette Guide
• Overcoming Internal Adoption Challenges
• How Chatter protects customers against hackers
• How Chatter compares to SharePoint
• Seesmic integration for easier engagement and an open question to Loic LeMeur
• Chatter’s biggest weakness

This episode on private social networking advances a previous conversation with Chris Messina of Google on activity streams. If you’re interested in this topic, the episode with Chris is a must-listen.

Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash