Have you heard of enterprise social networking? It is the creation of online communities for employees, business partners, and/or customers to engage in conversations. They are used for status updates, questions, or even to serve as a progress report. Participants can post messages and interact with one another through these either private or public community forums. It serves to give real time updates on what’s currently happening. Are you utilizing this tool?

Here are a few reasons to consider it:

Empower Your Employees
These platforms enable employees to share and contribute their expertise with a greater reach. Additionally, those employees that may not be as vocal or are more introverted can post their thoughts and opinions freely without worrying about public speaking fears. Normal constraints to open discussions such as hierarchical differences or formal business communication processes do not hinder those involved in enterprise social networks. They feel at ease to express opinions or responses to problems.

Find Your Stars
As referred to above, not everyone is extroverted or vocal enough to be heard. Enterprise social networks allow you to find the stars of your company. Those that have vast knowledge, bring new ideas to the table, or are able to expound on confusing guidelines for your clients. Major contributors will be able to show their customer service skills, innovation, and concern over company practices. Those are the people we essentially look inward to promote upon future openings. Why not invest in a method of finding them socially?

Participants can post messages and interact with one another through these either private or public community forums. It serves to give real time updates on what’s currently happening.

Improve Communication
These social sharing methods encourage greater collaboration across departments and teams. This can enhance the overall company culture as well as create a more democratic leadership style that encourages team problem solving. As a plus, these topic oriented communities can keep the focus on the industry or team in order to minimize distractions.

Increase Efficiency
Larger companies instantly notice this benefit. By communicating through these enterprise social networks employees limit the barrier to conversations. These can include a person being on the phone, being located across several buildings, or even if they are not in their office. Many people multi-task while on their computers so answering a social question is simple while still remaining on task. Also, if someone is away at lunch or gone for the day their status can allow you to know that it is not necessary to walk over to their office to debate the latest controversy. Additionally, it limits the amount of walking and time needed to travel to their location to get the answer or relay the problem.

Conclusion
Enterprise social networks are a great tool to increase the company culture, efficiency, and communication across employees. It is a way to seek out your all star employees and empower them to speak out on issues or relay their knowledge for others to benefit too. It can even enable quicker client responses and get staff up to speed at a faster rate. Overall it has many benefits to a company and is definitely worth trying out.