I came across a great white paper entitled The Business Impact of Social Networking on AT&T’s website. Here’s the blurb:
Social networking fosters collective intelligence, collaborative work and support communities. Tools and behaviors from the consumer world are now making the transition to the corporate world, with diverse implications for changing the way businesses operate. This paper explores 10 opportunities presented by social networking, along with 10 associated challenges.
I found the predictions for the future particularly interesting. Some are intuitive, but some may not necessarily spring off the page at you. Here’s what the paper predicts organisations will do as a result of the proliferation of Social Networking:
- Corporations will change the way they communicate
- Corporations will change their vision
- Corporations will change their organisation
- Collective Intelligence and Customer Experience will lead Innovation
- Networking will be key to Employee Excellence
- Employee mobility will increase
- Corporations will adapt their Motivation and Career Path Systems
- IT/Telecoms Applications will mutate
- Corporate Adoption will happen at different speeds
- Social Networking may allow Increased Revenue
It’s a good read, particularly if you’re interested or work in social networking. I must say, I do find the subject fascinating and now that I’ve finished my MBA, if I do decide to further my studies, this might be an interesting avenue to explore.
There is great potential in social networking and I believe one day it will be the driven force for most business.
Owen, thanks for mentioning this paper we wrote with AT&T. The research continues and feedback is welcome!
Thanks for the post, that’s a great white paper! I’m not entirely sure that I agree with their opinion on employees being more remote but I’m hoping they’re right. Chris