New York -- Social networking isn’t only the domain of the twenty-something set.
Increasingly, corporations and business professionals are embracing this new way to communicate and network. From established corporate social networking Web site Linkedin, to upstart SkyLounge (which went live last week) to embedded social networking in human resources applications, companies across the country are trying to capitalize on this burgeoning market.
And it's all being driven by executives at the highest levels of corporations.
“The CEOs look over their college-age child’s shoulder and see Facebook or MySpace and say, 'We need that in our company,'’’ said Adam Grossman, founder and chief executive of AboutFace, the Boston social-networking software company. “We’ve gotten a number of calls and the impetus is from the top of the organization.” (MySpace is owned by News Corp. (NWS.A), parent of FOXBusiness.com.)
AboutFace came on the scene in 1993, evangelizing the idea that employees need better resources to communicate with each other. Around 2005, when MySpace and FaceBook became household names, interest in the company mushroomed, said Grossman. AboutFace has 100 clients, and Grossman said sales are growing “exponentially.”
Forrester, which surveyed 2,200 corporations to gauge their plans for new Web applications, found that closer to 20% of companies surveyed will at the very least consider investing in social networking tools by the end of 2008, which is higher than the 16% that said they would consider it in September.
SkyLounge of New York is trying to capitalize on connecting business professionals as they travel. Once you sign up free to become a member at www.skylounge.com, you can add business trips and will then be automatically connected to other business travelers that will be in the same town. There also are recommendations from business travelers on everything from good restaurants to the best hotels in a given a city.
“The whole concept behind it is to network with other business travelers to get more business out of it," said Marcel van Gemerden, SkyLounge's chief executive officer and founder. “Anyone that’s visiting a trade show can start networking before they arrive.”
Esther Osnabrug, a private banker at Credit Suisse in Monaco, was one of the first members to use SkyLounge, which was in testing for about two months before going live. The banker said SkyLounge has enabled her to expand her network in and outside of Monaco.
“Via the ‘Trips’ tool you know when your contacts are in town and via the ‘Event’ tool you can get an overview of interesting events taking place all over the world,’’ said Osnabrug in an email, noting that she’s recommended friends and business contacts to join SkyLounge. SkyLounge has about 1,100 members.
Nobscot, the Honolulu, Hawaii-based maker of Web products for the human-resources industry, is also getting into the social-networking game by creating an application that lets corporations create their own corporate social network.
Beth Carvin, founder and chief executive of Nobscot, said the company decided to create a social-networking application to help companies retain younger workers.
“Generation Y has come into the working marketplace and, because of technology and because of the way they grew up and the way they were parented, they have some difference in how they work and are motivated,” said Carvin. “You’ve got a lot of younger employees feeling not so great and not getting the feedback, so turnover rates are enormous.” According to Carvin, Generation Y workers need constant praise, feedback and are used to getting answers to their questions immediately.
To combat high turnover rates within companies, Nobscot created a social-networking program that lets a company set up a controlled social-networking platform that can reward work well done, answer questions in a speedy manner and allow more senior employees to act as mentors. For instance, the software has a “Thank Me” tab which is designed to let someone know if they’ve done a good job which can be seen across the organization. There’s also a “Q&A” tab that enables employees to get answers to questions in real time.
But the software isn’t designed to be a free for all for like Facebook or MySpace. Whichever department is controlling the program, whether it's human resources or information technology, rules can be set up to prevent inappropriate behavior from going on in the workplace.
“They are really excited but somewhat nervous," said Carvin, of the companies looking at this software. “For some of them, it’s a foreign concept but they know they need to be doing something.”
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