Some businesses ignore it (other than wondering WHY their employees are on social media during the workday). Others adapt and embrace, and make it their own.
Here’s one from the latter category.
Consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton has launched an internal social media networking tool called Hello. Booz has all the “normal” digital tools: email, blogs, wikis, an intranet. But this new platform is intended to tie it all together, and get everyone working in the same repository.
CIO Insight reports that since launch last year, 70 percent of the firm’s employees have logged on, and 35 percent have edited profiles.
It’s not a site for planning after-hours socializing.
It’s a place for employees to get help from co-workers to do their job (anybody know an expert on the Navy’s ERP system?), presumably making them better and more efficient employees.
It’s not all about racing to see how many you can friend, a company official says. It’s about spreading the knowledge, particularly knowledge buried in hard drives or on desktops of senior employees.
“The goal is not for co-workers to build purely virtual relationships,” he says, “but to make connections to the right person or right piece of intellectual capital and then pick up the phone. It’s just a new spin on an old technique.
Communication. What a cool idea.