What is Corporate Social Networking?

When companies build an internal social networking platform that can only be accessed by employees and customers, this construct is known as corporate social networking. Many companies have begun to build internal social networks in order to maintain teamwork and to allow customers an inside look at corporate employees. While seemingly beneficial, corporate social networking can cost companies a great deal of money without supplying any proven benefits.

Various social networking groups already exist, and most of these groups can be joined free of charge. In contrast, a corporate social network can cost a large company thousands of dollars to build. In order to erect an internal networking platform, various specialists must be hired, including a technical team, software consultants, and software architects. Once a platform has been constructed, employees and clients must then create profiles, maintain updates, and network within a corporate social networking group.

Studies have shown that many employees do not want to spend the time or effort building a corporate networking page. Since employees can't access an internal social networking group after leaving a job, many employees feel as though spending time working on a networking page is futile. In addition, any information posted to a corporate social networking page remains the property of a company. Thus, most employees looking to gain recognition with new customers and new employers will not spend time building an internal social networking page.

On the other hand, other studies have shown that many employees enjoy creating a corporate social networking page that is separate from a public social networking profile. While adding work colleagues and supervisors to a public social networking group is possible, many people prefer to keep their social lives separate from their work lives. Furthermore, creating internal blog posts, commenting on projects, and keeping up with work-related news is advantageous to some workers.

The notion of corporate social networking is a fairly new one. Even though some companies have been trying to set up functional internal networks for some time now, the success rate of these networks is not consistent. Corporate analysts recommend that corporations attempt to devise a social networking platform piece-by-piece rather than investing thousands of dollars to craft an entire networking suite. Large corporations throughout the world have begun testing the effectiveness of internal social networking, and many smaller corporations have followed suit. As with many new corporate ideas, social networking within a corporate realm may prove worthwhile, or it may simply fall by the wayside.