Comments on: Can social networking co-exist with the workplace?

Corporate moves to completely block social-networking sites will only backfire, Internet attorney Eric J. Sinrod says.

[thedreaming]

Internet Access in the workplace

Internet access at work is restricted but still usable. Pretty much anything fun is filtered out so no youtube, myspace, facebook, etc.

You can still get your job done and have a little fun bidding on things on ebay!

PS. I have no problem reaching cnet from work! 8)

[kaobert]

Telephones were feared as well!

Social networking can and will exist within the workplace. It is just a matter of employers in our society overcoming a fear of the unknown by accepting and learning how to use new tools in appropriate ways. It is true that social networking grew out of college campuses and was first accepted by students, but it is no longer 'just for kids' anymore and is moving into the workplace. As the CEO of an Ohio public relations firm, I encourage all employees to use and learn social networking sites because we believe they are becoming valuable avenues for our clients to build relationships and protect reputations. Having said that, our team knows that they aren't being paid to chat online with their friends all day, but rather to explore how groups, causes and applications can be used to help clients. This is no different than understanding that a telephone is a business tool which can also be abused if one spends all day on personal calls. Those who learn to appropriately use new tools will soon be well ahead of the game than other organizations that fear and don't understand them. My two cents!

[oregonnerd]

judgments and set theory as applies to economics and social networking

The truly fascinating thing to me about the Internet is the amount of intellectual content intuitively available through pattern analysis--that, and the kinds of social agencies that are making decisions which at one time were deemed moral. An economic system is ideally generic in valuation, which means that it's variable, and a source of information which can be valued by criteria once applicable only to "truth". Social functions have mutated quite interestingly and on the whole quite consistently.
--Glenn

[clinecorp]

All data is not equal.

Helpful to this story would be what sort of organizations the Internet data was derived from. There are certain industries like many of the trades that may not benefit from social networking so it becomes a distraction.

However, service organizations that thrive on threads of relationships need to consider the cost of shutting down such potential prematurely.

I did the same thing by shutting out Myspace for a couple years as my wife found many of her old friends.

Well, that eventually changed for me both personally and professionally.

More here:
http://www.enthusiastinc.com/blog/linkedin-or-lockedout/

[basraw]

I thought myspace topped out a few years ago?

It's not growing anymore or did that change?

[Stan_Timek]

Social Networking works inside business

My company sells a software product that has a social networking component built into it. The overall purpose of the program is to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing within an organization.

Our clients are benefiting from the efficiencies social networking brings to their employees. This isn't something that's unique to us either, we've seem other SN software deployed in corporate America that has been beneficial to their users.

Social Networking may have started in the public space but it is now making money in the world of business.