ANTenna Blog -- Internet/Web

Social networking in business is hot, hot, hot -- almost 70% of companies allow employees to participate in social nets for work. Yet like other corporate technology projects, many social networking initiatives never fulfill their original purpose. Here are seven possible reasons why.

The importance of social networking has never been greater. According to a recent survey conducted by Awareness, 69% of businesses let workers use social media for business -- almost doubling from just 37% last year. Brand promotion is the most common purpose (63%), followed by improving communication and collaboration (61%), and boosting consumer engagement (58%).

Only 6% currently have internal communities, but 33% say they plan to add them. Some 13% already have external communities, but 27% are planing htem. More than a third (37%) have specific areas of focus for their communities.

That's a key number, because according a release from Gartner, most successful social sites start with a defined purpose and a limited scope. Social networking projects fail about 70% of the time, Gartner says, because the companies that build them believe that all they have to do is install the software and sit back and watch the community form spontaneously.

"Contrary to the common perception that vibrant communities arise spontaneously, starting with a carefully chosen purpose does not limit participants. It gives them the direction they need to form a productive community" said Anthony Bradley, managing vice president at Gartner. "As those initial communities gain momentum, other groups will use the social application to build their own communities, and this is how social applications achieve widespread adoption across the enterprise"

Here are Gartner's 7 characteristics of the purpose of a successful social network:

1. Magnetic
The purpose should draw people directly to participate, immediately appealing to the "What’s in it for me" characteristic.

2. Aligned
Purpose should align with business value, that is the "What’s in it for the business" value, be it direct or indirect.

3. Low Risk
Organizations are advised to resist the temptation to opt for high-risk communities, which seem to offer the greatest potential for business value. They are better revisited once social applications have gained momentum.

4. Properly scoped
Gartner advises organizations to start with a minimal scope and focus on growing a community’s scale as fast as possible. Once the community has scaled up, users will guide on how to expand the scope.

5. Facilitates Evolution
Purposes must be selected that both the organization and community can build on. A "purpose road map" will allow for growing the scope of communities or establishing other applications and communities with the goal of progressing toward a highly collaborative enterprise.

6. Measurable
The success of a good purpose can be measured. Especially early on, when organizations are skeptical of social applications, Gartner advises choosing a purpose where business and community value can be clearly measured.

7. Community-Driven
The value must come from the community. The best communities contribute far more to themselves than do the enterprises that support them. If the purpose requires the enterprise to contribute most of the content, and the community participants are mere readers, the enterprise has simply used the new technologies as another channel to push communications.

Note that Gartner is sending this out as a promo for their Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, which is primarily aimed at large enterprises. Still, the principles should hold for smaller businesses as well.