By Dell Garraputo
The need for an external social media presence is now recognized by most companies as something needed to help them interact with their customers, but they often overlook another target to focus on in their social networking efforts of their employees. Smart companies are starting to reap the benefits of connecting their employees through social networking tools for business. Companies basically purchase custom social networking software and get their employees to join the network to stay in more frequent communication with each other. These companies can look forward to these five benefits.
1. Avoiding Duplication
A good business social media network can prevent employees from doing duplicate work. By posting updates on their work, an employee keeps their coworkers informed of what they are working on so that those who are considering similar projects know to work on something else.
2. Collaboration
Collaboration among employees is much easier with social media tools for business. With these tools, several employees can work on the same project at the same time, posting updates and sharing ideas instantly.
3. Feedback and Constructive Criticism
Social media in the workplace can be an excellent way to give feedback and constructive criticism to someone else’s project. While “too many chef’s can spoil the broth,” there are always things that a single worker can miss that someone else might pick up on. By viewing the project updates and commenting on them in real time, a change can be made early rather than having to backtrack after the project is completed.
4. Problem Solving
Every now and then, everyone runs into a problem that they just can’t solve. With social networking tools for business, an employee can do more than just bang their head on the desk–they can send out a digital cry for help. Instantly, all the best minds in a company can bring their knowledge and experience to bear on the problem at hand, saving one employee’s sanity and helping to increase the efficiency of the company in general. In their Corporate Guide for Social Media, Forbes magazine did offer one word of caution about this: “If you respond to a problem, you own it.”
5. Supervision
Supervisors love being updated on the status of a project. They can be on top of a project through every phase of it’s development by receiving frequest blogs, tweets, and other social network postings.
Social networking is becoming a vital tool for any company to have in their arsenal.
A valuable tool for promoting a collaborative atmosphere is SharePoint enterprise because it supports the communication that is key for almost any business. Improving employee retention and productivity and streamlining communication are continually needing Dell Garraputos attention, all by-products of having a SharePoint community.