Corporate Social Networks: Might Be Losers
July 19, 2008
On July 17, 2008, ReadWriteWeb.com let the cat out of the bag. Marshall Kirkpatrick’s essay “Corporate Social Networks Are a Waste of Money, Study Finds”. Please, read the full post plus the useful linked stories embedded in the essay.
The source of this insight is Edward Moran, a brain-for-hire at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of the remaining Big Eight largely untarnished by service scandals in the last few years. As a veteran of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, I am reluctant to embrace these types of studies without reading and studying them first hand. I am, therefore, not agreeing or disagreeing with the news media’s summary of the story or Mr. Kirkpatrick’s analysis.
I wanted to capture the most important point for me; to wit:
They [corporate social networks] are stupid.
Brilliantly summarized, Mr. Kirkpatrick.
I continue to be skeptical of social networks as a user. As a person who has worked in law enforcement and intelligence for short periods of time over the years, I think social networks are extremely useful. I don’t want to participate. I want to peruse the information about the topics, who reads what, who comments, on what, and other tasty info nuggets.
My view of social networks is probably not what the cheerleaders for social networks and collaborative systems had in mind for their products. That’s okay with me. Keep ’em coming. Pump up that usage. Every little clickstream helps.
Stephen Arnold, July 19, 2008
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2 Responses to “Corporate Social Networks: Might Be Losers”
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“It usually takes five or six attempts to get a product right”
Donald A. Norman , The design of everyday things
Give the corporate social networks a few more years, and they probably have figured out what is required.
Andreas, you are correct. Social functions are in organizations now; for example, email. In general, email is a major problem particularly when a legal issue arises and the email is analyzed. Social transactions in an organization may be subject to monitoring, and the resulting pool of data may represent a greater risk to the organization than doing business without certain types of social functions.
Stephen Arnold, July 19, 2008