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Facebook The success of Facebook and Twitter are poignant examples of how powerful and important social networking has become in our personal worlds. The world of business is now immersing

itself into the social networking phenomena both for external, internal and combined communications. Yet, the immersion is still a challenge for the majority of organizations as they look to

build these technologies into the fabric of their business culture. And it is here that the differences and challenges need to be explored. • PURPOSE Social Networking in Business is

founded upon a different premise and one that is frequently not well understood in comparison to personal Social Networking. That difference is “purpose.” More specifically, personal Social

Networking is founded upon the notion that people get together in this virtual world based on strong ties including shared and common interests. In comparison, the inclusion of a Social

Networking program within an organization is typically linked to leveraging the power of weak ties - promoting creative collaboration with the intent of having a purposeful outcome and

engaging broadly across enterprise boundaries to address opportunities or resolve issues. Mary Lou Tierney, Project Leader of MITRE’s Innovation Program, an internal R&D initiative, is

responsible for incorporating a collection of social media tools to support the program. “One way to achieve improvement in time-to-market processes or earlier identification of strategic

initiatives is to leverage the collective intelligence of the organization as whole using a framework for Communities of Purpose – the NEW CoP. The key differentiator between Communities of

Interest/Practice and Communities of Purpose is the critical element of target audience interaction with content that has been enabled by social media technologies. It’s no longer about a

repository of content – it’s about action on and manipulation of the content that leads to actionable, targeted output. • TRUST The sad and unfortunate truth for many organizations (public

and private) is that a culture of trust is frequently absent. In comparison to personal social networking, an inherent level of trust is typically established as participants engage because

of a genuine interest in the subject matter. In the corporate world, a proactive effort is required to build a culture of trust; one that allows participants to dip their toe in the social

networking pool and see the benefits that are duly derived. Techniques for building trust with social networking include recognition of contributions, keeping people engaged (when not their

primary focus) and the inclusion of gaming theory to foster a friendly sense of competition. • GOVERNANCE As businesses hop on the social networking bandwagon, there is an inherent need to

inject some sense of corporate responsibility and ethics to protect the interests of the business. This manifests itself frequently in the form of “governance” measures; those that ensure

that information being shared is not false, slanderous, misleading or malformed. As a result, social networking for business requires more rigor. This could include defined content approval

cycles, publishing frameworks and user instruction. In comparison to personal social networks, this type of governance is typically not present. One key to a successful business social

networking program is to find the right balance between too much and too little governance. The content and collaboration must be authentic and purposeful otherwise, it will quickly evolve

into one more failed solution. • LINKAGES Keying in on the “network” of social networking, personal social networks are typically on the Web and as such, it is very easy to share and access

disparate information. In comparison, business social networking can be more challenging as there is typically a large and unknown collection of secure and hidden repositories of content

that aren’t easily accessible. Jeff Teper, Corporate Vice President for SharePoint at Microsoft and a recognized authority on social networking, sees this as a key to business social

networking. He states “Organizations must break down and make accessible, hidden silos of content if social networking in business is to succeed.” He goes on to say “Consolidating and making

these repositories accessible is an important catalyst for enabling real business social networking. Employees can then easily access, leverage and link to relevant content as they

collaborate with their peers.” Before you and your organization take the plunge into social networking, ponder some of these differences and incorporate them into your strategy. They can

make the difference between a mediocre and great use of social networking technologies. Russ Edelman is President & CEO of Corridor Consulting and founder of Nice Guy Strategies, LLC

(NGS) and the author of “Nice Guys Can Get The Corner Office: Eight Strategies for Winning in Business Without Being a Jerk.” _Comments?  Send them [email protected]_