Social media for professional networking

[Jon Hoel]

This EEN site is a great example-thanks to David Zinger and all of you.

Let us know what professional networking tools/sites have worked well for you.

[Adam Hibbert]

Linked-In is the de-facto workplace network for me, despite us all being on a new intranet platform, based on Sharepoint.

Don't be misled about sharepoint. There are many bolt-on features which attempt to bring social networking capability into its environment, but they're not native (yet, at least). The datum at the heart of sharepoint's structure is an Office file, not an employee ... great if you want a filing cabinet, frustrating if you want a social network ... despite what the "My Site" features might appear to offer.

Gripes aside, we've found one very powerful way to unleash peer power in our company over OOB Sharepoint functionality: an open business forum, with the most recent x3 thread topics visible above the fold on the homepage, which is becoming the browser's default page in every business. If nothing else, this means that complaints get high visibility and rapid attention from people who can answer/resolve them. In a complex, legacy-laden organisation, that's unlocking a lot of useful feedback.

[Jon Hoel]

I've been hearing mixed reports about Sharepoint, though mainly positive. We may look at it as an upgrade to our intranet next year. What other experiences have people had with Sharepoint?

[Gina Abudi]

I have used SharePoint quite a bit. It isn't necessarily easy to set up (I don't do that myself!) but it is very robust and I have found it a great tool for sharing information and collaborating with others.

[Adam Hibbert]

I'd say a big thumbs-up to sharepoint for getting your business processes online, cutting down on email, paperwork, form-filling, etc, and for doing some broadcast communication ... but make sure you've got 50% of your budget left over for plugging-in and configuring some third party technology, if you really want to get your social piece zinging, especially in the areas of:
* user-driven communities (like this one)
* expertise search
* other forms of socially-intelligent search (eg, people who searched for [your term] rated [this result] )
* mobile users (who need to read human-readable email alerts, not http://gobbledegook )

BTW, have you compared the sharepoint route with rival platforms built around people (not documents) such as Cubeless? Might be interesting ...

[Jon Hoel]

I've not encountered Cubeless-would be interested to hear of your experiences.

[Gina Abudi]

In addition to EEN, I have used LinkedIn and Twitter for professional networking. I find the discussions and "answers" section in LinkedIn to be a great place to share information/ideas/etc (same as EEN). On Twitter, I have frankly met others I probably would not have otherwise met. Additionally, although it is not a professional networking site, my blog has afforded me an opportunity to share with others and communicate with them through comments.

[Jon Hoel]

Three votes for LinkedIn so far...
I've had a similar experience with Twitter, although I haven't beenon Twitter much lately.

[David McQueen]

The micro blogging tools like Twitter and Friendfeed
Social Networks like Linkedin, Plaxo, Ning and Xing.
Digital Footprint sites like ZoomInfo

All have their time and place and work well for me.