12/26/07

It’s time for new year’s predictions, and I’ve decided I’m just going to offer up one big one. Here it is:

In 2008, people will widely acknowledge and accept the notion of “relationship capital.”

One way that will play out specifically, I predict, is that, this time next year, we’ll be talking about how social networking really got traction at work—in the enterprise, as well as continuing to gain adoption in many small businesses.  I really believe that the tool of social networking will come to be seen as having its own form of currency—relationship capital—which can enable that tool to achieve real benefits, real ROI, in advancing business objectives.

So, yes, friends—“relationship capital” should definitely be on your buzzword watch list in 2008!  And there’s a similar term I like as well: “social capital.” I was at an Ignite event in San Francisco a couple of months ago and heard an impassioned presentation by Tara Hunt that she called “Forget Venture Capital, Raise Social Capital!” I thought it was great—very fitting in its context for Web 2.0 startups, but even more so now, I think, in the broader business world as we move into 2008. The thing I like about Social Capital is this: the more you give it away, the more you get back in return.

Companies will increasingly be launching social networks in 2008 to allow and encourage communication amongst its:
- customers
- partners
- employees
- and even alumni (former employees)
Yes, there have been some notable examples in that last category that have already launched. (See article link below for some.) Who’d have guessed?

On Facebook, arguably the most popular of all social networking sites this past year, the relatively new “Facebook Pages” feature is a way for companies to set up their own individual social net of sorts. With such a page, “fans” can then join and interact with the company in various ways. [By the way, please “fan” my company on Facebook here.... :-) ] To find the “Pages” feature, click on the “Businesses” link way down at the very bottom of the Facebook home page.  It’s a great way for small businesses, especially, to jump into social networking—for free!—as is the basic service of a newer, yet very popular platform provider, Ning.  Founded by Netscape pioneer Marc Andreessen, more than 100,000 networks have already been set up with the Ning platform. It will take you only minutes to set up a Facebook company page, and not much more than that for a Ning social network. For the latter, talk to my friend Paul DeBettignies ()—he set up a Ning network pretty quickly, all by himself, at MinnesotaRecruiters.ning.com.  And, last I heard, after less than a month, it already has 112 members.

Another social networking site that’s being leveraged by small businesses, certainly recruiting firms, I daresay you know very well already: LinkedIn. It’s become quite a networking phenomenon for business professionals—with a growth rate even higher than Facebook’s recently—and it’s obviously being used heavily by recruiters inside large companies as well, as a major tool in performing their jobs.  We don’t have to tell recruiters that social networking is hot in the business world—they’ve played a major role in getting it going.

What I mean by social networking within companies can really be better described as “Collaboration 2.0,” and by what many in the tech and blogging community now call “Enterprise 2.0” (discussed here on Wikipedia)—meaning enterprises applying consumer Web 2.0 technologies, whether for extranet (non-public use outside the firewall) or intranet (inside the firewall use). Think of it as the reincarnation of “Knowledge Management.” In November 2007, I was lucky enough to take part in a new conference that dealt with these topics, called “Defrag.” So, for further insight into what “Collaboration 2.0” and “Enterprise 2.0” are all about—including social networking in the enterprise—please see the Conferences/Events coverage on my other blog, which includes eight posts about that very excellent Defrag conference.

In regard to adoption of social networking within businesses, I think it will be interesting in 2008 to compare how the general-purpose, ‘white box’ social-network-platform vendors (such as Ning) perform, versus some of the specialized enterprise social net vendors. The latter have been building steam, though are not yet household names.  Some of the firms in this group are:
- SelectMinds
- Zepheira
- Visible Path
- Leverage Software
- Illumio
You can learn a lot more about this topic at the above sites. And, for further reading on social networking in the enterprise, here’s the best article I’ve seen lately: Social Networks at Work Promise Bottom-Line Results.

What do you think?  Where do you stand on social networking as we head into 2008?