On Social Networking

My wife is a big fan of MySpace and Facebook. She spends a good couple hours or more on them each day, mostly on the latter of the two. When I chide her about this, she usually gets a little defensive and tells me she's networking in an effort to drum up new clients (she is a financial planner). I don't doubt that this is true - to an extent - and I don't doubt that it will eventually produce a few clients. However, what she doesn't realize is that I don't care.

Insensitive? Harsh? A bit hasty? Not at all.

I don't care what her excuse is because I believe that social networking is a healthy activity. Interacting with other adults, catching up with friends, making or rebuilding connections with people in other fields - all of these things are productive activities. I think it's great that she is reconnecting with all of these people whom she hasn't spoken with in years, even the ex-boyfriends.

Now, that said, I must also make a confession: I am not a fan of Facebook or MySpace. It's nothing against the service they provide, or what they represent, I just don't like to use them. If I'm going to engage in social networking activities, I prefer it to be on more focused sites. To me, Facebook and MySpace (especially MySpace) represent a shotgun blast of noise, clutter, and junk that I have to sift through in order to find something valuable. This is not to say that I never use them, but I only just recently created a Facebook account, and as of this writing I only have one friend (I'm sure you can guess who it is).

I have heard several arguments against implementing social networking platforms in a corporate environment. Opponents often cite Facebook and MySpace as examples of the chaos that is sure to ensue. To this, I say pish, posh. Chaos only ensues if you allow it to. A carefully worded AUP, a little behind-the-scenes monitoring, and thoughtful planning can prevent this sort of outcome. Employees must be allowed to interact with one another freely. This improves communication and the flow of ideas, enables employees to find experts or others with similar interests, and just simply makes them feel more connected and comfortable in their work environment. The ROI on something like that may be difficult to calculate, but it's there.

Workplace communities don't have to be all flashy and noisy like MySpace. They can have a simpler, cleaner interface with less bells and whistles, and still be effective. IntroNetworks is one of several examples of this; Socialtext is another. This is the kind of thing I am hoping to implement at AAA, and the kind of thing that I look for in a social network that I want to participate in.