~~~S0CiAL NeTw0RKiNg~~~

LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and a spate of similar sites have transformed social networking from a buzzword into a business buzz saw. Companies as diverse as American Express, Del Monte and Cisco Systems have unleashed powerful social networking tools, including wikis, blogs, discussion groups, collaborative filtering, and even applets and games. The concept is allowing these companies to tap into the power of human connections and knowledge in ways that were unimaginable only a few years ago.

In reality, social networking is nothing new. E-mail, chat and instant messaging are more basic forms of the concept. But, as Web 2.0 tools have emerged and other software has matured, “Social networking has become a way for organizations to leverage enterprise knowledge, customer-based business intelligence and more,” says Ralph Barber, CTO of Holland & Knight, a Tampa, Fla., law firm that uses Contact Networks software to analyze and manage internal knowledge and find relationships that benefit the company.

To be sure, the concept continues to evolve. Organizations are increasingly looking to next-generation social networking tools to conduct sophisticated business intelligence and analytics. In many cases, they are mining data and looking for trends and patterns, such as which salesperson has the relationships to pull off a deal or which customers seem to have the biggest influence with others online. 

Some are building LinkedIn- and Facebook-type applications to keep people in touch and ratchet up knowledge management initiatives.“The goal is to do things faster, better and more profit-ably,” Barber says. “That’s where the social networking light is shining. The tools are improving to the point where it’s possible to put information and resources to work in new ways and build greater value.