Purpose Driven Social Network Software

Christopher Carfi, The Social Customer Manifesto, has pulled together ten good reasons why business development managers should consider using social network solutions and community software solutions. I've snagged the bullets but go a head and read his full post.

"The Top Ten Ways Businesses, Associations and Organizations Can Use Social Networking Applications"

"Here are the top ten (and two bonus) ways that businesses, associations and organizations can use social networking applications in the professional sphere. Some of these are ways to use social networking to connect with customers and members, some focus on internal organizational communication, some focus on the network as the way to find knowledge within the organization. Enjoy!"

• Customer and Member Relationship Development
• Customer Support (Connecting The Customer With The Right Resource)
• Use The Network To Find An Expert Or Locate Implicit Knowledge
• Ease Post-Acquisition Integration
• Provide The "Whole Product"
• Understand And Visualize The Actual Communication Paths Within The Organization
• Supercharge Meeting Facilitation And Preparation
• Increasing The Value And Extend The "Shelf Life" Of Conferences
• Pull Together The "All-Star Team" That's Right For This Customer
• Share Knowledge
• Differentiate Your Service With Brand You
• Prepare For Coming Demographic Changes In Business"

We've been setting up social networking applications and community solutions, mostly on intranets, for the last three years. Even though there are many good reasons to use them, the biggest obstacles we run in to are that most people are afraid to express themselves in the narrative sense and they are afraid of looking stupid for posting half-baked ideas.

Here are a couple more reasons to use social network systems:

• Innovation Platform
• Idea Management
• A Process Network that fills in gaps where IT systems are too inflexible.