Study finds organizations still feeling their way with social networking

A study released this week by the Burton Group [1] and authored by Mike Gotta [2], has found that while most organizations believe they are behind the curve when it comes to internal social networking tools, the fact is that many organizations are still trying to sort out all of the details before starting a social networking initiative.

This is interesting news because we who follow this industry tend to think that everyone's as absorbed as we are and Gotta makes this point in his report. There is a perception due to press coverage around social networking that it is more widespread than it is. That said, chances are even if there is no formal internal social networking and collaboration tool set in many of the companies that Gotta looked at, that employees are still using social networking tools on the web such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Companies who are looking to take advantage of the same types of collaboration, relationship building and information sharing that goes on, on the open web really need to start implementing solutions in-house where you can manage this content. It is prudent to make these moves carefully and not simply rush ahead because it's the popular thing to do, but these tools have huge potential in the enterprise and companies need to start moving to understand how these tools can work inside the firewall too.

Fore more information:
- see the Burton Group press release [3]

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