Gartner says half of social networking projects will fail

In an article this week on CNET, Gartner analyst Adam Sarner says his research shows that over 75 percent of Fortune 100 companies plan to undertake some sort of social networking initiative, mostly under the marketing and public relations umbrella. But in a startling prediction, Sarner says half of those projects will fail. Why? Because the companies will offer contrived social networking projects and consumers can sniff out when they are being played.

In an earlier time, when blogs were emerging, marketing departments latched onto them as a way to communicate directly with an audience, but many blogs failed for the same reason Sarner says social networking efforts will fail. The companies provided content that served their own interests, rather than the audience's.

There's plenty of good use cases for social networking in the enterprise, yet I'm hearing more and more lately about social networking falling under the marketing department. Yes, marketing and PR can make use of social networking tools, and they should, but so should the rest of the enterprise, and for the same reasons. It offers a good communication tool, but if a company uses social networking only as an internal vehicle for company messages it will quickly lose its audience. It has to be more than that.

Social networking is about sharing content and collaborating--whether it's internal or external. That means it's a give and take exercise. If you truly care about your customers it will show. If you are trying to use social networking as a sales tool, that will show also. You have to keep it real or the social network with wither and die.

For more information:
- see the CNET article