Social media tools on the corporate intranet (intranet 2.0) became mainstream nearly two years ago.Ð’Â Preliminary results from The Social Intranet Survey (open now, prepared by Prescient Digital Media and sponsored by IABC) show that about two-thirds of organizations have at least one social media tool on their intranet. Shockingly, there are some pundits that still think social media is still a fad. In fact, they couldn’t be more wrong.
But wait, the social intranet phenomena is bigger than you think: of those that have social media on their intranet, 57% claim to have a “social intranet” (preliminary data, 860 respondents, The Social Intranet Survey. ThoughÐ’Â 10% when pushed to declare the level to which their intranet is ‘social’ only about 10% of organizations have a true, full, social intranet.
The social intranet is loosely defined as:
“An intranet that features multiple social media tools for most or all employees to use as collaboration vehicles for sharing knowledge with other employees. A social intranet may feature blogs, wikis, discussion forums, social networking, or a combination of these or any other social media tool with at least some or limited exposure on the main intranet or portal home page.” MoreSocial intranet technology
It should come as no surprise that Microsoft SharePoint is driving the social intranet. In fact, 56% of organizations with intranet 2.0 use SharePoint. The next closest, most prevalent intranet 2.0 technologies are Facebook (used as a private ‘intranet’ group), WordPress, and Blogger. In fact, there are no commercial software vendors that have double digit market penetration for enterprise social software. The closest, commercial competitor to SharePoint is Lotus Connections (IBM), with a mere 6% of the respondents market.
But there are many credible social intranet solutions to SharePoint. Amidst the dog-eat-dog world of the intranet platform market, a new contender is developing into a serious alternative to bigger, more established solutions: the social intranet platform.
The solutions powering social intranets are maturing and becoming increasingly powerful and robust, offering organizations unprecedented levels of interactivity and collaboration.
Organizations’ strong demand for intranet 2.0 tools, coupled with their growing awareness of the platform’s capabilities, means social software vendors are gaining significant foothold in the intranet platform market.
But with this new-found power in the industry comes responsibility. Social software vendors are constantly being challenged to meet the demands of diverse, rapidly-growing companies with high expectations for their intranet. Innovation is critical to success.
Those that do innovate and succeed are creating new and exciting intranet 2.0 tools that redefine traditional notions of what constitutes a “social intranet.” Just some of the leading, innovative social intranet vendors include:
- IGLOO Software
- Cubeless
- SocialText
- Socialcast
- ThoughtFarmer
- MindTouch
- PB Works
- Teligent
- Jive
- Newsgator
- Lotus (Connections)
Have an in-depth look at IGLOO’s social intranet by watching the replay of the From Crude to Contender: The Social Intranet, One Year Later.
Download and read the full white paper The Social Intranet: Social Intranet Success Matrix
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Totally eye-opening. I’ve never had thought of that companies would choose to use Facebook as a company Intranet. Do these companies operate separate/additional Facebook fan pages for social media and pr?
Yes, Meri, typically most companies operate separate pages for PR and external audiences — but not everyone does. It depends on the company. Truth is though, very, very few companies use Facebook as an intranet — it’s completely inappropriate and not at all well suited for an intranet.
It depends on the company. Truth is though, very, very few companies use Facebook as an intranet — yes I really agree with this view.
My site is clean… except for this spam.