Status update services, sometimes called
microblogging, took off in 2010. A Pew Research Center study released on Dec.
8 revealed 8 percent of American adults who use the Internet also use Twitter.
Using social media tools in the enterprise pits open sharing against corporate
controls. It also opens a range of integration questions about how best to
connect people and applications in an activity stream that is immediately
relevant, secure and collaborative.
IT vendors, including Salesforce.com, Socialtext,
Socialcast, Yammer and a host of others, have taken notice of the social media
explosion by releasing a new wave of social media tools for the enterprise. The
big bang that is the birth of social media platforms includes the initial
formation of specifications and integration tools that seek to ease
interconnection problems, while maintaining the fast-flowing and lightweight
nature of social media interactions.
It’s fair to say that business users aren’t looking
for another place to search for the information necessary to do their
job. And IT managers in larger enterprises may encounter multiple
social media platforms inside a single organization.
What’s the best way to use social collaboration
tools with partners? Is there a better way to integrate social media and back-end
systems? The answer today is that a tangle of integration tools and a dearth of
standards mean that IT managers must pay careful attention to a wide range of
integration tools to curtail client creep. To this end, there are some emerging
efforts that are worth watching.
For more, read the eWeek article: Socializing in the Enterprise.