Social Networking

The growth of social networks imposes new rules and demands innovative ways for organizations to reach their intended audience. Organizations can easily interact with people, build their brand online, improve their business intelligence practices, and work collaboratively thanks to social networking tools.

Social networks offer many advantages. The New York Times in its article The Media Equation – How Obama Tapped Into Social Network’s Power, addresses how the Obama Campaign was able to create a brand and build a sense of connectedness with its supporters by leveraging social networking tools.

Besides political organizations, businesses are also making use of social networking. Chuck Hamilton, from IBM, in an interview for Maclean’s Magazine notices that “social networks are emerging as key tools for business innovation.” (access the complete interview in a pdf file from here). Hamilton addresses how companies can collaborate with people from different backgrounds working across the world. He also mentions the usefulness of these technologies in acquiring valuable information from customers and learn how to better serve their needs.

While social networking technologies provide many benefits to organizations and end users, there’s also important to acknowledge some of its negative side effects such as the loss of privacy and the lack of intimacy face-to-face relationships provide.