Salesforce has introduced a new social networking platform for the workplace called Chatter. The idea is to have sales teams use social networking for communication and collaboration - and to give company management a new way to monitor employee activity.
Explaining how he got the idea for this first-of-its-kind business application during a speech at Dreamforce this week, Salesforce.com Chief Executive Marc Benioff said: "I know more about these strangers on Facebook than I do about my own employees and what they're working on. I know when my friends went to the movies, but not when my VP of sales visited our top customer."
Due out in February, Chatter is a Web-based business collaboration tool that takes draws on the features and functionality of social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. The solution, which works with Salesforce's cloud-based CRM software, is used to display "profiles" of employees and posts about projects they're working on or the customers they've visited.
This seems like a cool idea and could go a long way to make the workplace more appealing to Millennials who are already accustomed to social networking and using alternate channels of communication. It also will no doubt help organizations further reduce their communications costs.
The thing is, though, is that I'm not so sure it will be all that "efficient," as there are "manual processes" involved -- and by this I mean the amount of time it takes to craft, type and post messages. This doesn't exactly fit in with the trend toward automation of business processes that has been prevalent as of late: It actually could create more work.
The thing is, though, is that I'm not so sure it will be all that "efficient," as there are "manual processes" involved -- and by this I mean the amount of time it takes to craft, type and post messages. This doesn't exactly fit in with the trend toward automation of business processes that has been prevalent as of late: It actually could create more work.
I frequently hear people say "I don't have time to do social networking," or they complain that they are spending way too much time doing it, and it obviously can be a very time consuming activity. You have to remember that not everyone is able to express themselves all that well in writing, in as few words as possible -- as we've seen with email -- and some people are just plain terrible communicators to begin with.
For that reason I can imagine company management ending up with a load of content that varies in quality -- and perhaps even accuracy -- from one end of the spectrum to the other.
So if someone is good at their job but a terrible communicator using social networking tools, what does that mean in the context of bringing it into the workplace? Will companies start firing employees for their inability to communicate properly, and in timely fashion, using the social networking medium? For making what might be deemd "inapparopriate" posts?
And what about this from the user's perspective? Certainly, using social networking at work will require a different tone and overall approach compared to personal social networking -- so employees will have to learn to "shift" between the two types. (As an absurd aside, can you imagine if an employee, in a drunken stupor one night, mistakenly posted a personal message to the company social networking site, instead of his personal Facebook account?)
Social networking seems like it would be an unreliable business tool, due to the subjectivity of it -- the posts are short and "Tweet" and looser in style than email -- the bias expressed in the posts and the potential for misinterpretation of the information, etc. (How does one detect sarcasm?)
Also, I'm failing to understand how making employees submit posts about where they are and what they are doing all day long will help companies keep better track of employee performance any better than any other Web-based CRM or communications solution out there...when you open the door to social netowrking you have to be willing to take the bad with the good.
For that reason I can imagine company management ending up with a load of content that varies in quality -- and perhaps even accuracy -- from one end of the spectrum to the other.
So if someone is good at their job but a terrible communicator using social networking tools, what does that mean in the context of bringing it into the workplace? Will companies start firing employees for their inability to communicate properly, and in timely fashion, using the social networking medium? For making what might be deemd "inapparopriate" posts?
And what about this from the user's perspective? Certainly, using social networking at work will require a different tone and overall approach compared to personal social networking -- so employees will have to learn to "shift" between the two types. (As an absurd aside, can you imagine if an employee, in a drunken stupor one night, mistakenly posted a personal message to the company social networking site, instead of his personal Facebook account?)
Social networking seems like it would be an unreliable business tool, due to the subjectivity of it -- the posts are short and "Tweet" and looser in style than email -- the bias expressed in the posts and the potential for misinterpretation of the information, etc. (How does one detect sarcasm?)
Also, I'm failing to understand how making employees submit posts about where they are and what they are doing all day long will help companies keep better track of employee performance any better than any other Web-based CRM or communications solution out there...when you open the door to social netowrking you have to be willing to take the bad with the good.
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