Social Media & Enterprise tools

Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks It differentiates from traditional/industrial media in many aspects such as quality, reach, frequency, usability, immediacy, and permanence. There are many effects that stem from internet usage  -- from Wikipedia

Social networking platforms are effective in the following ways:

1. Building a collaborative culture.
2. Establishing more effective two-way communication.
3. Creating more engaging learning experiences.
4. Sharing current practices through a knowledge network.
5. Improving employee involvement and engagement.
6. Helps in finding the right talent for business
7. Wizard-like functionality leading you through the process
8. Improved opportunity tracking
9. Better status updates
10. Easy administration and maintenance ... More

 
Some of the well-known collaboration tools on the market as of 2011
 
•Adobe Acrobat – Acrobat.com allows teams to work collaboratively on documents through their browsers. Options for web conferencing and screen-sharing provide additional communication channels.
 
•Atlassian Confluence – offers a powerful wiki-based solution to enterprise collaboration. Content can be simply dragged and dropped from the desktop to the platform, eliminating the need for keeping track of attachments sent via email.
 
•Basecamp – collaborative messaging and file sharing. Project management can be easily tracked with milestones and deadlines, and templates for saving time with common projects. Campfire by Basecamp implements real time chat for collaboration.
 
•Broadvision Clearvale – a Cloud-based platform that can be established without the need for any additional IT resources

•Colaab – offer real time browser based collaboration by allowing annotations to appear simultaneously on other collaborator’s screens. A “DeepZoom” feature allows work and annotation to take place on very specific areas of large images, such as design documents.
 
•Chatter – provided by Salesforce and free for existing customers. It allows communication and sharing of projects by employees from their browsers, desktops or mobile devices.
 
•Episerver relate – collaboration and community software. Also turns out-of-date intranets into a social community where employees collaborate and share information.
 
•FMYI – a private collaboration site where you can store and share information securely and sustainably with your team. ... More  

•Google Documents – simultaneous editing of files makes Google Docs ideal for students and other casual collaborative groups. The upgraded Google Apps version offers additional security options for business.
 
•Huddle - project management and collaboration software that allows you to connect, share and invite people to work on projects.
 
•nu+/Yooplus – a team collaboration and social software platform for the SME market.
 
•Offbureau – Offbureau fuses on-line collaboration, document management, and a social network.
 
•Open Atrium – drupal based team collaboration tool.
 
•Podio – a collaboration platform with a new and radical take on work tools: you build it yourself.

•Sharepoint – provides a single platform for employees to work collaboratively through various methods such as wikis and work flows. Personal profiles allow a team to better understand each other’s skills, experience and interests.
 
•Socialcast – allows employees to discuss projects remotely through a microblogging service, which is also accessible from a smartphone. The Town Hall extension enables discussion between executives and employees.
 
•Socialtext – uses a Facebook-like interface and claims to increase typically increase productivity by 20% or more.
 
•Sosius – a hosted online workspace, accessible from any PC or Mac, that lets you create and collaborate and share.
 
•Teamlab – enterprise collaboration, project management, document sharing and instant messaging solution.

•Tibbr – uses a design that is familiar to Facebook users, providing an intuitive experience. One key feature is the ability for employees to follow subjects, to stay informed on news and developments in their area of business.
 
•Wiggio – a free service that simplifies keeping track of multiple groups. Collaboration on documents, polls, and communication by text are some of the offered services.
 
•Wikispaces – wikis for organisations, individuals and groups to enable online sharing and collaboration. The power of online collaboration is perhaps best exemplified by Wikipedia. The Wiki platform is a great collaboarative tool.
 
•Yammer – enables companies to create their own private social network, requiring a company email address to access the community.
 
•Zoho – a large variety of collaborative and sharing tools for individuals, groups and businesses.
 
Source: http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2011/03 ... More   

Its Life Cycle
 

Interesting article on Enterprise social network

http://www.citeworld.com/social/21922/enterprise-social-networking-success-story-socialcast-humana?page=0