A June survey released by Facetime, makers of a gateway appliance for managing Web 2.0 applications, revealed the growing popularity of social networking applications in the workplace. Out of 1199 survey respondents, all IT professionals, there were more who felt that social networks played an important role in the business world than those who didn’t. What’s more, it appears that the IT folks are now seemingly OK with providing access these networks behind the firewall - even those that don’t approve of their use!

Read more at ReadWriteWeb…

The top CEOs in the country appear to be mostly absent from the social media community. That’s the result from research we conducted over the past several weeks. We looked at Fortune’s 2009 list of the top 100 CEOs to determine how many were using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, or had a blog. The results show a miserable level of engagement.

Read more at ÜberCEO…

Want to see good examples of corporate blogs? Check out the blogs of the Blog Council. This site includes blogs by Coke, Cisco, General Electric, Intel, and the Mayo Clinic.

Via Alltop News and Updates.

Via Emilie Ogez News.

Via AdsVark.

“Since their early days, weblogs have been envisioned as a prototype technology for enabling grass-roots knowledge management. However, while experiments with blogging are underway in many businesses, research that could inform them is limited. In this dissertation early adopters of weblogs are studied to develop an understanding of uses of weblogs in relation to work, and to provide insights relevant to introducing blogging in knowledge-intensive environments.

This research focuses on describing the blogging practices of knowledge workers. It is guided by a framework that provides a view of what knowledge work entails and includes tasks, the essence of one’s work, and enabling personal knowledge management activities, such as developing one’s knowledge and relationships over time.”

Read more at Mathemagenic…

Andrew McAfee:

I’ve had for some time now the vague sense that the iPhone, Twitter, Gmail, Googling, Facebook, Wikipedia, Delicious, and other runaway successes are trying to tell us something about how we want to use technology in our lives and in our work, and if we enterprise technologists listen carefully we’ll hear what that something is.

[...]

I started jotting down some comparisons based on what I’ve seen, read, and experienced for myself, then realized that I was identifying patterns [...] And I thought that in best 2.0 fashion I should open up this work early in the process by posting an initial set of patterns, seeing if they resonate with people, and asking for further contributions.

Read more on Andrew McAfee’s Blog…

A poll of 524 white-collar workers commissioned by fin­ancial comms agency FD has found worryingly high levels of employee dissatisfaction facing businesses bosses as they adjust to the economic downturn.

YouGov found that a minority of employees (44 per cent) felt their CEO showed strong, decisive leadership and only 28 per cent trusted messages from their CEO more than ‘a little’.

Only 15 per cent of respondents felt that their employer had communicated news about job security ‘very well’, with 37 per cent saying that the communi­cation had been poor or non-existent.

Read more at PRWeek… (via Geneva Communicators Network)

Despite their relative newness, companies are embracing Web 2.0 technologies such as social networking tools, blogs and webcasts for internal communications and as part of their overall technology mix, according to a new survey by Watson Wyatt, a leading global consulting firm.

Watson Wyatt’s 2009 HR Technology Trends Survey found that since the economic downturn began, 72 percent of employers have increased their use of the intranet and 61 percent have increased their use of e-mail to communicate with employees. Employers are also using newer tools – a third (32 percent) have increased their use of webcasts; 13 percent have increased their use of social networking tools; and 12 percent have increased their use of blogs for communication. Watson Wyatt’s survey was conducted in February and March 2009 and includes responses from 181 large employers.

“Web 2.0 technologies work well, in most instances, for targeting specific employee and manager groups, and companies are using them in appropriate situations. Using tools such as role-based portals, internal blogs and webcasts ensures that both managers and employees can send and receive tailored messages in an engaging format. This is useful for improving productivity and maintaining employee morale and engagement, particularly in this difficult economic time.” Jon Osborne, senior technology consultant at Watson Wyatt

Read more…

Part I - The Wikipedia Myth

Part II - People at the Center

Part III - Getting started

The 2009 survey shows that there is great reputational risk associated with social networking as 74 percent of those surveyed believe it is easy to damage a brand’s reputation via sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

As this medium is evolving, there are different opinions about use and access. For example, 60 percent of business executives say they have the “right to know” how employees portray themselves and their organizations online, while 53 percent of the employees contend that “social networking pages are none of an employer’s business.”

So what should business leaders do? One option is to establish policies and protocols. However, nearly half of the respondents say that such guidelines will not change how they behave in cyberspace. Therefore, organizations should emphasize culture, values, and ethics in order to mitigate reputational risk in these online communities.

Read more…

Update: on Slideshare (via Demain la veille)

Stowe Boyd interviewed Jordan Frank (hi Jordan ) of Traction Software, one of the - if not the - first web based collaboration platforms for the enterprise. Themes discussed including some very interesting insights: enterprise 2.0 vs web 2.0, personal vs professional contributions and microstreaming.

Via Enterprise 2.0 blog.

Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein have just written The Twitter Book, a 240-page guide to making the most out of Twitter. The hard copy won’t be out for a little while, but you can buy the PDF right now for $15.99.

This colorful guide will teach you everything you need to know to quickly become a Twitter power user, including strategies and tactics for using Twitter’s 140-character messages as a serious–and effective–way to boost your business. Co-written by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein, widely followed and highly respected Twitterers, the practical information in The Twitter Book is presented in a fun, full-color format that’s packed with helpful examples and clear explanations.

Via Boing Boing.

Crowdsourcing from Aitor Bediaga on Vimeo.

Via The Transitioner.

Jeremiah Owyang, a leading social media thinker at Forrester Research, took some time with Stowe Boyd to share observations about the state of practice and the future of enterprise 2.0.

Via Enterprise 2.0 blog.

Stowe Boyd connected with Charlene Li, of the Altimeter Group and the co-author of Groundswell, and she gave some insights to the state of Enterprise 2.0.

Via Enterprise 2.0 blog.

According to the “The ROI on Social Media Marketing” report from the Aberdeen Group, marketers have developed the tools and methodologies to drive marketing ROI by listening to and learning from customers and prospects.

Aberdeen found that 63% of the companies in their survey (defined as best-in-class) planned to increase their social media marketing budgets this year.

eMarketer estimates that social network advertising alone will rise over 17% this year to $2.35 billion, up from $2 billion in 2008.

Read more at eMarketer…