How social media adds value to your company's knowledgebase

New social technologies are transforming the way people share information and network. The skyrocketing popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn is challenging corporate managers to look at how the benefits of social media can be applied to the enterprise. They're wrestling with how best to use these tools and achieve the promises of greater collaboration and organizational effectiveness.

However, the perceived cost and cultural adjustments for such implementations has many managers turning away from social technology. How can managers make room in an already tight budget for new, untested, or unproven social technologies? How can they ensure employees will use it effectively? The fact is, not all social technologies are appropriate for the enterprise. But for some applications--for instance, knowledge management--there's a strong case for social technology.

Becoming "social" doesn't equate to setting up a Facebook page and tweeting corporate data on Twitter. But it does mean moving to a new two-way (Web 2.0) paradigm regarding enterprise knowledge management, where information can be strengthened and acted upon by the organization. Empowering the broader organization to contribute to its knowledgebase, and putting tools in place to ensure knowledge is properly vetted and managed are the keys to creating a true Social Knowledge Network (SKN).

As with traditional knowledge management systems, SKNs also collect and organize most data--documents, presentations, photos, videos, audio recordings, etc. This information forms the basis of an organization's core knowledgebase.

The difference is, SKNs take it one step further by adding social tools--such as blogs, wikis, online ratings, discussions, and social tags--to tap the collective wisdom of the corporate community. SKNs provide a way to unleash this wisdom so employees can share knowledge, and update and enrich core content. This creates a dynamic, living knowledgebase, where employees can access reliable information and enhance the value of the knowledgebase.

Perhaps the best part is, compared to traditional knowledge management systems, an SKN avoids the need for business process re-engineering because it uses Web 2.0 concepts to gather and capture knowledge. An SKN also has security features that enable control over what, when, and how contributions are made. This avoids the information veracity problems that are typical in traditional social media.

Getting the most value from social knowledge networks

When planning your SKN, it's crucial the initiative not be viewed just as a social networking project--because it's not. It's based on enterprise knowledge management principles. Here are five recommendations for extracting maximum cost benefits from your SKN.

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