Social networking

Forums, blogs, wikis and personal profiles. Your colleagues and employees have them. Most companies are experimenting with social networks and media.

No longer toys, they are becoming central to how organizations drive productivity and become more competitive. In recruiting, sourcing suppliers and partners, and maintaining working relationships internally and externally, they play a key role. Social media are a natural extension of marketing and customer care and have the potential to add a higher level of interaction in customer and partner communications. Are you serious about finding ways to engage people? Do you have to compete for talent? Is improving productivity a business driver for you?

Social networking is an important way for professionals to develop their brands and promote their services and careers. there is a fundamental shift from corporate to individual reputation under way. While social networking is supported by organizations, it is the individual that must be committed to and drive the process.

You need an appropriate strategy and we've learned seen two elements emerge: adopt an evolving or iterative strategy in social networking and fail fast and cheap.

(See Google's fail fast cheap "social networking" SER for more.)