Enterprise Social Networking Goes Mobile

Tailored applications of Myspace and Facebook has been available on mobile phones like the iPhone, Blackberry, and Treo for months, but LinkedIn was still missing from the picture. The latest article on eWeek announces the launch of LinkedIn Mobile apps that is now available for the iPhone; versions for the Treo and Blackberry will soon follow.

What took LinkedIn so long to tap into mobile networking? Clearly, the majority of business executives live with their smartphones, and yet the social networking site tailored to the enterprise trailed Myspace and Facebook in the race to create mobile versions. The iPhone can no longer be considered a consumer gadget, but an enterprise mobile device. It’s making collaboration that much easier within organizations again…

There are a few things that come to mind when thinking about what is next for the enterprise in regards to mobile devices:

1. How long will it take for other enterprise apps to join the bandwagon and create tailored mobile versions?
2. How will this affect the usage of enterprise apps in the corporate office as more and more enterprise apps go mobile?

Access to information has been made that much simpler while on the go. This is an exciting time for enterprise 2.0…

We're getting ready to launch a new blog that looks at the broader issues of Enterprise 2.0, add it to your RSS feed now as we get it ready for our official launch:

http://enterprise-3.blogspot.com/

Salesforce and Social Networking

The latest article on eWeek describes how Salesforce.com recently added a new service to allow customers to add other Salesforce.com customers as friends, very much like LinkedIn and Facebook. Finally customers, partners, and application developers will have access to different ideas all over the world. Many business gurus would agree that the best business ideas derive from customers. Well, this new application platform allows customers to collaborate on the status of leads, as well as objects developed as individual customizations. How will competitors like Netsuite and SugarCRM react to the latest Enterprise 2.0 trends and applications? It appears as if Salesforce.com is beginning to view the bigger picture. Quite an interesting read…

Facebook: Is there enough room for your business contacts and friends?

Do you already have a personal Facebook page before it was opened up to everyone? Continuing with the Facebook and LinkedIn debate, how do you keep your personal profile separate from the business profile on Facebook? Some professionals would rather use Facebook than LinkedIn. Jim Rapoza of EWeek wrote about this problem in his recent blog. With the one-size fits all mentality of these websites, Facebook occasionally does not work in both the business setting versus a personal one. How do you deal with your Facebook profile?

Part Two: Reactions to the future success of Facebook and LinkedIn

Facebook and LinkedIn are two very important mediums to social connection in the business world. I think many of these bloggers fail to remember that Facebook has been around since 2004.

Business Week in March of 2006 wrote an article on the importance of Facebook to college students and how it is targeted towards:

The leading social networking sites are an increasingly popular form of communication among college students because of the tools offered by each site including photo posting, messaging, blogs and friend lists which gel perfectly with the digital lifestyle habits of today’s college students. Facebook adds an additional element of exclusivity for college students since a user needs to have an “.edu” email address to register.

It was created as a social network for college students. Therefore, many of the aspects on the site were developed to target the interests of the 18 to 23 year olds who joined to network and keep friends up to date on what’s happening in their personal lives with their profiles. According to TechCrunch in March 2005, 85% of college students then had a profile on Facebook.

As stated by Forbes, only within the past year has Facebook been opened up to anyone without a “.edu” address. The basic layout of Facebook has not changed since then, but there are many little changes that have taken place. I feel that Facebook sees the problems that are discussed in many of the blogs, and the opportunities that a business population can provide and are working to fix this. They also see that their current audience is moving into the professional world. They see the opportunity that is available to be the social networking site for professionals, and are aiming to keep their current audience and expand into the future. On the contrary, LinkedIn was specifically created for the purpose of networking for businesses. They have the competitive edge in captivating the business audience, but I have a feeling that Facebook knows that they have an untapped market and will aim to capture this audience.

So who will be around in ten years? I believe it will be the site that truly captures the interest of the generation who is entering the workforce now. Today’s entry level college graduates are already comfortable with Facebook; will this give Facebook the edge. Will this prove to be the edge? LinkedIn is built to support business networking, will this foster their edge? What system do you prefer? Whose future do you think is leading the networking into the future?

Part One: Facebook vs. LinkedIn…..What does the future have in store for the success of the sites?

The value of Facebook is increasing by the moment. Microsoft believes it, they now own a part of it. As the business world adapts to Facebook, Facebook will make the necessary changes to adapt to it. In Matt Asay’s latest blog, he discusses the impact Facebook has recently had in the workings of his business life. From fixing problems to learning more about the personality of your customers, Facebook can provide vast amount of business information that has been previously unavailable. A lot of employees are already communicating via Facebook, companies should find a way to incorporate this platform into their business systems.

However, Facebook is facing a major competitor in the business world, LinkedIn. In Bernand Lund’s latest post, he wrote about how he has found that LinkedIn can provide him connections that would otherwise never be found. He can specifically contact mass amounts of people, all interested in the same topic, as opposed to Facebook, where mass messages are sent to your entire contact list. Also, more of his business contacts have a profile on linked in.

Among the major problems with LinkedIn, there may be an alterior motive by the sales force that has joined LinkedIn to sell. If LinkedIn becomes a new way of selling, many will turn away and focus on another site where they can network with out receiving tons of sales pitches. However, this can come with benefits. If you business is out there, someone will find you and your business will be the perfect fit. You will make money and potentially find a loyal customer that you would have never otherwise found.

LinkedIn: This is how we do it

In a previous post I mention Dion Hinchcliffe’s post regarding Facebook and its strategy to open up its API to 3rd party application developers. Now I come across a great post on NY Times’ blog, Bits, with highlights of an interview with the CEO of LinkedIn, Dan Nye.

It highlights that while LinkedIn will be looking to incorporate external developers into their site, the focus is about the right applications for their audience:

“We have no interest in doing it like Facebook with an open A.P.I. letting people do whatever they want,” Mr. Nye said. “We’re not going to have people sending electronic hamburgers to each other.”

It goes on to describe their strategy:

So LinkedIn will have to approve any company that wants to tap into its system. Mr. Nye says he is looking for two kinds of applications. First, there are deals that enable LinkedIn members to tap into their connections in other places, for example, while using applications like Salesforce.com. Second, some applications will be allowed to add features to LinkedIn’s own site. Mr. Nye offered, as an example, a module connected to a trade show or conference that integrated travel planning and other features.

After reading this of course we all have to wonder, who really has the best strategy for business users, Facebook or LinkedIn? Clearly, LinkedIn is focused exclusively on the business user, but will this more controlled access provide the type of applications that its users want? More importantly, will it happen soon enough?

It’s definitely too early to see who will be the ultimately winner of the hearts and minds of business users, but as an avid user of both, I’ll certainly be watching closely. What are your thoughts on each of these strategies, and who do think will ultimately appeal to business users?