What is social networking software?

Social networking software allows users within your organization to collaborate on specific tasks by sharing various types of media with one another. With social networking software, users involved in a specific project have a virtual shared workspace, allowing them to receive updates and news about meetings, events, and other information vital to their individual project roles. Internal social networking content can also be shared externally (in the form of articles, blogs, podcasts, and newsletters).

The benefits of social networking software

• Improved collaboration between employees: By creating project-specific user groups, group members can easily share updates on projects, related media, and timelines for completion. Organizing events and meetings using internal social networking software lets you distribute invitations and share meeting minutes with attendees. Employees have a platform to discuss projects through comments and live chat. 
• Team building: Just as traditional social networks allow users to feel connected regardless of physical location, social networking software allows employees to feel more socially attached to the rest of their organization.

Typical features of social networking software

• User profiles: Allows users to create profiles that contain basic information. 
• Group management:  Gives managers the ability to edit policies for groups and specific members. 
• Activity and news feeds:  Provides a continuous stream of updates as they occur in real time.
• Event management: Provides users with information about upcoming events.
• Real-time chat:  Gives users the ability to chat with other members of their user groups.
• Social media tagging:  Allows user to mention or tag themselves and other users on posts and media uploaded to the platform.

The social networking software directory lets you filter by feature(s) to view only options that meet your business needs, which can help you narrow your software shortlist. 

Considerations when purchasing social networking software

• Data security:  For many organizations, data security is of the utmost importance. Businesses should carefully examine the social networking configuration schema to decide what specifically should be shared between certain users versus the company at large. Being that many enterprise social networking apps allow users and administrators to automate media sharing to external social media platforms, companies will have to set up strict policies for how this is automated and from which accounts.
• Getting users involved:  Most users already have experience with some form of social networking. Although this familiarity with social media concepts would seem to make it easier for employees to buy into a company's social network, the idea of adding yet another posting platform may overwhelm some users. Before you implement a social networking platform, consider not only how you bring users to the party, but also how you'll keep them there.

Relevant social networking software trends

• Telecommuting is becoming increasingly popular:  Since 2005, the number of workers spending at least half their time working from home has more than doubled . With more and more employers opting to decentralize their workforce, the need for digital collaboration platforms will become increasingly important as employers search for better ways to bring employees together.
• Wearable computing technology will optimize business social networking:  Considering that 54% of small and midsize businesses plan to deploy wearable technology over the next one to two years, many opportunities will arise within the business social media landscape to use this technology. By implementing wearable tech's video and data-capture features, users can be virtually present in any conversation even when physical limitations do not allow it.