The importance of internal and external social networks

Companies have to jump on the train of social network sites, both external and internal social networks.

Some companies still have to decide if they want to be active on social network sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. They still have to realize that the maintenance of a profile on Facebook or LinkedIn has a lot of advantages. It amplifies the image of the company, it attracts new employees and it amplifies the bonding between employees and the company.

This last advantage brings us to the importance of an internal social network (also called enterprise social networking). A lot of big companies already have an intranet where employees can search for name, address and email of colleagues, but companies have to see that this also brings a great opportunity. An enterprise social network could help bonding the employees with each other and could help the teambuilding within the company. Some Belgian companies have taken this to the next level: they made a social network site oriented towards their customers. ABConcerts is a good example of this new trend. They are convinced that it can help the customer relations and that it can have an improving effect on the image of the company.

Source: Bruno Peeters

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