Social Networking Ideas

Here are a few ways you can satisfy your users’ craving for social networking tools.

Add a star rating service to content
Let users rate any – or selected – content on a 1 to 5 scale.

Pro: Relatively easy to implement; not likely to be hijacked by someone with an agenda; can provide ‘instant gratification’ for users.

Con: Using star rating to drive UI (e.g. for ordering search results) might be a challenge to implement, depending on your CMS.

Add commenting to content
Pro: Gives users a sense of ownership; adds implicit metadata that can be mined to drive navigation, improve search, or as part of a rewards program for content contributors.

Con: You may be required to implement moderation (by corporate lawyers, for example, or nervous senior management).

Add Facebook-like functionality to your online corporate directory
Allow users to update information about themselves, such as status (could be a pulldown of business-related options), job description, projects they’ve worked on etc.

Pro: More current information about people; these data can be used to help make connections between people.

Con: Can be hijacked by exhibitionist team members, possibly exposing the company to harassment lawsuits etc.

Implement blogging
Create a forum for users to share their thoughts on business-related – or any – topics.

Pro: Encourages participation, creating buzz for the site as a whole, driving traffic; may generate value by providing a window for leaders to take the pulse of the organization, or get ideas from front line team members. If senior management can be persuaded to participate, this can be a powerful incentive for all users to visit more often.

Con: Like some of the other strategies above, allowing users un-moderated access to a public forum could create problems if it is misused.

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