Social Networking Boom Continues (Except In Enterprises)

From Broadband Finder, June 24:

Research conducted by analysts at Nielsen Online revealed social networking and blogging portals are more popular than ever and the duration people will visit such online facilities is up on the same time last year.

It was noted the total minutes broadband users spend updating their accounts and communicating with others is up by 82 per cent on May 2008 - with the average period per person up by 67 per cent.

The survey also found Twitter was the fastest-growing web brand for last month and saw users increase by 1,448 percent year-on-year. Over the last 12 months, unique visits to the micro-blogging site went from 1.2 million per month to 18.2 million.

Internet Retailer, June 23:

The number of people who are using social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter has grown 59% in the last year to 43% from 27% a year ago, according to a new report by management association The Conference Board and consulting firm TNS. The report, based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. households, found that social network use spans generations as well as genders.

About 19% of online users age 55 and older visit social network sites, up from 6% a year ago, and, overall, 48% of women and 38% of men on the Internet use social networking sites.

SmartBrief:

Despite the hype surrounding social networking and collaboration tools for business use, just 18% of firms have implemented such offerings, according to Forrester Research, with 63% saying they are not interested in the segment.

It's hard for me to understand why businesses trying to gain an edge in an incredibly challenging economy won't even consider trying tools that could allow them to better leverage their intellectual assets and more effectively engage their customers. I'd say this aversion to social networking and collaboration tools in many organizations likely stems from 1) the traditional corporate need to control the flow of information, and 2) fears that use of these tools would diminish productivity.

Obviously that's just a theory, but whatever is behind the reticence of most businesses to use social networking and collaboration tools, it's self-defeating. The Internet and the digital work world will become increasingly interactive, is there really any doubt about that? To ignore this reality would be like arguing back in 1996 that your company never will need one of those "e-mail addresses" or "Web sites." Well, they didn't go away, and neither will social networking.