Enterprise Social Networking: 10 Applications You Need to Know About

Updated: August 30, 2010

Let's look at 10 of the leading Enterprise 2.0 tools:

  1. SocialText: This tool began as a enterprise wiki product, but has evolved over the years to include micro-blogging (think Twitter for the enterprise). You can create a profile just as you do on Facebook and people can follow or friend you just as they do with Web 2.0 tools on the open web. SocialText has a free version for up to 50 users, which is a great way to test out social networking in a department.
  2. Yammer: Yammer concentrates on microblogging for the enterprise. The company was built around the idea of adapting Twitter functionality in the enterprise.
  3. Socialcast: Socialcast takes microblogging a step further and gives you analytics and ties it into mobile, Outlook and SharePoint.
  4. Jive: Jive coined the term "social business software" to describe what they offer. The platform includes tools to set up protected internal social networks, as well as external networks to communicate with customers, suppliers and partners.
  5. Sharepoint: SharePoint is an interesting product, part social tool, part file share, part content management, part collaboration environment; it tries to be all things to all people. As such, it might not do anything as well as the pure play vendors, but it has such a strong presence inside companies today, it's impossible not to include them on a list of this type.
  6. MediaWiki: If you're looking to create a wiki to share information, this is the same tool used to create the online information source Wikipedia. The best thing about this one is it's free.
  7. Traction Software: One of the earliest companies to see the power of blogging in business, Traction offers a full suite of products including blogging, collaboration and knowledge sharing tools.
  8. Telligent: Telligent combines internal and external social networking tools with analytics to help you measure the success of your efforts.
  9. Newsgator: Newsgator has its roots in enterprise RSS readers, but in recent years it has evolved into a set of social media tools. It works closely with Microsoft Outlook and SharePoint and takes the Sharepoint social tools to another level.
  10. Confluence: Confluence is an enteprise Wiki tool. It includes the ability to blog and can be integrated into existing enterprise systems including intranets, Microsoft Office and SharePoint.
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