Intranet Social Network Solution

Social networking has certainly proven highly effective in arresting attention and encouraging open communication. Unfortunately, in the past most of the social networking activity taking place in Australian workplaces was inappropriately directed outwards, targeting major social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. This external focus actually results in lost productivity and increased risk.

Australian developer and SharePoint consultancy, Sproket, has created a social intranet solution that reverses these problems and actually makes social networking productive and secure, leading to more effective teams with better synergy than ever before.

Social networking can be either negative or positive

So many Australian businesses have experienced negative side-effects from externally focused social networking that some have taken the extraordinary step of banning personal communications devices in the workplace or attempting to limit access to external social networks through the use of (easily defeated) proxy systems and firewalls.

If you're unaware of those negative side-effects, just two of them are:

• Distraction. Employees can become so engrossed in the external dramas of the lives of their contacts that they completely lose track of the task they should be doing.
• Vulnerability. The Internet itself is a very dangerous environment. For the first time in history, most of the population have not met the majority of their "friends" in person. This means, for one thing, the opportunities for social engineering (the largest threat to all businesses) is absolutely rampant. Links and attachments from external sources are also a major vector for digital infection.

The problem is that simply cutting people off from social networking sources completely does seem to have a negative impact on some individuals, especially younger people. It can actually cause them to exhibit symptoms similar to those observed in depressed persons, as well as increased anxiety. Bizarre as this may sound, it is an observable phenomenon in susceptible individuals who meet the criteria for social media addiction.

That's a real thing, by the way. Some people actually can become addicted to social media and will experience negative psychological and physiological reactions to a prolonged absence from the stimulation provided by social media.

The good news is you can harness the power of social media as a force of good, provided that it is your own social media and not that of an external provider such as Facebook and Twitter.

An important aspect to consider is that external social networks seem to be designed to be as obtrusive as possible, constantly badgering the user to engage with them, and thus be exposed to more advertising content, divulge more personal information about themselves, and so on.

The key to making internal social media work is to make it as unobtrusive as possible, encouraging the least amount of engagement with it. The upside of providing an interactive environment where people can talk about work related issues is that it allows for better interdepartmental communication, and can foster a greater sense of camaraderie and belonging.

Another potential benefit is that more introverted individuals who may be less inclined than others to interact on a personal level with their colleagues may feel more confident to interact in a digital environment, thus improving the overall cohesion of the workplace.

Get more information

There's a lot more that Sproket can do for your organization. If you'd like details, please contact us on 1300 777 653 or use our contact form to leave a message.

Sproket provides cloud based intranet, out of the box. Our team provides custom solutions to suit your business needs. Check out our examples or contact us on 1300 777 653