社交网络何去何从

   但是，企业级社交网络的潜力实际上要远不只于此。李分析说，正如同电子邮件改变了公司内员工们的沟通方式一样，由于社交网络的本质即在于鼓励分享，因而借助它，员工能够完成特别的协同工作，避免项目中重复的环节，简化流程，加强信息在公司内不同层级间的流动，从而使办公室沟通更为顺畅、高效。

    比如，当史蒂芬•埃洛普出任诺基亚公司（Nokia）的首席执行官时，他就使用Socialcast询问员工希望公司做出哪些改变。Altimeter报告总结道：“这种对话形式不仅帮助他了解了诺基亚的组织结构，而且还传递了一个信息：领导层和员工之间正在形成一种新型的关系。”

    此外，社交网络学起来很容易上手，因为不少人已经对Facebook、Twitter、以及LinkedIn和Pinterest等专业社交网络都再熟悉不过。但是，迄今尚未出现一个企业级社交网络平台能让职场人士像很多人对消费类社交网络那样一见倾心。这对企业级社交网络公司而言不啻绝佳的良机。就像Facebook之于个人交际，LinkedIn之于商务关系一样，企业级社交网络对于公司员工也起着同等重要的作用。这个庞大的市场亟待开发。

    译者：大海

    But the potential could be much greater. Just as email changed how workers communicate in a company, social networks – which, Li argues, by their very nature encourage sharing – have the potential to make office communications more fluid and efficient by forming ad-hoc collaboration, avoiding duplication in projects, streamlining processes and increasing the flow of information among hierarchical levels.

    As an example, when Stephen Elop became Nokia's (NOK) CEO, he used Socialcast to ask employees what needed to change. "The dialog not only helped him learn from the organization, but also signaled that a new type of relationship was dawning between the leadership and employees," the Altimeter report said.

    And social networks don't have much of a learning curve, since many people are familiar with Facebook, Twitter and specialized sites like LinkedIn and Pinterest. But there hasn't yet been yet a platform that causes workers to take to it intuitively, the way so many people have to those consumer social networks. And that leaves a huge opportunity for a enterprise social networking company. What Facebook did for friendships and LinkedIn did for industry connections, enterprise social networks can do for a company's workforce. It's a big market waiting for someone to conquer it.