If anyone has done an informal, non-qualitative "hallway" survey of people to test their understanding and/or definition of "social networking," chances are you heard many different responses with the most common examples referring to sites like LinkedIn, Flickr, etc. Of course there's nothing wrong about that...they're great examples. However, I was curious about digging up more business related examples of social networking that went beyond simply making connections. None of my informal survey participants were aware of anything...and after doing various searches online I came up more or less dry.

In fact I ran across more posts similar to the Business Pundit's Please, Please Stop With The Social Networking. In it Rob makes some very valid points about sites forcing networking on him when in reality he just needs more time at the end of the day vs. more contacts to draw on your already busy schedule. Individuals need to have more control of their participation plus they need to see more value from the experience vs. simply making a connection. Extending social networking into the business environment will require much more than making a connection...especially in the IT Pro space. Connecting, collaborating, and interacting with trusted sources in an efficient manner is key. In the end these relationships need to save them time instead of randomly consume it. I think there's a HUGE opportunity here.

In David Hornick's Social Network 3.0 post he references the pre-3.0 days where the experience was around the creation and discovery of the social network itself as opposed to how consumers can leverage and use the network. The exciting part of what's ahead of us is looking to social networks to -- in David's words -- inform, enable, enhance and empower experiences for consumers. He makes some great points that lend themselves well to the business experience.

Simple business scenario... 

Consider the following…I bet any company that’s hosted a conference has received feedback that one of the top benefits of the event was the customer or partners’ ability to network with people like them. Whether it be those using similar products or finding others in similar roles or industries, it’s a huge value add to be able to meet and collaborate with them at the conference. I’ve observed this firsthand at both Microsoft-sponsored customer and partner conferences.

 A year or so ago when I was part of a different product group, we hosted a networking event over lunch for the customers attending. We simply posted different “roles” on tables and asked people to sit at the table that matched their role the closest. We had two large tables of IT Pros who didn’t want to leave. They were having great dialogue, exchanging ideas, solutions to issues they were facing, etc. At the end of the “networking event” many of them exchanged business cards…but then what. Maybe a few of them exchanged a few 1-to-1 e-mails afterwards or called one of their new friends with a specific question, but how much knowledge can really be shared that way. Sure, they’ll likely get their answer and move on, but what about the other people in their circle who are experiencing the same thing? It would have been great to offer them an online, trusted networking experience where they could collaborate, share information/solutions and continue to grow. 

Now I have the opportunity to work with a lot of talented and creative people to make this a reality for the Windows Server IT Pro audience, so we’ll be diving much deeper into this area from both a business requirement and social networking services standpoint. Much more to come here.