Those of us old enough to remember the beginnings of the "Intranet" will know how ground-breaking and exciting it all was. But with internet use becoming mainstream, company intranets died a death. So why have private social networks re-emerged and why should your company be using one?
The answers are obvious if you really think about it. The internet was such a life-changing, business-changing thing that so many of us got carried away with it all and mistakes were made, costly mistakes. Take a look at The Re-Emergence of The Private Social Network from Forbes. We needed something new, something that works and overall something that is more secure than the very public internet.
Here are some really great reasons to use private social networks for your employees:
Tighten up your security
Online security has been hot news lately, it is all too easy (for those who know how) to hack personal, private and business data, if it is online it is vulnerable and no-one wants to make those mistakes again. By using private networks, your security becomes super-tight with only your employees having access, unlike public social networks, email etc which are vulnerable to attack. You can share important documents and files with the added peace of mind that they will only be seen by the people who need to see them.
Get your team talking
In this era of home and remote working it is sometimes difficult for teams to communicate effectively. Sure you can have feedback meetings and team brainstorming sessions but they need to be on a certain day at a certain time. So what happens when you have questions or need assistance at all the other times? Collaborating in one place where you can ask questions, assign tasks, check progress and share information is the answer.
Even if you all work in one office, it is often the case that everyone is doing their own thing and communication is not priority. With private social networks you can still be engrossed in your screen and be communicating effectively with the people around you.
Save time by having everything in one place
Not only does the whole team have access to what is happening in real time, they can comment, question and update tasks and projects in real-time to keep everyone up to speed. Cut out the time-consuming to-ing and fro-ing of contacting individuals who all work on different tasks and projects to see who is up to where on what. Have your shared documents on one platform for the whole team to access when needed and assign tasks to individuals so that everyone knows exactly who is responsible for each project and where they are with it.
Atlassian Confluence, Zoho Projects and Clarizen three great examples of private social networks or team collaboration software. We have some real-life examples of how these great apps are being used by business people just like you, and how well they perform. Don't take our word for it check out what the people who already use private social networks for business say:
"Zoho Projects has allowed us to replace whiteboards, Excel spreadsheets, and Microsoft Project files with one single enterprise solution that our entire team can depend on. Managers get a dashboard view of everything we're working on and this saves time spent searching through hard copies and online folders." Louis Rodriguez of Rodriguez Consulting.
"This is the fourth PSN I've used and/or administered. So far, it's the one that does the most and is most flexible. It can be molded to fit a larger number of organizations than the previous offerings I've used or the half-dozen we looked at during our review process. Clarizen merges a host of project, resource, and time management tools under one, integrated solution. It improves visibility to our performance data. Up until now, we've had to use custom solutions or time consuming deep-dives to find out the facts." Jeffrey Driscol of Searchmojo.
"Atlassian Confluence is a fantastic intranet wiki for enterprise, with a cleaner interface and far more expandable options than standard wiki solutions. Also used as a bulletin board for posting meeting minutes, project info & specs, announcements. Very expandable with modules and plugins. Allowed embedding of Word and Excel sheets, and integrates with the JIRA ticketing system." Vince Ginsberg, Corsair Media Services.
Mashable has put together a list of private social networks for business and of course you can find more in our very own GetApp marketplace for private social networks and team collaboration software. For more great private social networks and team collaboration software read The Best Collaboration Apps to keep Teams Organized on our GetApp blog.
