Do LinkedIn and Facebook Make You More Productive at Work?
If you though it was a bit strange that the FBI was setting up a sort of internal MySpace for spies, think again. According to an article in USA Today, corporate social networks are all the rage right now, as companies are attempting to bridge the gaps between geographically distributed employees by creating new avenues of communication that won't result in even more cluttered inboxes, or so the theory goes.According to several of the folks interviewed in the article, social networks actually boost productivity, by facilitating everything from more collaboration between colleagues to cutting back on unecessary inter-office e-mails and instant messages (we're not so sure about that last one).
Some companies are even building their own internal networks, where co-workers can locate each other and create forums on a variety of work-related topics (leading to more of the aforementioned productivity). Others are turning to LinkedIn, the already business-minded site that now offers a service called Company Groups. It delivers the same functionality; a private network within LinkedIn's massive network of 28 million users.
No, you shouldn't expect to see thousands of free songs streaming or the fluff you'll find on other social networks, but you might just be able to find out which of your coworkers stole your red Swingline stapler. [From: USA Today]
