Winning Online

Anybody else feel that there are too many social networks to keep track of? First there was MySpace, then Facebook and now Ning or Kickapps allows you to build your own. But what about the now-now? (There is always a more current NOW - see article on Bloggers who try to keep up with the now, now).

Ok, so we all know that Google is creating the master social networking site that will hopefully consolidate all of these old and emerging social networking sites but what about for businesses? Slow to the networking scene, business have been wary for many years… although with the longevity (in Internet years) and power demonstrated by Facebook and MySpace they can no longer sit idle. People demand to be connected! Will this be possible in the biz world?

The NY Times this morning put out an interesting article on the new set of business oriented social networks. What about Linked In you say? Yes, I would consider Linked In a pre-cursor to this emerging world but companies are going to start taking some interesting steps forward by connecting their employees, clients, etc. in a move to improve communication, cut down on email and recruit new employees.

This combining of social networking and CRM is a bold move as I doubt people will want to reveal personal information in a corporate setting but it will be interesting to keep an eye out whether a “Killer App” can sweep in and take advantage of this “connecting people” movement from a corporate standpoint.

Here are a list of groups trying:

Visible Path

Select Minds

Tribe (recently bought by Cisco)

InsideView’s SalesView

Oracle CRM On Demand

Microsoft Sharepoint