Corporate or enterprise, Social Networking (CSN) technology is changing the way relationships are formed and strengthened in business environments, and, therefore, is changing the way business is conducted. In the past, employees built relationships by working in close proximity or sharing information over the proverbial water cooler. As organizational structures evolve, disperse, and separate geographically, individuals have begun to initiate, extend, and manage their network of professional relationships through social, Web 2.0 technologies.

Online social networking within the enterprise increases the density of connections among individuals to drive business value. A Corporate Social Network is a collection of social networks, among which affinity groups of employees and other constituents learn about each other and interact through their own, individual profiles. Employees and other constituents may be members of multiple networks within the Corporate Social Network, requiring that their profiles be portable and able to collect and amalgamate information from that individual’s interactions and knowledge sharing among all of the corporate networks to which he or she has access. These networks are secure and private, open only to those constituencies identified by the enterprise, and they provide role-based access to people and information which are controlled by the enterprise, as well as varying levels of privileges for network administrators.

The connections fostered through Corporate or Enterprise Social Networks are anchored in affinity and beneficial to individual members through the people and information they are able to find, creating connections and knowledge capital that become attached to their profile and visible to other network members. Corporate Social Networks are used primarily to build trust and share knowledge on a peer-to-peer basis, as opposed to through documents that are subject to information obsolescence. Network members share knowledge in real-time, in effect creating a living knowledge map within the enterprise network. Today’s corporate environment is unique and dynamic; organizations are globally dispersed, high value is placed on knowledge, and requirements for innovation are ever growing. Companies that thrive in this environment are finding ways to connect their people through Corporate Social Networking.