Intranet 2.0 tools explode; social intranet still rare

By Toby Ward - Social media tools (intranet 2.0 tools) are exploding in popularity: the Intranet 2.0 Global Study has found that 87% of organizations have at least one social media tool on the intranet. The most popular tool: blogs (present on 53% of intranets of all sizes). However, blogs have only been deployed enterprise wide (available to all employees to read or write) on 18% of intranets. Most of the time, like most social media tools, the blogs are relegated to some corner of the intranet, a division or team site, or the IT department.

The social intranet, where intranet 2.0 tools are available to all employees, and are integrated into the intranet or portal home page, are still quite rare, but are beginning to burst forth like shoots and sprouts of a young garden in late spring. Like late spring, the heat is now sufficient enough to ensure a healthy crop of social intranets come harvest time next year.

The Intranet 2.0 Global Study of 500+ organizations of all sizes suggests we are entering the age of the Social Intranet. Although the social intranet may not become mainstream (by my definition, in 40% of all organizations over 50 people), I expect the social intranet to reach the mainstream threshold sometime in 2012. In short, 40% or more of all organizations in the ‘Western World’ (North America, Western Europe and parts of South and East Asia (namely Korea, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand) with more than 50 employees will have multiple social media tools available on their intranet, which will be available or in some form integrated into their home page by 2012. Unfortunately, the ‘developing nations’ in Africa, South America and Asia will not reach this threshold in the coming years.

Read a detailed description of the "social intranet" with accompanying case study by downloading the full white paper, The Social Intranet: Social Intranet Success Matrix.

See many case study screenshot examples in the Social Intranet forum (free registration) on Communexions.com

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