Google did it with Gmail and Buzz to a resounding silence. Now Microsoft is integrating the upcoming Outlook 2010 with the social network by way of the Outlook Social Connector, now available in beta. Rather than building their own social network, Microsoft is partnering with market leaders like LinkedIn. Here’s the scoop.
We didn’t report on it, but Microsoft announced this move was coming way back in November 2009. Now, if you’re running the Office 2010 Beta, you can give Outlook Social Connector a whirl for yourself. Right now, only business social network LinkedIn is compatible, but Microsoft has promised connectivity with Facebook and MySpace in the near future.
So what’s the benefit? Well, at least with LinkedIn, received e-mails will automatically show the sender’s photo and status updates; when your contacts change their LinkedIn information it’s automatically reflected locally; it aids phone synchronization with your contacts list; and it allows you to add people on LinkedIn with but a click from your inbox.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m not convinced that social networking in the workplace is a good thing. LinkedIn is one thing — but Facebook is quite another. The only “benefit” I can see springing from that is that it would enable employees to look like they’re working while they’re checking status feeds.
Of course, I’m not myself an MSP. If you’ve deployed social networking to an enterprise with any kind of success, drop me a line at matt [at] ninelivesmedia.com or on Twitter at MattNLN. I want to hear the other side of this argument.
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I’d argue on the social networking in the work place – only from an industry perspective. I work in the internet marketing industry and we work to help our clients set up social networks and in doing so must have our own social networks deployed.
You’d think that a guy selling pizza ovens has no direct relationship to another selling fresh fruit trays, but through our internal social networking we can learn more about our clients through each other – what our clients are interested in, what their passions are, and how those translate to business.
I think if we did not have our internal social networks in place, we might have missed the boat on some really unique niche opporunities for our customers.
If our staff spends a few minutes a day posting updates on Facebook or Twitter, then so be it – my guess is they are also picking up a thing or two that can be translated to our growing business.
Just my $.02.
@socialpmchick
Wendy: Thanks for your $.02.
Although Matt and I blog for the same sites, we don’t always agree on the topics we cover. I initially dismissed Facebook as a social media tool for business. But I ultimately came around to the concept. During a given month, I’d say anywhere from 1 percent to 3 percent of MSPmentor’s readership now comes in through FaceBook…
That’s a significant audience/following we can’t ignore.
-jp
Making a workplace truly social requires a different approach to work in general. If you are evaluating employees on the amount of work that they do, you’ve missed the boat entirely. If, on the other hand, you evaluate your employees on what they accomplish, you’re spot on. The difference here seems like a subtle one and can be hard for a traditional organization or company manager to grasp.
The point is this; Social Media in any of its varied permutations requires different organizational thinking. This is not some new tool that is being introduced to a workplace like a fax machine or printer. It’s a phase shift in the way communication occurs and work gets done. It establishes parity in three critical areas of an employee’s work: responsibility, accountability and authority.
The underpinnings of Social Media are things like transparency, trust and integrity, wherever (in the organization) it is being implemented. The violation of any of these communications principles can be catastrophic, regardless of whom the offending party is.
In my personal experience, the organizations that have the hardest time adopting social media, and feel the most threatened by it, are those that also have the lowest trust among their workforce.
Charles: The last paragraph of your comment should be required reading for anybody building and/or running a business.
-jp
Thanks Joe. I run the organization that Wendy works for and am privileged to have her as an employee. We are an MSP of a different strip, if you will, a Marketing Solutions Provider.
We work exclusively with (100s) of specialty small businesses all over the USA helping them grow their businesses through the documentation and implementation of marketing plans, utilizing the Web as a primary medium.
We see it all! Most of our customers are very traditional in their thinking… it’s the way grandpa did it, it’s the way dad did it… (you get the point) and are slow to change. We have made our success by acting as change agents for these good folks. Occasionally, we run into the company that just won’t “get it,” as I did personally just last week.
Believe me when I tell you, that experience (last week) was in my head as I wrote the last paragraph of my post. The company that I was visiting has no hope of implementing social media, and benefiting from it, in any capacity until they radically change things within their organization and establish some trust and respect for their #1 asset, their employees.
I definitely don’t want my Linkedin or Facebook to be connected to my outlook at work. Who I associate with professionally or personally is my own business. I should be in control of who I want to share this information with. I don’t want even want to think about my employers potentially scrutinizing or monitoring my online profiles.
Matt, we really need to look at the complete social landscape. I am blogging about it right now on my own blog at http://stuart.calgarybloggers.ca and the importance of social media technologies in the workplace. Once thought only as a marketing/sales activity, it is now a complete business assignment. Marketing, Sales, Corporate communications, business networking, and a bunch of other things.
Business must look at the complete opportunity presenting by what the social landscape can bring to business and the individuals working for corporations each day.
Cheers
Stuart Crawford
ULISTIC Inc.
http://www.ulistic.com