Twitter is fueling Enterprise 2.0 and changing the sales process by opening up how providers and clients discover, interact and close deals with each other. It’s not hard to imagine that all sales forces will be Twitter-based within a few years (if not Twitter, some other system that ties providers and clients into open networks). Viewed in this light, closed “Twitter” systems like Yammer that keep corporate data and communications more private would limit the sales process to the narrow channels that existed pre-Twitter.

Most corporations are backing into developing a social media presence just because it’s being demanded by their managements when they read the headline: 93% of Americans want Companies to have presence on Social Media Sites.

Valleywag notes the social media manager at GM admits she doesn’t quite see the ROI of social media-izing their cars:

“It’s hard to put a specific dollar value on this, but it’s something we have to do,” said Natalie Johnson, GM (NYSE: GM)’s social media manager

From GM Set to Relaunch Social Media Site – Information Week

All the bells and whistles of a social network – including wikis, videos and podcasts – for a small group of social media oriented GM car owners…

A mom’s social network devoted to bleach!

Yes, lots of folks comment on the utility of kitty litter! (h/t ReadWriteWeb)

And in July,  Mashable published a list of 35 more corporate social media – oriented sites with varying degrees of creativity and utility.

Related article: Social software projects often fail without purpose

Brett Rogers @Ecresystems sent me a Gartner article that intuitively explains the reasons why social networks sometimes don’t take off like Facebook:

1. Magnetic
The purpose should draw people directly to participate, immediately appealing to the “What’s in it for me” characteristic.

2. Aligned
Purpose should align with business value, that is the “What’s in it for the business” value, be it direct or indirect.

3. Low Risk
Organizations are advised to resist the temptation to opt for high-risk communities, which seem to offer the greatest potential for business value. They are better revisited once social applications have gained momentum.

4. Properly scoped
Gartner advises organizations to start with a minimal scope and focus on growing a community’s scale as fast as possible. Once the community has scaled up, users will guide on how to expand the scope.

5. Facilitates Evolution
Purposes must be selected that both the organization and community can build on. A “purpose road map” will allow for growing the scope of communities or establishing other applications and communities with the goal of progressing toward a highly collaborative enterprise.

6. Measurable
The success of a good purpose can be measured. Especially early on, when organizations are skeptical of social applications, Gartner advises choosing a purpose where business and community value can be clearly measured.

7. Community-Driven
The value must come from the community. The best communities contribute far more to themselves than do the enterprises that support them. If the purpose requires the enterprise to contribute most of the content, and the community participants are mere readers, the enterprise has simply used the new technologies as another channel to push communications.

The Real Estate Industry Fit

Although the article is focused on Enterprise Social Software, the real estate industry as a vertical fits all of Gartner’s observations and has been a breeding ground for social networks:

1. Magnetic: What’s in it for me? Personal brand marketing to a massive local consumer market.
2. Alignment: Personal brand marketing translates into online lead generation.
3. Low risk: Conversations revolve around low risk business topics related to real estate, not personal expression.
4. Properly scoped: Real estate social networks like Active Rain have grown organically, and introduced new products like Localism based on participant demand.
5. Facilitates evolution: The real estate blogosphere continually adopt new technologies and solutions based on their business development potential.
6. Measurable: Real estate participants continually advocate social media as a powerful marketing play that gets results.
7. Community driven: The real estate blogosphere is as intimate as their tech counterparts. They gather at conferences and seem to act and opine as a group.

The larger the enterprise, the huger the knowledge management problems, simply because communication is harder to circulate across large groups. Not surprisingly, the easiest way to facilitate this communication is to “open up the channels”. But the enterprise management culture has historically been based on playing close to the vest. Although employees can become influential and knowledgeable by participating in the social media, management frowns on the risk of employees being too open with corporate data.

The current solution to Enterprise 2.0 is to segregate the worlds of privately and publicly shared data. Any data deemed corporate secret would be circulated within an internal enterprise system. Outbound activities like marketing and information discovery can be catalogued and shared by employees through broad population Web 2.0 applications like Del.icio.us or Google Reader. It’s a schizophrenic construct, and an interim measure until enterprises ineluctably realize that business transparency is becoming the norm.

Update: 09/11/08 1:00ampdt: Yammer, an enterprise version of Twitter wins the Techcrunch 50 competition. Twitter for corporations… these new applications will bridge enterprises into 2.0 while letting them feel that their network is behind a curtain. It’s illusory because any Twitter-like broadcast media will escape over walls any time it wants.

Notes on Slideshow

I made this short slideshow with Sliderocket, a new online slideshow creator instead of using MS Powerpoint and uploading the file. Here are the pros and cons with the system:

Pros

1. All image data is catalogued online for future use.
2. Slide elements are easier to manipulate than in Powerpoint.
3. Neat functions like slide transitions, automated image rendering, and quick slide and element duplication.

Cons

1. Less features than Powerpoint.
2. Sliderocket’s proprietary platform doesn’t allow me to upload slideshow onto repositories like Slideshare.
3. Some internet latency issues make watching this slideshow too slow.
4. CONCLUSION: Too many cons, I’ll stick with Powerpoint.