In a recent Nielsen study, “member communities” like Linked in are now used more (67%) than email (65%).  The social network landscape is changing quickly.

In my former survey research business, we were fighting the fact that American households were cutting off their phones in droves.  At last count, 17% of households have no land-line telephone.  Technology is re-shaping our world right in front of our eyes.

How is your organization using new tools to better connect your employees, and customers to increase collaboration — and ultimately performance?  I’ve heard a number of entrepreneurs complain that applications like Facebook are a time sink and have limited access by employees from their network.

I would propose that social networks and other cutting edge applications are merely tools that, if used in the right way, can help your organization better compete by providing your people with better access to information.

Social Networks – using applications within your company can help increase visibility among your staff around critical functions such as product expertise, specialized knowledge or special interests.  Using these applications increases collaboration and communication — particularly if your organization has locations across multiple geographic areas.  In addition, if you have virtual staff - this is the perfect application to keep everyone connected.

Wiki- using wikis is a great way to share standards and knowledge across the organization.  By building wiki platforms around problem identification and problem solving, you will increase your organization’s ability to adapt to the ever changing business environment.

Podcast – when you place training programs online, you insure that when a staffer is trained on a procedure or standard that everyone gets the same information, delivered in the same manner.  This results in more consistency.

Organizations can either resist the changes that are happening around us or embrace the new technology and find the best way to use it for every one’s benefit.  Please share your examples of how you’ve used web 2.0 technology in your business successfully.