Still torn over Facebook in the enterprise

Having read Tom’s article where’s the working in social networking and Charlene Li’s counterpoint on the business value of social networking I’m still a bit torn.

I think my conclusion is that whilst I definitely see the value in inter-enterprise social networking,  I don’t see the technologies that provide it as an enterprise solution, I see them as a personal complement to an enterprise solution. 

For me an enterprise social networking solution can tap into so much extra information, that Facebook will never see,  that will enhance the networking experience, including:

1. Formal and harvested expertise information
2. HR information
3. Contact information
4. Formal hierarchy information
5. Business applications
6. Presence and real-time collaboration services
7. Personal and enterprise knowledge
8. Enterprise Search
9. etc

That’s not to say that inter-enterprise social networking solutions like Facebook and LinkedIn don’t have a role – they do – but just as my social network is personal, so is my Social networking technology provider.  That said I can certainly see that some content from my enterprise environment might be delivered on my Facebook page (just like Twitter updates are today) and vice-versa.

I can also definitely see some new social networking scenarios being very important to business, like this one that Charlene mentions:

Here’s an example – LinkedIn described to me a new social application that would show events in your industry that are coming up – and who in your network is going to them. It will also show you people in that city that you could connect with. So if you know that colleagues, suppliers, partners, funders, customers, etc. are going to be gathering, you’re going to want to be there too.