The New Intranet - Social Media Meets the Enterprise

by Marlon McMartin, MBA - Managing Director, Office Ability

Is it now time for social media to be adopted by the Enterprise and to become an integral part of the Company Intranet? It can be argued very convincingly that there is a great opportunity lost for businesses that do not embrace the Web 2.0 technologies that are an enormous part of our every day lives. Technology that has reshaped the way we network and communicate, but nonetheless is yet to be utilized by the vast majority of businesses.

Can it be as simple as that? Is there really a reason to think that businesses need to change the way they think just because of Internet trends, because of social networking technologies? My answer is a resounding YES; let me make a simple argument and see if I can convince you.


The baby boomers (45 and up) are being replaced by Generation Y (Gen-why, the information generation). Generation Y can be thought of in terms of 2 sub-groups: Generation X (31-44 year olds) and N-Gen or Net-Generation (18-30 year olds). This is a simplified breakdown of the demographics of the workforce.

Generation Y represents the information and technology generation. Generation Y also represents the largest segment of the workforce and several studies conducted in the USA and Canada tell us that this group in particular relies on Internet technology for just about every part of their lives. For everything from banking, insurance, research, socializing, entertainment and shopping, the Internet plays a central role in the lives of most people under 45 and the majority of people in the Western world. No arguments? OK, good.

Now with regards to Internet technologies, the largest growth area of all has been in social networking. Not by a little bit, by a lot. The rise of YouTube, MySpace, Facebook (these technologies are so new that my MS Word 2003 still thinks I am making spelling mistakes!!) and many others in the past few years has happened on a staggering scale – faster than a speeding technology.

Looking at real data, there have been sharp increases in activities from across all demographic groups including the 65 and over group. Data from Delvinia Interactive Corp. in Canada indicates that 84% of N-Gen and 37% of 65+ Canadians visit Facebook regularly. Over 80% of Generation Y, 59% of Boomers, and 50% of 65+ visit YouTube at least once per month.

The data is real and it is clear. The vast majority of the workforce is becoming increasingly reliant on Internet and social networking technologies and upcoming generations are quickly becoming more sophisticated. Enterprise Intranets, on the other hand, are falling far behind and most don't even yet realize the fact.

The same studies by Delvinia also show that the Generation X and Net-Gen groups are increasingly reliant on Internet technologies in order to stay connected with the work place. Increasingly reliant, yet businesses have yet to take full advantage.

To me this all points to an unassailable conclusion. The largest part of the North American workforce is comfortable with Internet technology and increasingly reliant on social networking as a fundamental part of their communications, networking, and information sharing.

For businesses this should jump out as a clear opportunity. Some of the biggest challenges of any organization revolve around communications, team building, information sharing, networking, internal marketing… well the answer should be obvious. Social media is real, it works, and it is here to stay and now is the time for social media technologies to be adopted by Enterprise.

Social media and social networking should be the cornerstone of any office Intranet system. In fact, I have referenced in other articles that UK research concludes that the up and coming workforce will simply expect social networking within an organization. There is no question of the success of this media outside of the workplace and the benefits within the Enterprise are many. Now is the time to move the organization into the future; the future is now and the leaders will quickly set themselves apart from the rest of the pack.


Marlon McMartin is founder and Managing Director of Office Ability Intranet software. This article is copyright protected and may only be republished provided there is reference given to the author and a back-link provided to www.OfficeAbility.com.