Assessing social networking effectiveness

The usage of social networking sites has increased considerably over the past few years. Nowadays, participating in online communities has become an everyday activity in the lives of millions, world-wide. Also, in enterprises, employees are now faced with a diverse set of online tools (e.g. wikis, blogs) with the purpose of enhancing collaboration and productivity, while surmounting traditional communication barriers. However, these tools alone are not enough to build and maintain active online communities - purpose is the key. This paper analyses, in a large telecom environment, the efficiency and effectiveness of existing community tools and how these influence employees' daily work.