Considerations for the design of Social Software for the Enterprise: How to support social interaction in the work environment?

Abstract: This study is motivated by several factors. First, the current increase in the number of products developed for business labeled “social software” to support social networking at work. Secondly, there is a great deal of skepticism and question marks concerning social software’s usefulness, usability and added value to the corporate world. There is also uncertainty of the side effects and how these factors can be measured and concerns if a SSE can act as an integrated part of the daily routines for employers work or not.Online social networking is slowly making its way into the enterprise world for two main reasons. First, many large enterprises are located at different sites and there are issues in communication and cooperation between teams and employees spread over the world that have to communicate. Incitements for using social software in enterprise are also closely related to the strategy of a one business system for the whole enterprise. Secondly, as an employee generational shift takes place and established ways of socializing in private life often include using Social Network Services (SNS).There is skepticism towards Social Software (SS) and (SNS) in the corporate world concerning its value, use and Return on Investment (ROI). There have been measuring and analysis of quantitative data derived from SNS activity that can display interconnections between nodes but reflects nothing of the nature of the content shared between these nodes. This technical approach in creating incitements for investing in SS does not seem increase credibility for Social Software Enterprise (SSE).