Does Enterprise Social Networking keep its promises?

The concept is not that easy to understand. It appears to be a social network (like one we all use every day at home or, ‘covertly’, at work); it is trendy, and everyone has an opinion about its usefulness and dangers; it allows people who do not know each other any better than if they were friends on Facebook to communicate; and it is also called a social network. But it is actually Enterprise Social Networking (ESN). ESN is not a leisure activity. It focuses on the ability to use the functions of new social media tools to create value where previously, due to a lack of collaboration and sharing of knowledge, a company lost time and efficiency reinventing the wheel, unaware that one of its employees had become an expert in this field. So, is ESN the new panacea? Those who use it with success warn that the tool is nothing by itself, and that personal support and accompaniment is everything. However, this requires time, dexterity and financial resources…