Social Networking Tools and CRM

Social Networks are still in search of Business Models.

Despite skepticism that the buzz around social networking tools is fueled by venture capital-created hype, executives at some of these start-ups insist there's money to be made from software that connects friends to friends of friends.

Services like Friendster, Tribe Networks, LinkedIn and Google's Orkut may be growing in popularity but, as Tribe founder Mark Pincus admits, revenues are non-existent and profitability is not even in the equation today.
(www.internetnews.com, February 13, 2004).

Subscribtions, classifieds, targeted advertising, all reasonable idea's which have not come into reality. I strongly believe that a Social Network doesn't have a business value. It's what we do with the interconnectivity of social networks is what makes profit happen. In my opinion, current social networks miss a clear business perspective.

Business people looking to connect with each other is interesting from a profit perspective if they want to connect on the basis of a business propositions. When business development is happening easy and faster, then social networks creates value and revenues. But if I have a clear business proprosition, do I still need social networks like LinkedIn.

Your current customers are your friends and the friends of these friends you have to win as new customers. Your current customers have to give you teh referrals to their friends. That's what customer relationship management should do. So, are social networking tools the next answer to CRM.

New York-based Visible Path is taking a different approach to marketing the service, by targeting enterprises with social networking technology. Visible Path Chief Executive Antony Brydon believes the corporate customer is an easier sell for technology that offer relationship networks that connect them to prospective customers, partners, investors and employees (www.internetnews.com, February 13, 2004).

Visible Path has stated a mission which most social networks still do without. Visible Path states that our company's most valuable and least visible asset is relationship capital. Their objective is to accelerate deals using relationships in common to establish trust with new prospects. By means of social network analysis to intelligent mine and make sense of relationship data that exists in information systems. Finding the best path to a particular target is the mission of Visible Path.