Social solutions in site
Let them mingle online to their heart's content, says Mike Stopforth, founder of Cerebra, a social media consultancy.
"If staff don't access it online, they'll get to it via their cellphones. Either companies can make their presence on the site known and use it to their advantage or they can try to play policeman and lose out."
Stopforth says that, traditionally, SA companies were conservative when it came to using Web tools to improve communication with their customers and employees. "But with broadband becoming more widely available, companies are realising it's not just geeks who use the Net to interact – it's ordinary customers," says Stopforth.
With managers not sure how to use these sites to their advantage, Stopforth's consultancy has a growing number of clients. "Communication used to happen around communal spaces such as the water cooler, or the microwave," he says. "Now it's in virtual chat rooms and through networking groups."
Cerebra boasts a number of blue-chip clients, from Discovery to SABMiller. Some clients, such as Samsung and Toyota, use Cerebra's connections to young bloggers to help them design better enterprise blogging sites to market new products.
Earlier this year Stopforth also started the successful 27 dinners, where young professionals network over food and wine. Now the dinners are expanding to London and San Francisco.
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