Since I’ve talking about social networking so much lately, I thought I’d point you to an interesting post that Luis Suarez wrote about the business value of social networking (which includes a presentation by David Tebbutt about the same subject).

David’s presentation mentions as caveats that hierarchies get flattened and silos get breached — yet I’m not entirely sure that this is always the case (this seems to be a common claim about social networking tools, which, as Luis mentioned, was something knowledge management often claimed it would do).

It’s very true that the introduction of social networking tools (and I think it’s safe to say that we’re talking about online social networking tools most of the time) can be a catalyst for change, but it can’t really change the culture of an organization. I agree with David’s claim that social networking (often) does have value within the business, it’s just that like anything else, it can fall flat on its face if the organizational culture is not conducive to the approach taken. And thanks to both David and Luis for continuing the discussion on this topic.