Tip of the Day: Add structure to social media

Can social media be adapted by companies to add business value without being a drain on productivity as employees spend their time tweeting and Facebooking? Harvard Business Review says yes.

The Management Tip of the Day offers quick, practical management tips and ideas from Harvard Business Review and HBR.org (www.hbr.org). Any opinions expressed are not endorsed by Reuters.

"Many companies shy away from the internal use of social media because they fear that all that social activity hinders productivity. But the key is to integrate social media tools in a structured way so people aren't running amok tweeting and writing on walls.

Try providing social applications that enable getting work done. For example, implement a chat feature within a sales tracking application that allows people to converse about the likelihood of a sale. Or, provide a discussion board in a task management system to help employees more effectively complete their tasks.

Combine the best of social and structured applications to get work done faster and more effectively."

Today's management tip was adapted from "Want Value From Social? Add Structure" by Tom Davenport.