Getting Social Networking Media on Your Radar Screen If social media is not on your company’s radar screen, we suggest that you widen your scope. Certainly you know that your children, nieces, nephews, neighbors’ kids -- the younger generation -- ‘friend’ every day at home.  What’s more, many employees are ‘friending’ in the office (yes in the office) every day. Most of us associate social media with the 25 year-old and younger generation. You might be surprised to learn that people over the age of 35 are becoming frequent users of Facebook and MySpace. According to TechCrunch, there has been a 98% usage increase in the 35+ age group to both sites.1   Social Media - What Is it? Social media is an umbrella term given to a collection of online tools designed to promote the sharing of ideas, the stimulation of conversations and the shaping of “community.” The tools include blogs, message boards, wall-postings, email, photo-sharing, gamesharing, instant messaging, music-sharing and voice over IP, to list just a few. Wikipedia notes that “social media uses the ‘wisdom of crowds’ to connect information in a collaborative manner.”2	Infusing Collaborative Technology into your Meeting Event to Drive Outcomes   UNISON® and the Current Economic Environment   UNISON® and Social Networking Media: A Powerful Combination   UNISON® on the Move   Introducing Mike Maturo   PeaceXPiece   In our next issue
	Believe it or Not:  Social Networking Media Are Part of Corporations Today
	Companies have been using social networking media tools for quite a while. WebEx®, LiveMeeting® and Lotus Notes® discussion group software are forms of social media that corporations have used to mandate information sharing. Of course, email is the simplest form. Nowadays, companies are beginning to use the more up-to-date ‘social’ forms of networking tools. These tools are used initially as part of their marketing mix, such as internet blogs and are now being used as part of their company intranet sites. For example:  Best Buy built its social networking site, BlueShirt Nation, with the intention of obtaining customer likes and dislikes through intelligence gathering from its floor sales force. The site turned into an open forum that went beyond gathering “customers’ likes and dislikes to include conversations about improvements to the employee email policies, the customer service process and the employee discount program.”3 The lesson learned was that what was intended as a corporate mandated intelligence-gathering site turned into a collaborative information-sharing tool.  Another example:  Wal-Mart, after flopping with its first blog attempt thinking that it was another channel for public relations, turned over its latest blog, Check Out, to its buyers who can post whatever they want to post.4
	UNISON® and Social Networking
	The correlation between UNISON and today’s social networking media is UNISON’s unique capability to promote two-way “conversations.” What if those conversations could begin prior to a UNISON-driven meeting? More could be accomplished during the UNISON meeting because the participants would have connected with one another and held conversations with each other (“friending”) about the agenda items, their professional interests, shared insights into their particular area of expertise, specialized topics, and of course, personal interests.  Through the use of UNISON and this social networking function, companies are able to promote deliberate and productive conversations around training agendas, culture change, test scoring, strategy development/realignment and sales initiatives prior to the meeting and to a deeper degree during the meeting. UNISON has the capability to design and host a social networking website or work with a company’s IT department to establish a networking site for a particular meeting or series of meetings. Meeting participants would be encouraged to post their professional biographies and profiles as the basis to begin conversations. Meeting agenda, pertinent readings and other items would also be posted for users to review and discuss. As the meeting date draws closer, UNISON would analyze and categorize the conversations to note common interests, suggestions and concerns to shape recommendations for meeting design enhancement.
	The Power of UNISON® and Social Networking Media
	As a result, UNISON-driven meetings become more powerful because, as with the BlueNation social network, participants have a vested interest in the meeting’s successful outcome and their personal success.  Social networking is taken to the nth degree with UNISON as its platform for exchange.  Moreover, post meeting conversations become more meaningful -- the meeting content is reinforced and improved upon.  “Community” ties are established, nourished and strengthened.  The possibilities are endless -- and all because of being ”friended” the UNISON way.
	1 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/06/facebook-users-up-89-over-last-year-demographic-shift/ 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media 3 https://www.marketingprofs.com/8/social-networking-best-buy-blueshirt-nation-maruggi.asp 4 http://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p_1610