You may say that this is a pipe dream and cannot be reality any time soon unless we have futuristic gadgets similar to what were featured in popular TV series Star Trek.

Well, I say think again. We have Social Media tools and technology that can be used over enterprise intranet (as opposed to internet) to make this a reality. To know more, take a look at this excellent preso by Oscar Berg on the subject. My favorite is slide no. 91 (Know thyself).

Enjoy and please do share your comments and thoughts:

Some of the more interesting points mentioned by Jeff are:

• Currently LinkedIn is used by 60+ Million professionals out of estimated 500 Million professionals world-wide
• LinkedIn is profitable (rare for a valley start-up these days), so far raised close to $100 Million, all of it still in the bank
• Has three lines of business, Premium Subscriptions, Ad Sales and Enterprise Licensing – growth fastest for Enterprise Licensing
• LinkedIn a “Professional Network”, calling it “Social Network” is a misnomer

Jeff also mentioned that no matter where in the world they talked to LinkedIn customers, people always mention that they want to keep their personal lives and professional lives separate. This is not surprising, but given the “always on” nature of Social Networking coupled with high speed internet access from smart phones and portable devices, lines between personal and professional lives are getting blurred all the time.

It will be interesting to see how work-life balance evolves over the next 2-5 years time frame. In my opinion, employers should take a lead and make work fun to the extend possible in order to keep employees engaged and productive.

IBM is a great example of how companies should handle employees’ use of Social Media. IBM has approximately 400,000 employees spread through out the world, still it allows them to use Social Media without much restrictions. Casey Hibbard has written an excellent blog post on how IBM uses Social Media to spur employee innovation (see this link).

As per Casey’s post, IBM lets employees communicate with each other and the public over Social Media channels without intervention. This in spite of the fact that IBM has:

• A few thousand “IBMers” on Twitter
• Thousands of external bloggers,
• Almost 200,000 on LinkedIn
• 17,000 internal blogs
• 100,000 employees using internal blogs
• 53,000 members on SocialBlue (like Facebook for employees)
• As many as 500,000 participants in company crowd-sourcing “jams”
• 50,000 in alum networks on Facebook and LinkedIn

Watch this CNBC interview with Adam Christensen, IBM’s Social Media Communications Manager and John Abell, New York Bureau chief, Wired.com. According to Adam, IBM’s job is to help employees go out and have conversations that they want to, so that they can lead the business they are involved in. Not allowing employees to use Social Media is “short sighted” and companies will be “missing an opportunity”. (watch this video for more)

To succeed in this new age, it is important to embrace and adopt changes brought about by Social Media. And for that to happen, it is critical that organizations have proper guidelines for Social Media use by their employees. Employees should be allowed to use Social Media freely within those guidelines. (for IBM’s guidelines, see this link and for an excellent database of Social Media usage policies of 116 organizations, see this link).

I want to end this post by sharing a thought provoking video on how the workforce is changing in Social Media Age. Please watch this video and let me know if companies should restrict employees’ Social Media use.

Very relevant given the fact that many organizations are grappling with this issue currently. I think best way for organizations to deal with this issue is to educate employees about Do’s and Don’ts, have a “reasonable” Social Media usage guidelines and above all, have Trust and Confidence in employees to do the right thing.

(Click Play for slide show to play with presentation audio)

Notice the impact of engaged employees on business outcomes on slide no. 4. I also like the mantra on slide 23:

• Be Found.
• Be True.
• Be Talked About.

Time has come for HR managers to be passionate about Social Media and embrace Social Networking in a big way so that their most precious resource, namely employees, remain engaged and continue to deliver outstanding business results.

• Very few HR departments have realized the challenge they face in managing “Socially Connected” workforce. Restricting usage of Social Networks by employees is not the answers – it is like having one’s head buried in sand, thinking problem will go away – Social Media are here to stay, employers must have a reasonable policy on “Responsible use of Social Media” by employees.

• HR managers should engage their employees and potential employees through Social Media – the way marketers are engaging their Customers using Social Media – there is a great opportunity for “Social HR”. I haven’t come across good case studies on employers engaging their employees/potential employees through Social Media.

What do you think? What should employers do to engage their employees and potential employees through Social Media?