Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

There has been a bit of debate about the recent reports about the decline in Facebook users. Critics argue that the decline is a sign of social networking fatigue. Supporters argue that it was inevitable as it would have been impossible for Facebook to maintain its rapid growth.

My opinion is that it doesn’t matter. I’ve been doing a bit of thinking about social networks, Facebook in particular, recently, arguing that the future of the Internet is about information management. I recently got to see an enterprise application of this, a tailored version of Microsoft Sharepoint, which illustrated how social networking can be leveraged in an office environment.

At an IIA event last year, Richard Delevan also tapped into this. Delevan talked (mp3 link - Richard is the third speaker) about how Irish companies can tap into new markets and develop better employees by embracing new media. I’m taking a different view, whereby incorporating new/social media will ultimately lead to an evolution in the workplace, particularly for larger enterprises, in terms of how we work with our colleagues. This will be complimented by a generation who are used to this type of environment due to growing up on the likes of Bebo.