Social networking? Oh grow up.

Let’s start with a quick exercise.

If I say a well-known phrase I want you to think of the first thing that springs to mind. Ready?

Social networks.

Now, what came to mind?

I imagine a lot of you were suddenly presented with the disarming image of spotty youths furiously typing away, openly sharing their deepest personal insecurities with one another, using spurious “text speak”, the only language apart from Welsh to be completely devoid of vowels...a different language, indeed a different world, to a lot of us here in the business world. Social networking is just something those “youngsters” do isn’t it?

I know that’s the view I had a few years ago, whilst creating highly targeted, relevant, beautifully creative pieces of mailed communication (which my girlfriend called junk mail) for a large communications agency.

However, a few years on and I am truly enlightened. I now work at Kinship Networking, an agency specialising in building social networks. And we think social networking has grown up.

And here’s why.

An increasing share of our business now comes from organisations seeking to create closed business networks, with the aim of either making their workforce more effective (for example we’ve built a network for a global advertising agency with the aim of enabling their staff to share business problems and post solutions) or seeking to bypass cumbersome and bureaucratic process. Indeed, Harvard Business School estimates that over 70 percent of a business´s work is carried out through its offline social networks (e.g. chats round the water cooler) rather than via official process. An online social network “turbo-charges” these networks.

Closed business networks can also do an extremely effective job of uniting disparate workforces (for example, travelling salesmen or home workers), enabling staff from newly merged companies to connect with one another, or allowing companies to “go virtual”, creating cost-savings that could be the difference between going bust and staying afloat. Imagine a global company which holds an annual event for all of its staff members, the purpose being to connect everyone. Imagine the cost - it would be in the tens if not hundreds of thousands. A social network could be introduced in its stead for a fraction of the price.

It was debated in last night’s Convergence Conversation about the impact of the recession on the fortunes of technology companies. Yes, we’re headed for very tough times. Yes, the high street will probably never be the same again. But I am a glass half full kind of a guy.

Consumer-facing networks such as facebook will thrive as people stay in the home, saving those pennies. We will see more imaginative consumer-facing networks specialising in all manner of weird and wonderful things, using the concept of the “network” in new and exciting ways.

But it’s the impact that social networks can have upon businesses that I am most interested in. I am confident we will see businesses using social networks in innovative ways, allowing that business to be more innovative as a result. We will see the companies behind social networking technologies driving the phenomenon in new directions and along previously undiscovered avenues.

I am not saying the next couple of years will be easy, nope not at all. We will be forced to innovate or we will perish. Max Lerner once said that the turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt. Has social networking discovered that strength?