We have already established what SocialText is and how you can use it. There is a free trial, in case you want to see how this really works. If you are an individual, this software is not recommended to you, unless you have a company with more than 100 employees. My opinion is that you must have a lot of employees to be able to use the software properly.
The program is very much similar to Facebook, Twitter, with a blogging platform, like WordPress and Blogger and with other social media sites, all combined. We have already seen in the article presented before about SocialText that the three main characteristics of this software are: the fact that it is just like a social network, it allows you to post short messages in your status, so it also has the microblogging feature and it allows the users of the software to create groups in which to add employees that are, let’s say, connected to work on a project, or which are in the group of the Software Architects, or who are the interns of the company and so on.
Now, we will focus on the other characteristics of the program, that will be highly detailed. The first of which we will talk is the Social Spreadsheet. It is very much similar with those memos you leave to your boyfriend when you go to work in the morning to announce him that today is your one year anniversary. Know those? Well, this is a digital environment and the latest information is seen by all of those who are connected to this system at a certain time. For example, you enter a certain group and want to know how the progress is going. Don’t read everybody’s statuses, if you don’t want to waste a lot of time. Just enter the Group’s features and one of them is this: you are able to see how the team is doing and where they managed to reach with their project. They could be asked to write when a new phase of the project is done. Of course, the project manager will ask them permanent reports, but if you are let’s say in another country and you are not the direct manager of this project, but under your control is that project manager who controls the project, you could enter this system and see what the employees think of the project and where they are with the time limit and the resources.
The Dashboard is the first page you will see when you will enter the Intranet of the company. Not only that this page is friendly, but it can become even more friendly, because you can customize it the way you want. You want it to be pink, since pink is your favorite color. Don’t worry. With this software, everything is possible and you will never hear from the system engineers that you overloaded too much the interface with your picture you posted or with your color you have created for your Dashboard. I speak from experience, because there were times when the managers from the company I worked for a few years kept on making criticisms to those who wanted to enhance their ugly and unfriendly Intranet interface, where they had to enter to create reports. There was no communication between the departments.
This is why I say and I will repeat as long as I will speak of this software: it is one of the best on the market, because it enhances the work experience of the employees from a certain company and when the employees are happy, they will work better and more efficient. Don’t think that they would chat all day long. If they are supposed to chat, then let them chat. Some of the company’s positions could involve the communication. For example, the Human Resources department is supposed to be a department where the employees get support for their problems. Well, how come an employee that works in California would get support from HR, when the HR department is only in New York? By virtual communication, of course. Let the employees communicate and your company will develop more and better than you think.
