Image
Top
Navigation
June 13, 2010

Socialcast – Social Networking in the Workplace

Socialcast is a collaboration platform that gives businesses of all sizes a better way to disseminate information amongst employees. With the use of activity streams, microblogging tools, and employee profiles, companies can begin communicating more effectively and efficiently without sacrificing security or privacy. The application also offers complete integration with a number of existing office systems such as Outlook and Sharepoint, which allows users to check what’s going on in their Socialcast accounts through the same applications they already use on a daily basis.

Enter a business email to get started with Socialcast, and begin inviting your coworkers to join at the same time. Like Facebook, Socialcast offers features such as newfeeds—dubbed “activity streams”—status updates, and threaded comments among contacts in your network. You can upload documents and presentations in the same way that you would upload photos to Facebook, and start receiving real-time feedback from coworkers who have additional comments or ideas. Socialcast even offers public and private groups, where employees with similar jobs, skills, or even hobbies can meet up and chat.

Mobile applications make it easy to keep up-to-date on what’s going on at Socialcast even when you’re not in the office, and the application’s total Outlook integration means you can have messages from your Socialcast stream go directly into custom email folders. If you run a company with young employees who frequently use Facebook during their off time, then Socialcast is a communication application you can be sure your employees will embrace with enthusiasm.

Practical Uses:

  • Let your bosses know what you’ve been working on
  • Upload presentation ideas to get feedback from colleagues
  • Join a group with people in your company who share the same hobby
  • Easily communicate with colleagues who work from home or another office location

Insider Tips:

  • Integrate with Sharepoint or Outlook
  • Get the Socialcast mobile application to check your stream from anywhere
  • Update your status when you start a new project
  • Manage what specific members of your Socialcast network can have access to

What we liked:

  • Anyone who uses Facebook can understand how to use Socialcast
  • Private groups give colleagues a place to discuss sensitive information
  • Company email addresses are needed to join a particular group
  • Optional desktop application makes it even easier to receive messages from the site

What we didn’t like:

  • Small business owners who use Gmail will have a difficult time signing up for the site, since it requires users to have a company-branded email address

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: October 2009
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: San Francisco, California
  • Founded by: Tim Young
  • Web site: http://www.socialcast.com

Costs:

  • Basic version is free
  • Premium and Enterprise versions are priced individually based on company size

Comments

  1. Good for office workers..

    dubrovnik airport hotels

Submit a Comment

Cancel reply