Social Media in the Enterprise? That'll Never Happen!

I just had an interesting exchange during an identity management planning discussion. We were reviewing fields included in a new HR system for possible mapping into the ID management system, and saw that fields to capture Facebook and Twitter IDs were included. Most folks in the room started laughing. I mentioned that social media handles or IDs will be included in internal employee directories sooner rather than later.  The reactions ranged from scoffing to comments like "scary."

Whether Twitter or Facebook accounts specifically will transition to the corporate staff directory remains to be seen.

Do you doubt that some method for sharing social media accounts across the mainstream enterprise will happen soon?

I'm sure some forward thinking organizations already do this, since it's made it to at least one HR system's default fields list.

Sidebar: I know there are social media management tools that allow companies to create internal social networks. Often it's an add-on to a suite of tools for monitoring and managing your company's social presence. That's an interesting start, but what individual wants to actively participate in a closed social network with yet another social account or persona? There are only so many people out there who participate in more than one social network/tool, especially when that network doesn't allow you to auto-link with Facebook. I have active Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn accounts. I'm not normal (insert you're joke silently here). Enterprise social management tool vendors should design their tools so that internal staff can easily choose what content to include or not include from their existing social network of choice.

Back on topic, what do you think? Will (or should) companies look to integrate links to employee social media profiles? Obviously it would need to be voluntary, but the upcoming dominance of digital natives will take care of that. What are the benefits? The drawbacks?