Nine steps for choosing technology for social networking

So I am working on editing Darin Hartley's forthcoming book 10 Steps to Social Networking for Business, and I feel like I could use a break so I thought I would write a little about his book. It has a lot of good information for getting into social networking as a business, but so far his nine-step process for selecting social networking technology has struck me as one of the more useful (now I am only up to step 4, so don't assume that I am giving everything away!).

1. Identify needs based on critical business initiatives. In other words, don't just jump into social networking because it's cool. You really need to know why you are doing it.

2. Estabish a core decision-making team. When you are trying to decide whether or not to use off-the-shelf social networking technologies (such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, and so forth) or to build a custom system, make sure that you've got the right people involved. Hint: One of those people should be someone from your IT department!

3. Develop core functional requirements. Determine what your current systems look like so that whatever you choose to go with is compatible.

4. Develop a criteria matrix. Decide what you need (and maybe a little something you want?).

5. Establish a list of potential solution candidates. Make a (short-ish) list of technologies that may fit your needs.

6. Review potential solutions against criteria and rank them. Well, you've got a list of possible solutions: Now look at them, figure out which ones have the most of the stuff you need and want, and then put them in order.

7. Participate in product demos with company-specific use cases. This step applies if you are seriously considering a custom system.

8. Choose the networking solution. You've got all the data you need. Now, pick something!

9. Implement your organization's social networking solution. In other words, come up with a plan for using off-the-shelf technology, or buy, modify, or build something specifically made for your organization.

So there it is. A simple process for deciding whether to get involved with social networking and deciding what technology to use. To learn more about Darin, his book, and social networking in general, check out the social network he has created over at Ning: Social Networking for Business. And go ahead and join it, why don't you? He had a contest a while back where the person who brought the greatest number of new members got a prize. Let him know I sent you. I could use a prize!