A couple of posts back, I wrote about the confusion a couple of companies seem to have around their use of social media–posting internal photos to a globally visible, public platform. In that post, I suggested a couple of better options for internal use. My favorite among those is Jive.

For those of you who don’t have a social business network at your company, it probably bears a little explanation: Jive takes the best aspects of a social media environment–transparency, collaboration, shared spaces, status updates–and translates it into a business environment.

The great thing about Jive is it supports a business application of the social impulse.  Within the platform, users have the ability to create global, collaborative groups, share information and documents, work together on common projects, and build an internal profile around their unique expertise. Andrew Kratz writes about this benefit in his blog. (Andrew’s doing some interesting work in helping companies implement Jive.)

The positive impact from the social aspect of Jive’s platform shouldn’t be underestimated. Rich profiles, personal photos, status updates, internal blogs all help build understanding about the person on the other end of the phone call or email, so the work gets done more quickly and creatively than in the days of a “push” intranet and collaboration over email.

And, if I dare say it–not only is this good for business– it makes work more fun.