If knowledge is power, then knowledge management is necessary to control and use that power.

A knowledge management program can help accomplish the following goals:

• Shorten new product development cycles
• Spread organizational innovation and learnings and capture the knowledge of key individuals who may leave or retire
• Leverage employee's expertise across the organization and connect internal and external groups to facilitate the flow of information
• Avoid the "silo-ing" of data and permit all authorized employees access to the same, updated information sources

Enterprise Social Software encourages participation and suggestions from employees throughout the company, and user-generated solutions to the company's problems.

In addition to acting as a repository of information, social networks encourage discussion about this information, and word-of-mouth spread of this information. The usefulness of information can be rated and tagged to make it easier for other employees to find. This cooperation and collaboration around corporate knowledge facilitates product development, and captures and makes accessible the information and expertise held by the employees and the extended group of community participants.

Employees of the same company (and, when appropriate, vendors and partners) who are distributed geographically can find each other and share best practices and experiences based on role or function, without facing the common problem that knowledge is locked away in incompatible data silos to which only limited subsets of employees have access.

The combination of social interactions among colleagues with the discussion of company knowledge leads to more visibility for company knowledge. The information relevant to company operations becomes more relevant to individuals because of the ability to discuss, rate, and classify, and the information is restated in ways that more of the team can relate to and use.

A further benefit of such a knowledge-sharing community is that company social networks help management identify, reward, and retain contributors within the organization, regardless of geography, discipline, or department.

"The ability to effectively harness the appropriate online contacts and content can create new insights, market analyses and competitive advantages." (Gartner Research, "The Emerging Enterprise Social Software Marketplace" July 23, 2007)