USA Today portended social media saying: “Best Friends Good for Business”

December 1, 2004, USA Today ran an article “Best friends good for business: Employees with buddies at work more ‘engaged’”. At that time, 29% of employees said “they had a best friend at work, and mounting research indicates that the word ‘best’ makes the difference.”

LinkedIn had been around a year, Myspace and Facebook existed. But the term “social media” wasn’t widely used, if it even existed at that time.

Is it possible that this article was the foreshadowed the growing trend in social media to find and do business alongside others with whom who we feel an affinity? At the time they said that companies didn’t necessarily schedule friends together, but friends could refer others for employment and ask for specific schedules.

The statistics noting the differences between people having friends at work and those not were interesting. The 3 in 10 workers who had a best friend at work vs the 7 in 10 who did not were significantly more engaged in their jobs.

Now, we haven’t conducted a scientific study, however, the more we are exposed to people who successfully incorporate social media into work, the more we feel that the people who engaged in social media, even LinkedIn (the professional social network), the happier they are with what they are doing and accomplishing.

What do you think? Rather than make other notes about anecdotal evidence, let me ask for yours.  Are you able to use social media at work?  And (whether yes or no) how engaged or disengaged are you from your work?

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