Social networks have become an indispensable part of our lives. It comes as no surprise that global social network penetration has risen to an average of 58.4%. While we often associate social networks exclusively with public platforms like Facebook and Twitter, private social networks can be valuable for businesses.
A private social network is a platform created by an organisation to enable people within it to communicate and build on each other’s knowledge, experience, and strengths. While public social networks are designed to drive awareness and engagement with broad audiences, private social networks help users foster close and lasting relationships. They offer members a secure online environment where they can connect and share information and resources.
Private social networks are great resources for organisations because they return control to those who own and use them. Since no third parties are involved, members can connect with others discreetly and more meaningfully. Private networks usually have fewer members than their public counterparts and can be an excellent platform for discussing common objectives or something confidential.
In this article, we discuss the benefits of creating a private social network and why you should consider building one for your organisation.
Benefits of private social networks
A private social network allows organisations to create a community where members can connect and engage with their colleagues. They differ from public social networks in the exclusivity and control they offer. Here are some advantages of setting up a private social network:
- Sharing information with colleagues
Public social networks are crowded, noisy, and often cluttered with spam, memes, and ads. Important messages can get lost in this avalanche of content, making it difficult to have meaningful conversations.
Private social networks provide employees with a convenient platform to share documents, memos, and presentations with their colleagues. Many private social networks offer advanced tools such as real-time shared editing to help remote groups work seamlessly. While public social media can lead to a waste of time, private networks can make communication more efficient. Employees can be trained on the appropriate use of the platform and given guidelines to adhere to.
- Allowing team members to network and talk
Professional networking is not just important when looking for a new job. Instead, all organisations must encourage employees to create lasting relationships with their existing colleagues to foster a positive working environment.
If your team is disjointed with employees working in isolated silos, it can negatively impact your company culture and bottom line. A successful team comprises members who can communicate effectively with each other and establish mutually beneficial relationships. A private social network provides them with an appropriate platform to approach other employees and freely exchange goal-oriented ideas and information.
Private social networks also help in manoeuvring hierarchies. They empower entry and mid-level employees to approach senior executives and upper management, which can be intimidating to do in person. Moreover, these platforms allow employees to share their inputs on how the organisation can improve its functioning and workflow. Since the employees can share feedback, they are more likely to be invested in achieving organisational goals.
- Creating your brand’s knowledge base and archive of digital resources
Gone are the days when companies handed out binders of printed pages containing training material to new employees during the onboarding process. Instead, companies choose to save time and resources by creating digital training resources that are easy to share and edit over a private social network.
Such networks can also be used to securely store corporate documents, memos, emails, and digital assets. You can choose which employees can access different assets and share documents with a click.
- Ensure the security and privacy of your community
Like all digital networks, public social networks are vulnerable to hacks and spam. The Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2022 Consumer Impact Report found that 85% of consumers had their Instagram accounts hacked, while 25% had their Facebook accounts compromised.
Private social networks are comparatively more secure in protecting the data and privacy of their members. The organisation also has complete control over who can join the network and access information stored on it. Content moderation and user privacy is much better handled on a private social network.
Controlling the platform’s content, features, interface, and roll-out are also easy. You can use data and insights to build and update the platform according to the needs of its members.
Which private social network host should you choose?
There are many ways to build a private social network. You can build one from scratch, which is time-consuming and expensive. Or you can work with a host like Learnium Communities to create a safe and secure virtual environment for your team.
Learnium Communities is a private social network designed to share professional content, network, and host webinars. You have complete control over who can join – people you invite, members in your network, or more border groups.
Members working on projects can set up collaborative documents using Office 365 or Google Docs to seamlessly create, edit and view documents in real time by sharing the links on Learnium Communities. They can then head back to the app to discuss their thoughts on the project with their peers. Our private social networks include social features such as hashtags, mentions, and ‘likes’, so your members can engage using features they’re already familiar with.
When you build a private social network with Learnium, you get the power to monetise your community and build a knowledge base for future members. You get access to powerful analytics that help you understand what works for your network and gain deep insights into activity and engagement levels.
Moreover, you can customise the platform with your branding to instil a sense of community amongst members whenever they log in.
Ready to find out how Learnium can help you drive better learning outcomes? Request a demo to explore our solutions for creating engaging and personalised learning experiences.