Five corporate social platforms to think beyond Facebook

When we talk about social networks, the first that comes to our mind is Facebook, right? Not a long time ago, for us Brazilians we were thinking about Orkut. This sounds like an era that often moves to another era and we change our opinion as a consequence. But do you think that social networks are only like that you already know as quoted above?

Well, if we look around we will find many others with different purposes, here are some of them:
This does not mean that you have to follow each of those, far less they are the most important ones to be part of. Also, the focus given to those ones are very differently from what you are used to navigate.

- Cisco Jabber
Aggregate the unified communications platform from Cisco, Jabber was designed to make employees more productive, regardless of location or device used. Result of an acquisition made by the manufacturer in 2008, the service allows users to access presence, instant messaging, voice, video, voice messaging, desktop sharing and conferencing capabilities.

- Socialcast
In May, VMware acquired Socialcast, a social networking platform that allows companies to integrate social tools and processes within enterprise applications. The free version offers features like activity stream, private message function, microblogging and profiles. The option premium brings analytics, directory integration and user tasks, among others.

- JiveSoftware
It is an extensive platform that allows third party developers to integrate social networking capabilities using an SDK based on OpenSocial.

- Chatter
The Salesforce.com supports from the beginning the question of social networking in the enterprise and supply Chatter was involved in a CRM application's own independent company for something that can be deployed even by non Salesforce customers. The free version allows users to create profiles, post updates, follow co-workers, group creation, file sharing and collaboration in a private and secure. Furthermore, access can be done anywhere from Chatter Chatter Mobile and Desktop. Since the Plus Edition provides all the capabilities of the free version as a more refined integration with CRM, and a more elaborate security and other controls.

- SAP StreamWork
The SAP StreamWork is a social networking tool based on the model software as a service (SaaS) designed for enterprise collaboration. The Enterprise Edition adds advanced security capabilities, automated provisioning and the ability to integrate legacy applications, including SAP and SharePoint, Microsoft.

Possibly you can never join to those social networks above, for some reasons like money to invest, companies not interested on this, or also not fun as we know.
At least, now you have an slight idea that social networks go beyond the popular ones.