Innovative uses of social networking in a commercial environment

Question

I am looking for some examples of innovative uses of social networking for a purely commercial environment. I can see the uses that Twitter might have for micro blogging for anything (application event logs springs to mind amongst other ideas).

Does anyone have any further examples or ideas they may want to share for ways that we can embed this kind of technology in our infrastructure.

For reference we are are an organisation which uses primarliy Microsoft technology (SharePoint, VS 2008, ASP.Net etc.).

Feel free to reference specific code examples, tutorials or just to make subjective comments on the concept of Social Networking for the business environment.

Sites currently being looked at include: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Maps.

Answer 1

With a little effort, you may use Captcha for Air Force recruiting instead of these old-fashioned color blind cards.

You can even do it online!

Answer 2

Don't forget the very common practice to use IM in corporate settings. It's often much easier than phone or mail, even if it is often not allowed by the IT security staff. Granted, it may not be truly innovative but the subversive factor counts, IMHO.

Answer 3

GREAT EXAMPLE here http://brandonhallawards.com/08/958-BLOGS-Sun.doc

by the way, are there any others? I am also interested. - Echo