Sam Aparicio

My friends at Socialtext just released Socialtext Signals, a sort of Twitter for the Enterprise. So what is the big deal?

Let’s admit it. Companies these days are laggards when it comes to collaboration. The consumer web has exploded with ideas that are changing how people approach their work.

And Twitter –a half measure of self-centeredness and half measure of gregariousness– has shown us that there is value in constructing a shared awareness around us.

If you think about it, one of the great tenets of execution is that it all starts with good communication. Knowing what is going on –the zeitgeist of a company– is square #1 when it comes to managing for results.

So you may dismiss social software, or enterprise 2.0, or Twitter for that matter, as another fad. And it may be the case that it comes to pass, at least in its current form.

But technology like Signals is reaching out to you, extending a helpful hand to assist you in better understanding the pulse of your company –the customer in crisis, the lead that just came in, the obscure project that everybody should know about– and that is plain, good old execution at play.

And that is why this stuff matters.