Yah. It is so hard to determine if the IBM and MIT study only looked at males, who definately make more cash than females for the same $, or what. However, people, isn’t this just reason enough?

The study is trying to put a financial value on “new types of friendships” online. And yes, they are trying to introduce “friends” you may like based on a formula after snooping watching what you do online.  SO shades of Facebook.

My thought on this says once they put a value on it, some companies who don’t get social media will now find ways to entice you to stop it by rewarding you some other way, or, they can just make sure you won’t get x amount of raise next time.   Blame this on my corporate bitterness?   However, I am all about social networking in our lives, and it just makes sense that the corporations would do their best to use this to some advantage.  If it works on the friend level, if you will, it must also work on the work level they might be thinking.  

Another  issue I can see is, you know you can never be 100% real with social “work” tools.  It is already well known that you have to watch what you say in your off hours on your own wall in Facebook,or watch what you say on Twitter about that job you just got hired for but already dread, for a few examples.  Will there be some sort of economic penalty if an employee avoids  social media sponsored by the company, due to not trusting the system?  That person will already be suffering a lower pay check, as per the study results.

So, are companies just fooling themselves thinking this benefits them somehow?   Not if the actual value of each friendship is calculated out, which is what this study is working hard to define.  A new formula to put in the MBA studies : ROFI ( return on friendship investment ).  Will the corporate budgets start to include ROFI dollars?  Will each employee have to enter into their annual performance plan how they developed “friends”, which in turn increased their performance for the year?  Will they have to name said friends?  Will they have to limit the names to three, or five, of the most “socially valuable” friends who could enhance their careers?!   Could an employee get a fail on being socially inept?  Is this what social media is coming to?