With social software platforms being used with more business focused objectives in mind, there has been a lot of coverage on large enterprise businesses and how they have been able to step up their productivity through better collaboration software. Yet somehow, they are actually just as accessible and relevant to start-ups and smaller businesses as they are to the enterprise businesses.

Perhaps start-ups building social business collaboration platforms into their websites and using them from an earlier stage have an edge over the larger companies when it comes to implementing a collaboration framework into their business. Since having a great software platform itself is only part of the framework, having every employee and stakeholder in the business buy into the initiative to use social collaboration is just as important -- and that is much easier at the start-up stage than it is once there is a large workforce to convince.

The other advantage start-ups and smaller business have is “ideal timing.” Putting in a collaboration framework is a lot about encouraging a collaborative work culture using social software, and start-ups are often able to adapt quicker to a change in processes and work culture as compared to larger businesses. Once everyone within the business is comfortable using social software and rely on them to carry out their daily work objectives, it becomes an integral part of the work culture and encourages growth rather than being a policy the company is trying to implement to get everyone to use this new software. The right time to adopt such software is “as early as possible” -- so in that sense, start-ups and smaller businesses in earlier stages have the opportunity to start off on the right foot and build a collaborative culture from the get go.

Start-ups often have a lot going on simultaneously and everyone in the business is wearing different hats, managing various roles at different times of the day and it can all get a bit overwhelming. Working on products or various projects, communicating and sharing notes with investors, recruiting and reaching out to potential candidates, sharing guidelines with existing employees, coordinating with vendors, training and so much more.  Having things organized and being able to manage all these communications, content, and interactions on a single platform through a single login can make things much easier to handle and more productive.

Accessing a single Wiki to write and cross your “to-dos” for the day or assign tasks for important projects, using the instant messaging to communicate without having to move around the office, answering questions and discussing important issues on forums, gathering opinions through polls, uploading and sharing training videos, scheduling meetings and events and a lot of other activities all within your own social software platform can bring everything together efficiently for start-ups and really help them grow on a more stable framework together.

The investment need not be a large one. Social software platforms can be quite cost effective and ones with customizable source code can enable a start-up to highly customize their Intranets and collaboration software to the exact requirements. The investment in terms of time, getting everyone to buy into the collaborative culture and the implementation period is also significantly less and the returns in terms of productivity and having a streamlined way of going forward is well worth it.

Who said collaboration is only for the enterprise businesses?