I used Instant Messaging a lot at my last firm, it was great to be able to touch base with people when you didn't want to send an email and they were on the phone but appeared to be online. Sites like Twitter and Yammer have taken over from Instant Messaging a bit, especially behind the firewall. Being able to see what people are doing is a great way of starting a conversation, especially if you're interested in what they're doing.

People search is one of the most highly valued tools on our Intranet and probably the most well used. I agree that people able to find out what expertise people have is also good, but it's reliant on the individual either adding information about their expertise or having a search that is very good at picking out keywords/expertise from content.

I'm a fan of mentoring as a tool for helping individuals to find out more about the organisation they work for and as a way for them to speak to senior members of staff, these are typically the people who are mentors. Thanks for the post I'll be blogging about this on my blog no doubt!

This post was mentioned on Twitter by markbower: New blog post: Social Knowledge Management? Simple social tools vs. expensive KM systems… http://bit.ly/5Ee3r2 #in…