Christian Buckley explained at the top of his session on "Enabling Social Media through Metadata" at the BPC on Thursday afternoon that he would focus on the "why" of social media in the enterprise and, specifically, the importance of managed metadata.  After sharing the perspectives of, and arguments for (VP of Marketing) and against (CIO) social media in the enterprise, Christian discussed why SharePoint needs social.

More accurately, what Christian was getting at was why, prior to the latest release, SharePoint needed not only more social features, but smarter social features, and that's what Microsoft delivered in SharePoint 2010.  Christian's reasons why SharePoint needs social include: you can't find anything, you can't tell who owns what, and it's difficult to determine what's old, what's new, and what's changed.

Which is where metadata and, more specifically, managed metadata comes in.  As Christian flatly stated, "The key is to have managed metadata, taxonomy, as part of your social media strategy."  More to the point, Christian said that when we think of social media in SharePoint 2010, we tend to "think of the communities aspect, but it's just as much about the search."  To that end, Christian strongly advises that, if you're still on 2007, if you clean up your governance problems now, it will make for a much smoother transition when you upgrade to SharePoint 2010.

Of the Managed Metadata Service in 2010, Christian said that it's "fantastic."  Listing as among its key benefits: "the term store for managed terms and keywords; the service can be consumed across site collections and farms; and management of content types."  Christian made a point of noting that the "key takeaway" on the subject of the Managed Metadata Service, however, is the fact that it still requires management and governance.

Christian referenced a ZDNet article from earlier this year by Dion Hinchcliffe titled "Ten emerging Enterprise 2.0 technologies to watch."  As Christian pointed out, Dion wasn't talking about SharePoint, but when SharePoint 2010 was released a couple of months after that article appeared, it included virtually every one of those "emerging" technologies out-of-the-box.  Click the link for the full list, but it includes such great hits as microblogging, enterprise platforms gaining a social layer, activity streams, social search, and next-generation unified communication.  Nice one being ahead of the curve, SharePoint.

In planning your own organization's strategy, Christian suggests that the most important aspect is to "have a plan and to understand your social media requirements before investing in SharePoint 2010."  To underscore the point, and to assist you in doing so, Christian's best practices recommendations for "pain relief" include: "have a plan; be aware of how your metadata, content types, and social media components are to be managed; create a governance site; and centralize your taxonomy."

As an additional tip in planning your strategy, I'd suggest that you also check out Christian's blog for a post dedicated to the pros and cons of centralized versus decentralized approaches to managing your metadata.

And with that, I've got just one more post to write on this year's BPC, and its subject matter ties directly into this post since it has to do with the coolest t-shirt of the conference, designed by one Christian Buckley.  Look for that post over on the Bamboo Team Blog soon.

Check out ourfull coverage of Best Practices Conference 2010:

• Dux Raymond Sy on 'SharePoint as a Gov 2.0 Platform'
• 'Enabling Social Media through Metadata' in SharePoint 2010 with Christian Buckley
• Mark Eichenberger on 'Making Social Networks Successful in SharePoint 2010'
• Managers' Quick Guide to SharePoint Server 2010
• Mark Miller Explains 'How to Build a Community in SharePoint'
• 'SharePoint 2010: An Administrative Odyssey' with Lori Gowin
• Building Solutions That Users Get
• 'Making SharePoint 2010 My Sites Work for Your Organization' with Michael Doyle
• Best Practices in Leveraging Microsoft Project 2010 With SharePoint 2010 for Project Management
• Building SharePoint Applications with InfoPath and SharePoint Designer with Darvish Shadravan
• SharePoint 2010 Workflow with David Mann
• Cathy Dew Answers the Question, 'SharePoint Branding – Where Do You Even Begin?'
• How to Best Gather Requirements for SharePoint Projects
• SharePoint End User Adoption with Kay McClure
• BPC Keynote: 'What the Masters Think About SharePoint 2010,' Facilitated by Spence Harbar
• Greetings from the Best Practices Conference! (AKA, Bill English Sets the Tone with His Introductory Remarks)
• The Coolest SharePoint T-shirt of the Year So Far
• Live Blogging Archives