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You might be a bit confused by that headline. When you hear the term “social networking” surely the first things that come to mind are MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and the numerous social applications available on the web. Certainly, these are not thought of as primary business tools. Yes, some people promote themselves through these media, but that relates mainly to entertainment and the arts. BlackBerry-toting businessmen typically aren’t associated with these platforms. Yet they may just be the future of business.

RIM CEO Jim Balsillie had a keynote presentation at the Mobile World Congress this week, and surprisingly, social networking of the business-to-business type was brought up. This was after he acknowledged that security, including remote locks and wipes, are key in his industry. He also addressed the issue of being a platform — that is, providing people with web access and desktop applications — rather than pipes, which seemingly refers to BlackBerry’s signature push email services.

The B2B aspect was the most interesting part, likely because it was the most unexpected:

“Once social networking becomes a B2B phenomenon — not unlike IM and texting — I believe every single social-networking user will want a data plan,” he told the Mobile World Congress audience.

He raises a good point. This makes even more sense as we create more telecommuting jobs. Balsillie had a word on that, too: “Just ask a CIO,” he said. “They want everyone to be a mobile worker.”

They want more mobile workers, many of us want to become mobile workers. I can see this working out in the end.

[ZDNet]

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