Other than LinkedIn, social networking hasn’t made inroads into the business world yet. The inevitable business adoption of social networking is only awaiting proof of concept, evidence that social networking can produce the kinds of results businesses care about. The launch of a new social networking site, 43 Things, could go a long way towards providing that evidence.

Lee LeFever talks about 43 Things in his CommonCraft blog, explaining that…

At the core it’s about finding and working with people who share your specific goals. Plus, people who have accomplished goals become resources for those who haven’t. I?ve described it previously as a marketplace for accomplishing goals.

Members of the network list new goals they want to accomplish. Others who visit the site can see the goal and reply that they, too want to accomplish that goal or that they already have. User profiles, then, are a collection of things users have done or want to do, including their progress toward meeting those goals.

LeFever lists some of the technology that could make 43 Things rock. I was immediately struck by the prospects for intranets, particularly in large companies. Any employee with a goal can list it and either find another employee who has already achieved that goal or other employees working toward the same objectives. The potential for productivity improvement is huge.

Some time ago, I found a document on the Net that predicted social networking would infilitrate intranets as one of the big business technology trends of 2004. It didn’t happen, but the prediction may have just been a bit premature. If 43 Things takes off, the light bulb may yet shine over the heads of business managers.

Currently, 43 Things is an invitation-only service, although you can sign up to get an invitation when a spot opens. The site is adding only 43 users per day during its beta period.