Good communication between employees is vital to all businesses, large or small. E-mail, unfortunately, often falls into the “bad communication” category. Tone is misinterpreted, context is lost and messages go missing.

That’s why today many companies are experimenting with internal wikis and private social networks to improve communication among their team members. Think of this as just an evolution of the corporate intranet.

By adopting the social features that have made online destinations like Wikipedia and Facebook successful, businesses can transform their stagnant, one-way intranet into a bustling expressway of shared thoughts, insights and collaboration.

Here are a few quick pointers for initiating a wiki project within your business:

• Start small. Choose a team within your organization to start using the wiki — not everyone at once.
• Develop a strategy to roll it out internally. (Hint: Don’t announce it via e-mail.)
• Give the wiki time to evolve. If users aren’t taken by it immediately, keeping pushing ahead, keep the faith and keep training.
• Determine what success is. Reduction of e-mail volume? Better communication? Knowing your goals ahead of time will allow you to justify the project later on.

If you’re ready to get started, there are multiple resources available, ranging from free, hosted services such as PBwiki, all the way to enterprise-level applications like SocialText. Good luck on starting up your wiki!