Between 2011 and 2016, IDC expects the compound annual growth rate in spending to hit 42.4 percent for this type of product, also commonly referred to as "enterprise social collaboration" and "enterprise social networking" software.

"We're seeing good strong growth from the major players in this market and that'll continue for quite a while," said Michael Fauscette, lead author of two IDC reports out this week about enterprise social software.

Customers spent US$767.4 million on the products globally in 2011, and will spend almost $4.5 billion in 2016, according to IDC's "Worldwide Enterprise Social Software 2012-2016 Forecast."

Enterprise social software adapts Facebook-like and Twitter-like features for workplace use, including employee profiles, activity streams, microblogging, discussion forums, wikis, and content tagging, rating and reviewing.

Because of their potential for sharpening employee communication they're becoming important tools for "decision support" and productivity across most industry verticals, according to Fauscette.