Understanding the difference is important not only for marketing but for business leaders.
Companies that don’t fully understand what this means to them are holding watch over a dying enterprise. Let me explain.
A few years ago the true experts in social media quickly moved beyond that buzz word and asked what did it all mean. The answer had nothing to do with Twitter or Facebook pre se. It had everything to do with the impact to the organization: the accelerated and improved communications and understanding inside a company.
Click to Tweet ★ The Difference Between Social Media And Social Business Explained ★
The response to Altimeter Group’s The Social Media ROI Cookbook about the primary business impact of social media is worth noting.
“Survey respondents reported overwhelmingly that the primary business impact of social media was not revenue generation, but “insight that helped us meet customer experience goals.”
“The next most-reported benefit was decision-making; 51% of respondents stated that social media measurement “enabled us to make better informed decisions based on social data.” Ali Ardalan, Media and Analytics Strategist at Intel, believes that social media has become a critical input to business decisions and to business cases.”
Ed Brill, author of Opting In: Lessons in Social Business from a Fortune 500 Product Manager, defines social business as engaging employes in a socially enabled process. That is, a process that brings together how employees interact with each other, partners, customers, and the marketplace. It’s about bringing all the right people, both internally and externally, together in a conversation to solve problems, be innovative and responsive, and better understand market dynamics.
Interviewed:
Ed Brill
Director, Social Business
IBM
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.
About Steve Farnsworth @Steveology
Social media, communications, and content marketing for technology companies. Strategy and implementation that generate leads, builds customer loyalty and word-of-mouth buzz. Contact 650-331-0594 to increase your market position and sales.
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Adi Gaskell
November 6, 2012
Excellent post Steve. Social media has much more potential within the enterprise than it does in a marketing capacity. This will be a big year for social business imo.
Bojan Djordjevic
November 7, 2012
I am not quite sure that this explains the social business the right way.
Steve Farnsworth A.K.A. @Steveology
November 7, 2012
I suspect that like most things there are many ways to describe a new term, but this seems fundamentally pretty sound to me. What would you change, or how would you say it?
Andy Jankowski (@andyjankowski)
November 12, 2012
Hi Steve, I think your post does an great job of highlighting some of the key differences between social media and social business — not the least of which is the move from a broadcast mindset to one of meaningful engagement and interaction. I’m curious what your thoughts are regarding the next steps for social business. My personal opinion is that in order for social business to take hold inside large corporations we need to move it from the periphery to making social tools and processes central to a company’s core business processes. Said another way, it needs to be (or at least viewed by the c-suite) as a primary component needed to meet current quantifiable business objectives. I welcome your thoughts either inline or offline.
Steve Farnsworth A.K.A. @Steveology
November 12, 2012
Hi Andy, great point. I think the tools are unimportant. The real issue is a cultural shift. One that rewards team results instead of individual results, and rewards sharing of knowledge and information, and stops supporting silos and secrecy. That by definition requires C-Suite buy in from the get go. The majority of executives are empty suits who fear daily about losing their place at the fire. The move to social business takes vision and actually leadership, and there are only a few of those leaders around. To make a meaningful progress those courageous managers will need to re-invent how they set up groups to manage. The awesome book Freakonomics makes it clear people focus on the outcome they are incentivised for. At some very real level the tools are “what’s next.”
strategie social media
April 3, 2013
Everything is very open with a really clear explanation of the challenges.
It was truly informative. Your site is very useful. Thank you for sharing!