Is your Organization creating a Social Business Shift?
Eloqua takes a look across 4 business functions to document the social business shift occurring in each area. This infographic is by no means comprehensive. There are many business functions benefiting from a social shift and there are many more social technologies contributing to it as well.
A Social Business Shift means a change in your Business Model
Okay, we avoided paradigm in the title, but, really we do mean how you think about your business and how you organize. These can be difficult changes to make as the process typically involves a ton of politics and dare I say fear? A good Organizational Effectiveness program or approach may be in your best interest. Once people see how they and the company benefit (and they buy in) then you can start to see a true shift from social business.
How does your business compare? Are you adopting social technologies across a broad array of business functions? Are you ready? This infographic can help you to identify if your company is actually shifting. It can also help you to identify areas to pilot social technologies.
A B2B Infographic Case Study: How Ready is Your Enterprise for Social Business?
Although this B2B Infographic Case Study on how social ready is your enterprise is a little dated it does serve as a good dashboard. How does your organization stack up? Let’s break down some of the important elements.
Social Business Thought Leadership
Does every business need to be a social business? Wait?! What kind of question is this in the first place? I assume that it must mean does every enterprise need to use social technologies? Certainly you do not really want to be an anti-social business do you? As to social technologies, my answer is yes. There is simply too much benefit inherent in the use of social technologies to deny the need for incorporation. So the question might be does your organization understand this yet?
Uses of Social Technologies
Great question. How prevalent and pervasive are social technologies within your company? Do you still see this as something just for sales and marketing or has it penetrated further? Early adopters of social technologies find unexpected benefits in areas such as R&D and even production planning. Where is your organization today?
Social Business Strategy
Does your company have an explicit Social Business Strategy? Is it well communicated? Is it well supported? Do you measure the benefits of your implementation? Is your social business strategy internally facing or just an external marketing adjunct?
Confidence in Social Business
How confident is your organization on the rollout of their social business strategy? Do your employees still think it is a program of the month? Is your top management bought in and engaged? Do you highlight and reward success stories? Confidence can be directly related to upper management behaviours. Are you still taking a wait and see attitude or are you fully committed?
Priority of Social Business Efforts
Is your social business implementation an unfunded mandate? Do you have explicit and dedicated community managers and social business champions? Do you have training and mentorship established? Or did you simply install Yammer with Office365 and tell everyone you’re a social business? Purchasing technology without investing in the culture changes and working through the business re-engineering is almost doomed to fail. What is the real priority of social business within your company?
Concerns about Social Technologies
Do you have concerns about social technology? You should if you do not. Effective adoption of social technologies requires care and thought. It is rocket science because you are overcoming organizational inertia. Do you have a way to monitor and address concerns with the use and implementation of social technologies? I suggest you put that into place!
If you were to conduct your own internal survey what would be the results? We may want social business to be as easy as selecting the right tools, however, the reality is that a well thought out business re-engineering needs to take place to realize the best benefits. Are you ready for social business? If not give me a call!
Dion Hinchcliffe’s Opinions on Enterprise Management as influenced by Social Technologies
It was surely bound to happen, as high technology has become so deeply intertwined in our personal and business lives, and now it has:
The digital world has reshaped how we manage and operate our organizations like never before, unleashing potent new possibilities while simultaneously posing major challenges that must be overcome.It’s a complex and unfolding story — even more so because it’s very much not driven by the resources or agenda of any one organization, technology, or interest group — but rather a loosely connected, highly emergent, and interrelated global narrative as companies en mass grapple with how pervasive software and networks are enabling access to entirely new possibilities for value creation.
Social Technologies will inherently Transform Organizations into Social Businesses
If you have not run across Dion Hinchcliffe yet, please do. Dion has great opinions and resources, such as the illustration above, regarding the impact of social technologies on enterprise transformation. Is it possible that businesses might “skip” this transformation? Sure. Take a look at the ones who skipped the printing press, the telephone, or the FAX machine and get back to me on that… It is my belief that social technologies are inherently transformative. The real power goes to those companies who realize this and become early adopters. There is simply too much at stake to sit around waiting to see how this all plays out. Are you leading your organization into social business? Call me.
Well, it is a fun post. And an unexpected accolade. Jennette Marshall, also known as @optioneerJM, interviewed me on what I saw as the future of social media. She somehow found the photo to the left and dubbed me with the title “The Godfather of Social Media“. It makes for a good ice breaker if nothing else.
Although the post is over three years old it is still germane. A few of my predictions are still in progress and a couple fell a little off the mark. Mostly I was spot-on though :) Right now we are seeing social media impact us in so may ways that it is a little crazy! I curate articles on http://www.scoop.it/u/josepf on a wide variety of topics such as Social Business, how Social is impacting Financials & Pharmaceuticals, and how SocialSEO is replacing “SEO”.
We are all social creatures
To explain social I use an array of metaphors and analogies. Forget the technology. We certainly all know how fast the grapevine works right? News good or bad, spreads much faster than any organization might predict or like. The power of Social Business is to harness the inherent social nature of people. If you do not they will be talking about you and your brand regardless. Why not lead the parade and implement an intentionally Social Business transformation?
Tell your boss the godfather wants to make them an offer they can’t refuse…
Eloqua takes a look across 4 business functions to document the social business shift occurring in each area. This infographic is by no means comprehensive. There are many business functions benefiting from a social shift and there are many more social technologies contributing to it as well. 
