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the Free CMSWire NewsletterAt Wednesday’s #socbizchat TweetJam, we discussed the core elements, challenges and opportunities of social business. Lest you think this was just more of the same about how the enterprise needs to embrace collaboration and social engagement to become more successful, you obviously weren’t paying attention.
What started out as a simple chat soon evolved into a powerful think tank full of ideas, insights and lots of fodder for upcoming articles. When it comes to combining community managers and social business strategists, one thing is for certain — it’s never business as usual.
When I Say Business, You Say Social
That in fact was one of the first a-ha moments of the chat — we keep calling it social business, but if it’s ever to really catch on, social needs to become an intrinsic part of what we simply call 'business.'
@toddpart 1st step is to stop trying to distinguish socbiz as something different. SocBiz should be part of normal routine now #socbizchat
@themaria Not to derail the conversation, but when will we finally drop "social" and just agree that it's just good business? :) #socbizchat
@lehawes The diversity of thought expressed so far in this chat underscores how nascent social business is. And its emergent nature.
Before we got there, however, we spent some time figuring out what the core elements of social business were and the first steps to getting there before we began to put it all together.
Core Elements
@markfidelman Q1: IMHO It's Culture, Process, Technology in that order #socbizchat
@kimberlymccabe Q1 - 3 core elements of socialbiz: authenticity, people, engagement #socbizchat
@themaria Q1: only 3 elements? I think foundationally, your culture is most important, then process & only then tech.#socbizchat
@erikmhartmanQ1: 3 core elements of #socbiz are 1. listen, 2. care, 3. act accordingly #SocBizChat
@TechSF Q1: Three core elements of Social Business- social employees, cross-collaboration and a firm commitment at the C-suite level. #socbizchat
@buckelyplanet #socbizchat #Q1 I have a diff perspective: 1) cultural fit, 2) business ROI, and 3) going in with a strateg
@kcraft And analytics RT @rhappe: Q1 - To me Social Business needs technology, social processes, and a community management perspective
@deb_lavoy Q1: I think we need to understand the biz, tech, and human components together
First Steps
@CoreMedia_News Q2 First, understand how your employees, partners and customer currently collaborate — use this as starting point #SocBizChat
@robhoward Q2 Too many businesses make the technology investment, but not the people investment #socbizchat
@helloitsliam #socbizchat Q2: Actually understand what "Social Business" means :-)
@BrianBuzz Q2 start with the most painful, broken processes and fix them. It will spread from there #socbizchat
@ChrisClark005 Q2 Educating your organisation, NOT just your marketing, why you want to use social media #SocBizChat
@MartinSS Q2 Recognition of value by ALL stakeholders. May need pilot
@robhoward Q2 A close second is empowering people and giving them ownership in the business transformation
@themaria Q2: There isn't a step-by-step guide to becoming social. It's an evolution :) I think you need to share a vision & commit.
@buckleyplanet Q2 you MUST go into it with a business purpose in mind, metrics to measure success, clearly defined roles for your people
@erikmhartman Q2 1st step to #socbiz is: just do something. experiment and learn
@themaria Q2: If you don't share vision of being customer-centric/employee-centric, u can do some small things but they won't have impact
@jshuey The old maxim of "What Gets Measured Gets Done" applies to #SocBiz … if's it's important … Measure it!
@rhappe Q2 - you only participate in #socbiz if it does something more effecienty or effectively than you've done it in the past
@billycripe Q2: first steps to SocBiz: realize there is a decent level of effort (and cost) that goes along with the grind
You Can Lead a Business to Social, But You Can't Make Them Engage
Once we were able to identify the necessary principles and characteristics of what it means to be a social business and the steps needed to make it happen, we opened up about the challenges we must overcome. As necessary as it is to shift the culture of an organization to accept, adopt and adapt to social elements, it’s almost as vital to have the right leadership in place. The right leaders don’t just make it easier to implement or integrate enterprise collaboration or customer service, it’s essential to promoting the people, process and technology.
If you’re a member of the C-suite or starting your own company, you may want to pay close attention. In fact, if you want your leaders to really get it, might I suggest copying, printing and pasting the following tweets to their wall.
Challenges
@rhappe Well that's easy Q3 — biggest challenges in becoming a social business is culture, culture, culture. Comfort with ambiquity #SocBizChat
@BrianBuzz Q3 Resistance to change is always the biggest hurdle. Must have inspired change leaders on board to make it happen. #socbizchat
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