Social Business, Where Do You Stand?

5 thoughts on “Social Business, Where Do You Stand?”

  1. Powerful argument Luis. As a first time reader of your blog, I’m impressed by your insight.

    I think a key word that goes amiss in the malstrom of hype is humble. Whilst I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the exact etymology of social business, and neither am I one to have a tit-for-tat over the contents of an exacting definition, one broad characteristic I’ve found (let’s throw ‘anecdotal’ in here too) in businesses who i’ve viewed as truly social is a sense of humbleness. Yes they’ve got a good system, yes they show off how nice their offices are to the world, but they usually don’t get up at a keynote and unleash a torrent of double speak lambasting others for not subscribing to their 19 point system to get to utter social business harmony. They’re usually more coy, more wise, less earnest to assume your current system is worse. I think there’s a lot to be said for being humble, listening and not shouting the loudest. And I think those that do that stand out, and some of them are, for me, the best examples of what a more harmonious social business future could look like. Where that would leave evangelism for the medium I don’t know.

    Looking forward to hearing some debate around the post, and to reading more of your blog in the future. Thanks for sharing.

    Luke W
    Community Manager
    OneDesk

    1. Hi Luke! WOW!! What a wonderful set of comments! Thanks ever so much for dropping by and for the feedback! Outstanding! Ohhh, and welcome to the blog, too! Glad you enjoyed this your first blog post. Hoping for many more in the future 🙂

      While I was reading your thoughtful comments I just couldn’t help thinking about two particular key words that I, too, would associate with the concept of social enterprise and social business and which go, hand in hand, with your thoughts about being humble and harmonious and those two words are sustainable growth.

      I think that’s also part of the key mix that would make today’s businesses even more successful tomorrow. Focus on, of course, making profit and generate growth, but in such a sustainable manner that it becomes something harmonious and natural to achieve.

      Sustainable growth also from the perspective of the entire ecosystem: employees, customers, business partners, competitors, analysts and other thought leaders in the space. I think with those traits we would surely be heading in the right direction. What do you think?

      Thanks again for the wonderful feedback! And look forward to further exchanges 🙂

  2. Well done Luis! Semantic comments:
    1- “Social Business” is really NOT a good “slogan”, I agree. If you choose real transformation of the business processes, you will also talk about “Enterprise 2.0”.

    2- “Sustainable growth”, confusing also. “Sustainable” is a trendy word but in the case of Enterprise 2.0 it would probably mean “a growth in tune with customers’ needs and providers’ skills”…which was always the case! “Sustainable” is linked to environment problems and these problems will be solved by each person inside whatever community, not only the enterprises.

  3. Luis, I am also also a first time reader of your blog and also appreciate your insight! I just so happened to be listening to the John Williams station on Pandora while reading and some very dramatic theme was playing. I have to be honest with you that I did get a little choked up towards the end.

    It blows my mind as to how many C-Level execs I come across that know they NEED to be at this enterprise social adoption level but just aren’t. Meanwhile their wife’s 19 yr old nephew is blasting off tweets and blog posts in the other room on behalf of the million dollar corporation before his shift at Taco Bell.

    Correct me if you think I’m wrong, but I also feel that we are at some sort of tipping point to where there the “Social Media Strategist” may be rearing his/her head MORE OFTEN now as many of us have had more and more experience in the Social/ Business space. The Strategist acts as an “orchestrator” inside the company’s business integrating and adding reason to the internal and external factors. They also can show ROI when it comes to social media strategy and lead gen. (ROI is definitely easier understood by the C-Suite than “reach” or “transparency”….)

    Keep up the informative insight and I look forward to coming back!

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