What Is Social Business ? A SideraWorks Brief

What Is Social Business ? A SideraWorks Brief

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  What Is Social Business? Defining Social Business SideraWorks LLC - SideraWorks.com V 1.0
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  What Is Social Business? Agile The business world, and especially the professionals immersed in Open social media, have been discussing and debating the definition of social business from a number of different angles. Clarifying what we mean by “social business” is critical to Engaged determining whether it’s something we want our companies to be, and if so, how we go about achieving that. Adaptive 2
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  A comprehensive understanding ofsocial business requires several components. We need to know: • What a social business is • What a social business does • The difference between social media Understanding both the nature and social business of a social business and how it’s different - and better - than what • Why being a social business is desirable we’re doing today means that we • The elements of becoming a can approach it intelligently, and as a true organizational evolution, social business not just a tactic or campaign. 3
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  What A Social BusinessIs This is first question most people have, yet it’s the hardest to answer consistently and completely in just a sentence or two. It’s like asking “What is Customer Service?” The answer differs if you’re describing the purpose, the processes, or the outcomes. Depending on your point of view - as the customer, an employee, or a partner - the answer can vary even more. To that end, here is the resulting high At SideraWorks, we’ve spent a great deal of time defining social level definition of business in a way that encompasses its essence, but avoids much of the jargon that simply adds to the confusion instead of providing social business... clarity. All social businesses believe that meaningful change and evolution, and the achievement of the above, must consider people and processes as well as technology and platforms. 4
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  Social Business isthe creation of an organization that is optimized to benefit its entire ecosystem (customers, employees, owners, partners) by embedding collaboration, information sharing, and active engagement into its operations and culture. The result is a more responsive, adaptable, effective, and ultimately more successful company. 5
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  What A Social BusinessDoes So how do you recognize a social business from the outside? Active Connected The core of a successful Empowerment Openness Intelligence social business and the activities that support it will reflect these six traits: Agility Adaptability 6
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  The Six CoreTraits Of A Social Business Agility Balancing speed of response, Smart Connectivity Sensibly communication and information sharing with integrating and deploying technology that removes thoughtful coordination and long-term scalability. barriers to communication rather than creating them, and improves the information flow among customers, prospects, teams and partners. Openness Communicating with less friction across organizational lines, in ways that distribute and improve access to knowledge among Active Intelligence Listening stakeholders. Acknowledging and rewarding and using established as well as new sources of innovation, creativity, thoughtful feedback and information. Leveraging data and analysis not just collaboration. to track activity, but to actively inform business decisions and feed intelligence back into the business to improve products, services, and processes. Empowerment Allowing communities to self-organize within the business to solve business problems and share insight, and trusting decision- Adaptability Designing an organization that is flexible to the needs and making to happen at the margins of the organization. demands of employees as well as customers, and believing that continuous adaptation and evolution is not only critical to survival, but desirable in order to stay ahead of the market. 7
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  But what aboutthe term ‘social media’ that has taken the world by storm? Is doing social media and becoming a social business the same thing? 8
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  The Difference Between SocialMedia & Social Business Social Social Media Business They are two of the most commonly confused terms in today’s business world, but they aren’t interchangeable. What‘s the difference? 9
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  Social Media Social Business are the platforms and technologies that is the process and result of optimizing people use to communicate and create your internal business to take advantage interactively, like Twitter, Facebook, of social media’s opportunities, putting Yammer, or YouTube. Most often we refer processes and governance in place to social media as the technologies that to mitigate its risks and adapt to its are used between a company and the implications, and applying social concepts public at large, but it could also refer to and technology internally to enable the platforms used inside a company collaboration, sharing, innovation, and to communicate in a more social and open engagement. collaborative manner. Social business can encompass using When most people reference social external social media, but it’s not a media for business, they’re referring to requirement. Technically, an organization using these technologies for engagement can be a social business without engaging with the public, or for leveraging for data publicly in social media at all. purposes. The activities are typically (though not always) used and managed by customer-facing departments like marketing, customer service, PR, or sales. 10
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  As an example,a global building supply company created an internal social network that enabled over 20,000 of its employees to collaborate with one another, expediting and improving things like product A social business launches. isn‘t necessarily They still needed to create policies and governance that support employees who are using social media personally, set vision and engaged in objectives for the organization, and coordinate and improve a number of internal practices to accommodate the increased connectivity. social media. Collaboration, dynamic engagement, policy creation, governance, efficiency...this is certainly an organization evolving as a social business, yet public engagement with social media isn’t currently a focused part of their efforts. 11
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  The Case For SocialBusiness But the transition The evolution from business carries with it a as we’ve known it to social significant number of business is a complex one, benefits, including... and includes a number of facets, from cultural shift to organizational design, process improvement and a hefty dose of thoughtful change management to guide it all. 12
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  Benefits of aSocial Business Improved customer satisfaction More effective knowledge Lowered costs through since you’re reacting faster and sharing that’s one part a sound everything from improved more openly, applying their input technology base, one part product development and an towards improving products and well-thought out process, and appetite for innovation to more services, and making them feel a large part giving everyone efficient internal processes, more like a much more invested and from employees to partners the collaborative employee education engaged part of your business. ability to learn from, contribute and training, and stronger to and preserve the collective relationships with partners that intelligence of the company. yield better opportunities. Deeper employee loyalty fueled by a more collaborative work Strengthened brand reputation Clearly established vision environment that empowers each from customers and partners and governance to guide the person in the organization to be who feel better informed, heard, organization’s social initiatives a part of shifting and improving and connected, and from the overall, and a coordinated center the business. That makes your people inside your organization to unify independent social and company a more attractive place who are charged with stewarding collaboration projects within to work, too. that brand in their everyday work. departments or business units. 13
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  However, all ofthese things, including the unquestionable benefits of agility, collaboration, and so on have been objectives of the more progressive organizations for some time. Why is this anything new? Why are organizations so aggressively pursuing this thing called ‘social business’? 14
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  Organizational efforts inthe past have been driven from the inside. Efforts to acquire these individual traits have typically had passionate sponsorship within a successful company at one time or another. Yet, those internal efforts most often wither away, relegated lower and lower on the priority list as the daily demands of business take precedence. Instead, today’s perfect storm of business evolution is powered by a series of external forces that are driving the shift instead. Social media and their associated implications are at the very center of that change. For example: The answer to • The incoming workforce, its values, and its expectations for open that question communication and empowerment demand a more flexible culture and work environment; lies outside of • Customers expect to communicate more seamlessly and have more the company... attentive, personal relationships with businesses; • The technologies available to successfully enable social concepts have literally. matured in both capabilities and affordability; • The profile of today’s successful companies reflect social values that are embedded in the core of the organization. While that may mean that it is no longer a choice for a company to evolve if it wants to thrive in this changing environment, it also represents a significant opportunity. The biggest question for most organizations, however? How to move from where they are today to the social business model they envision for the future. 15
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  How To BuildA Social Business Social business strategies Almost any area of a business can become the spark that ignites a social media initiative can vary widely between and turns it into the foundation for a social business plan. organizations based on But whether social business begins in their unique opportunities marketing or customer service, or starts as a holistic and organization-wide initiative, and challenges. there are specific areas that an organization will need to address and evaluate as part of shaping an overall plan. 16
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  The start ofany social business Vision & Goals: Is there a guiding vision for why the company wants to become a social business and what they hope to planning - whether departmental achieve as a result? or organization-wide - should start with a comprehensive Cultural Readiness: Is the organization’s mindset conducive readiness assessment that to change and the more open and collaborative nature of social considers each aspect of the business? company that social can and will touch, whether directly or Organizational Structure: Is the design of the business indirectly. Knowing where you’re optimal for faster information flow and more distributed decision starting from ensures that you making? Are all the pivotal roles filled with the right people? Are there critical roles that don’t yet exist? can craft a thoughtful model for where you’re headed. Social Strategy: Are there external and internal social strategies in place, and are they unified or integrated in some way? In its culture, people, communication and systems. Communication: Are there fluid communication processes in Social is something that a place and the infrastructure and tools available to support them? business is, inside and out, not just something that marketing Social Technologies: What systems are in place now, and are does. It’s forging a new center they consistent across the business? Are there needs gaps? How is due diligence and deployment being handled? to the business universe, a center that needs a new kind of Training and Education: How is social business and social ecosystem - and balance - media education being designed and implemented throughout to thrive. the organization? 17
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  The real powerof social lives in the bedrock of a business. 18
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  What Does Our work might include: SideraWorks • Assessment and audit workshops • Development of ‘end state’ social business vision Do? • Plan development for bridging from ‘current state’ to ‘end state’ • Program management of a social business plan In short, we focus on developing and building • Change management & culture social business models and helping companies initiatives implement them. We don’t work on social media programs, like individual social marketing • Social technology due diligence, campaigns or developing and managing social deployment planning, contract media presences on Facebook. assistance • Process and governance Instead, we focus our expertise on the business implementation evolution process, from conducting audits and readiness assessments for businesses trying to • Executive and partner/agency become more social, to building a centralized facilitation pivot point for social program coordination in an • Development of training, organization that we call the Center of Gravity™. onboarding or education programs For more about what makes SideraWorks different and how we approach our engagements, have a look at our website and case examples. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] and let us know. 19
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  Sideraworks LLC 321 ClarkSt // Ste. 500 Chicago // Illinois SideraWorks.com 20