Social Business
flickr mikebaird
Altitude Branding by Amber Naslund happens to be one of my favorite blogs. A few weeks back she started talking about a socially equipped business or simply social business and it got me thinking about how it is not enough to just implement the tools of the social web and expect magic to happen. To fully benefit from the power and opportunity made possible by social tools a transformation must take place your business must become a social business.
Back in the early 1980′s when I first automated my insurance agency I quickly learned that technology alone could not transform my agency into a better, higher functioning, more efficient, and more profitable agency. In fact, implementing technology without “doing new work in new ways” almost always has a negative effect. In those days, creating computer files and still maintaining paper files would be an example of layering technology on top of processes designed for the manual world and ending up with the inefficiency of doing double work. Think of putting hamburger on top of the microwave to thaw it out.
Anytime there is breakthrough technology it is necessary to transform your organization to take advantage of the tools. Just setting up and using the tools of the social web is the easy part. Transforming your business into a social business is where the real work takes place and the magic happens. There is opportunity and value to be gained by transforming your business to mirror what is taking place in our society and culture. The type of transformation I am talking about is all encompassing. Everything you do will be affected - your culture, your structure, your role, your communication, your marketing, your sales, your servicing, and your brand will all transform – everything. Perhaps not as wondrous as the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly but still…
Are you working at transforming you company? If so, what changes are you making and how are you becoming a social business?
